The Eleventh Anniversary of the Death of Kamel al-Sabbah — The First Lebanese Arab Inventor in Several Centuries

On March 31, 1935, the Lebanese Arab inventor Kamel Sabbah died in the United States. He is the only Arab inventor whom the Arab lands have brought forth in several centuries, just as he is the only Arab who has contributed to modern inventions — cutting a new road before the sons of his people, and proving that we are no less gifted than the Westerners once the necessary practical means are available to us. And as we tell the readers today of the life of this genius, we perform a national duty, and convey to them one of the images of genius, which we hope will inspire in our youth resolve and ambition! "Al-Hayat"

Hasan Kamel al-Sabbah was born in Nabatieh (South Lebanon) in 1896, of a stock that traces its descent to Ya'qub ibn al-Sabbah, the famous mathematician-philosopher who lived in the early days of the Abbasid state. From his childhood he was devoted to arithmetic, poetry, and astronomy, studying algebra and geometry without a teacher's help before he had reached his fourteenth year.

Toward the end of his first year after entering the Sultaniyya School in Beirut, he took to helping the fifth-year pupils solve algebraic problems of great intricacy. Within eight months he mastered the French language; he then moved to the American University of Beirut, where he learned English within six months. He then entered the engineering department, but had not finished the first year when, in 1916, he was called to military service and transferred to Istanbul.

There it was made possible for him to enter the wireless telegraph section, and he studied the German language. He was then appointed commander of the wireless telegraph detachment at Gallipoli, where he remained until the end of the war, when he came back to Damascus, and was appointed teacher of mathematics at the Sultaniyya School.

His emigration to America

In this stretch of time he arrived, in his private study, at the philosophy of mathematical analysis. In 1921 he returned to Beirut, where he was appointed instructor of mathematics at the American University of Beirut. He then left it, emigrating to the United States to join the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the greatest engineering school in the world. When he presented himself for its entrance examination, it at once exempted him from all the mathematical courses in its program, and exempted him likewise from the courses in physics. He did not remain long at this school before he left it for the University of Illinois; and he had not reached the end of the year at this university when its professor of natural philosophy submitted a proposal to the dean that Mr. Kamel be granted the degree of Master of Science.

Kamel plunges into the world of invention

Kamel left the life of study and entered the life of work, being appointed at the General Electric Motors company in Schenectady. And when his genius in invention began to show itself, the company opened for him a private laboratory and a private office, and placed several engineers at his disposal. After he had laid down a new engineering of electricity, testimonials began to pour in upon him from the presidents of universities and the great scientists of the West — such as the president of the electrical institution in Boston, Massachusetts, known as "M.I.T."; Professor "Castellofranch," professor of electricity at the University of Milan in Italy; Professor Maurice Leblanc, the famous French scientist; and the president of the American University of Beirut.

Then the great companies sent him their testimonials and their acknowledgments of the soundness of his inventions — among these companies the "Westinghouse" electric company in Chicago, and three German electrical companies...

And Mr. Hoover, the former President of the United States, sent him a letter in which he expressed to him his admiration for his genius and for the genius of the Arab world.

In 1932 the assembly of the American electrical institution in New York conferred upon him the title of "Young Man of Electrical Science." This title is granted only to one who has invented, originated, and studied in the art of electricity for a period of ten years.

And after the testimonials of Western scientists to Kamel's theories had multiplied, the General Electric company summoned the engineers who opposed him to a great meeting, held at the company's office in 1932; a long debate took place between him and them, which ended with Kamel emerging from it victorious.

In 1932 the company in which he worked delegated him to represent it at the world electrical congress held in Paris at that date. He was unable to travel, but wrote an ample report in the French language which was read at the congress and met with general approval.

These are his registered inventions

The inventions he had registered up to the year 1932, according to the statement the company published in that year, reached forty-three; and the newspapers of the Mahjar said after his death that his inventions reached seventy, among them some relating to television and to the harnessing of the sun's rays.

Following is a table of these inventions, copied from the official register of the American patent office:

1928 — Transmission of pictures and scenes.
1933 — Distance-output machine.
1930 — Electric vapor machine.
1930 — Transmission of pictures and scenes.
1929 — " " " " "
1930 — Pressure-gauge machine.
1927 — Pressure-regulating machine.
1928 — Electric vapor arc machine.
1928 — Rectification method.
1935 — Method for regulating heat.
1932 — Method of electrical output.
1930 — Machine for converting power.
1931 — " " " " "
1931 — " " " " "
1933 — " " " " "
1932 — Electrical conversion circuit.
1934 — " " " " "
1933 — Converting electric-valve machine.
1932 — Machine for converting electric power.
1931 — " " " " "
1934 — Converting electric-valve machine.
1934 — " " " " "
1934 — " " " " "
1935 — Compound-method rectifier.
1933 — Method of preventing imbalance in the compound-method rectifier.
1934 — Electric-valve conversion method and excitation machine.

Kamel al-Sabbah and Herbert Brown
1929 — Distribution method.
1932 — Method of distributing areas.
1929 — Corrective methods.
1932 — The fixed conduit expressing the circuits.

Kamel Sabbah and S. Herskind
1932 — Method of electrical output.

Kamel Sabbah and A. Mittag
1934 — Converting electric-valve method.

Kamel Sabbah and Mervin Morack
1933 — Converting electric-valve method.
1934 — Electric-valve method and excitation machine.

Kamel Sabbah and Louis Dobinson
1928 — Electric vapor method.

Kamel Sabbah and Chauncey Whitney
— Gauge of the electric voltage regulator.

And the following inventions had arrived, before the great departed's death, from the registry office in Washington, in the name of Ibn al-Sabbah:

— A method for controlling the power issuing from the electric rectifier.
— Guards and regulators for protecting electric rectifiers from danger.
— A method for preventing violent surges of electric power in mercury rectifiers.
— A modern pick-up for preventing the occurrence of a reflected electrical explosion, a converter for immense electrical charges.
— A television apparatus that converts the sun's rays into fire and immense electric power.
— A television apparatus employing the electricity reflected by the action of light.
— A television apparatus employing light as a regulator of the electric current.

How did Kamel die?

On the afternoon of Sunday, March 31, 1935, Kamel al-Sabbah and his friends went to the town of "Malone," where he inspected an airplane he had bought in order to make a journey in it to the Arab lands. On his return to "Schenectady," his friends' car went ahead of him, and his trace was lost near the town of "Elizabethtown." They then turned back, and found his car off the road, down a slope some fifteen feet in height, and found him dead in it.

The president of the "General Motors" company wrote to his father, saying: "Mr. Kamel al-Sabbah proved, during his service to our company, that he was one of the greatest mathematical thinkers in the American land, and his death is counted a great loss to the world of invention."

Such is a general glimpse of the life of this genius. How I wish that our government would profit from it to spread the spirit of enterprise, of research, and of learning in the souls of the students, and would work to immortalize his memory in a manner that opens the doors of inventive endeavor before the gifted — thereby rendering to Kamel al-Sabbah, to the new generation, and to the civilizing mission of Arabism in the world a great service!