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Otto Maha - A Fluid Power Pioneer
My first meeting with Otto dates back to about 1945 while I was serving as Chief Engineer of Hydraulic HiSpeed in Detroit. After HPI was purchased by Double A Products Company in 1947 1 moved to Manchester, Michigan. It was shortly after moving to Double A as Chief Engineer I saw more of Otto while negotiating with Hannifin and attending the NCIH (National Conference on Industrial Hydraulics) programs.
Fortunately much of this early history was captured in Fluid Power - The Hidden Giant. Most of this material was gathered while I was serving as Educational Coordinator for the Fluid Power Educational Foundation. Otto was a tremendous help in this publication activity. During that time I think he knew every individual world wide who had some relationship with fluid power.
In May of 1953 at the initial meeting of the National Fluid Power Association Elwood G. Peterson and Harry Adams represented the Hannifin Corporation and I was representing Double A Products Company. Otto Maha was not at this meeting because it was not yet oriented towards the engineering programs.
I am including copies of two pictures from Fluid Power - The Hidden Giant which may be of interest to your associates. Figure 2 (8.35 on picture) shows Otto as a young man at the 1935 Machine Tool Show in Cleveland. Figure 1 (25.8 on picture) shows Otto Maha being inducted into the Fluid Power Hall of Fame at Milwaukee School of Engineering.
OTTO J. MAHA - A FLUID POWER PIONEER
by John Pippenger - Honorary Life Trustee, The Fluid Power Educational Foundation The late Otto Maha is probably best known today for his many years of service with the Parker Hannifin Corporation. During the period when John Pippenger was preparing materials for the history of the fluid power industry, as an adjunct project while working with the Fluid Power Educational Foundation, Otto provided an abundant source of information for many areas of research for the contents of the volume and development of the manuscript. When the final manuscript for Fluid Power - The Hidden Giant was completed Otto was the technical editor whose vast knowledge of the people and products in the Fluid Power Industry guaranteed the accuracy of the contents of this extensive history. A brief biography Otto mentioned that in 1924 as he passed his seventeenth birthday he accepted a job at Barco Manufacturing Company in Chicago. Barco made flexible joints and connectors for steam, air and water lines and other fluid pipes as well as a pneumatically-powered reverse gear for locomotives. Seeking to supplement his high school math he attended night school at Lewis Institute of Technology in Chicago, which became better known as the Illinois Institute of Technology. Otto's experience at Barco included the design of a 2000 psi valve and drawings for advertising materials to show the Barco joints used on platens in presses for connecting steam and water lines to multiple platen presses. At age 21 Otto chose to join the Hannifin Manufacturing Corporation where he quickly became involved in promoting fluid power products. As a result of some of these activities Hannifin became a member of the National Machine Tool Builders Association and Otto attended his first standards meeting as a member of the sub-committee on the "Lathe Spindle Nose". This was the start of many years of standards development activities. Otto Maha was very active in the early start of the National Fluid Power Association standards activities and joined Jim Fisher in 1964 in a meeting of the Association Francaise de Normalisation which ultimatelly resulted in the work on fluid power symbols for the International Standards Organization (ISO) in conjunction with ISOITC10. The first fruit of this effort was ISO R1219, a recommendation issued in 1970. Otto was deeply involved in development and procurement of papers for
the National Conference on Fluid Power. He served as conference director in
1949, 1950 and 1952. Otto Maha donated
his copies of the first four proceedings of the National Conference on
Industrial Hydraulics (1947, 1948, 1949 and 1950) to Lehigh University in
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Otto was also involved in developing programs within
the JIC Joint Industry Conference). Standards Committee B93 - Fluid Power Systems and Products was authorized in September of 1961. At the
time B93.1-1964 was approved, the Chairman of the Committee was John J. Pippenger
and the Vice Chairman was Otto J. Maha. Otto later served as chairman of
Committee B93 for several years. In the spring of 1967 Otto Maha of the Hannifin Corporation was one of the four man delegation on
Industrial Standards and Norms to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. On March 30 1967, fluid power technology took another step towards full recognition as an autonomous field of technology. As part of the ceremonies unveiling the new educational and laboratory facilities of the Fluid Power Institute at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, The Fluid Power Hall of Fame was dedicated with Otto Maha as part of this group of fluid power pioneers. As a retiree from the Parker Hannifin Corporation Otto continued to support the Fluid Power Educational Foundation as an honorary trustee with guidance for John Pippenger and the other trustees in some of the early Foundation programs and as a loyal supporter throughout the ensuing years. |
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