Gregory Caldwell Davison was a naval officer, inventor and a Vice President of the Electric Boat Company.
Background
Gregory C. Davison was born on August 12, 1871, in Jefferson City, Missouri, the eldest of the six children of Doctor Alexander Caldwell Davison and Sarah Caroline Pelot.
His father's family traced its descent through Major William Davison, merchant, of Winchester, Virginia, and the emigrant of the same name, a British army officer and a native of Dublin, Ireland. His mother, who was twice married, was born at Abbeville, South Carolina, a Pelot, of Swiss Huguenot extraction.
Education
In May 1888, Davison was appointed naval cadet at Annapolis and four years later was graduated fifteenth in a class of forty, standing near the top of his class in physics and mathematics.
Career
After two years' required duty afloat - on board, the San Francisco - Davison was made an ensign, July 1, 1894. In this rank, he served with the Castine, on special service, and in the South Atlantic, 1894 - 1896. In the latter year, he went to the torpedo boat Cushing as second in command, and thence to Torpedo Boat No. 6.
During the Spanish-American War Davison served on board the Oneida in Cuban and Florida waters. While with the New York, flagship of the North Atlantic Station, he in 1900, as first assistant engineer officer, remodeled her engines, with the result that she exceeded her trial speed record set ten years previously. It was at this time that he aided Marconi in making the first radio transmission between ships and shore.
In 1900 he was promoted lieutenant; and in 1906, lieutenant commander. On November 12, 1900, Davison was ordered to command the torpedo boat Rodgers. He had now found his forte, and his future service in the navy was chiefly with torpedo boats, destroyers, and ordnance.
Work on torpedoes and gun design at the Bureau of Ordnance was his chief employment, 1901 - 1902. Davison commanded the torpedo boat Barney, 1902 - 1903; the torpedo boat flotilla at the Norfolk navy yard, 1903; and the torpedo boat destroyer Paul Jones, in the Pacific, 1903 - 1905. While with the Paul Jones, on two successive years, he was awarded the first trophy for gunnery, won with the aid of a new gun sight that he invented.
During a tour of duty at the Naval Torpedo Station, Newport, Rhode Island, 1905 - 1907, Davison invented the balanced turbine torpedo, the patent for which he assigned to the Navy Department.
In December 1907, soon after returning from an inspection of torpedo works and ordnance plants abroad, he resigned from the navy and became vice-president of the Electric Boat Company, one of the leading submarine companies of the world. His first invention in his new position was a steam generator for torpedoes. This was followed, in 1912, by the first non-recoil gun for airplanes. During the First World War Davison added to his duties by becoming chief engineer and general manager of the General Ordnance Company. To this period belongs his invention of the Y-gun depth charge projector, used by the new destroyers and submarine chasers.
After fourteen years' intensive work with the boat and ordnance companies, Davison resigned his offices in them and entered the oil business. With a partner, he opened a new oil and gas field in eastern Kentucky and built a refinery at Kenova, West Virginia. Also on October 24, 1924, Davison was appointed lieutenant commander in the United States Naval Reserve, and on January 1, 1935, was transferred to its honorary retired list.
In 1933, retaining his presidencies in two oil-producing companies, he returned to ordnance and invented the Davison all-purpose gun for field and antiaircraft work, his crowning achievement. Gregory C. Davison died on May 7, 1935, at Lyme, Connecticut, and was buried in the Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington.
Achievements
Gregory Caldwell Davison is remembered as a naval officer and inventor, who developed submarines, torpedoes, Diesel engines, compressors, turbines, recording instruments, oil-field equipment, oil-refining processes, and heavy ordnance. In addition, Davison had a faculty, exceedingly rare, "of combining the results of abstruse theoretical and mathematical studies with practical engineering data in practically every case the first embodiment of his inventions was successful".
While with the Paul Jones, Gregory C. Davison was awarded the first trophy for gunnery, won with the aid of a new gun sight that he invented.
In 1942, the destroyer USS Davison (DD-618) was named in honor of Lieutenant Commander Davison.
