Charles F. Kettering with his Electric Self-Starter, no date. Not only was Kettering a successful independent inventor, but also effective in promoting technological innovation within General Motors, where he directed the firm’s industrial research laboratory. Corporate research, however, was conditioned by a network of oversight agencies including the Society of Automotive Engineers, the Bureau of Standards, insurance underwriters, and state regulatory agencies.

From Trust and power : consumers, the modern corporation, and the making of the United States automobile market by Sally H. Clarke