Henry Alexis Kauper (1888 - aft. 1942)

Born 12 Mar 1888 in Albion Rd Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia

Died after 22 Apr 1942 after age 54 in Lennox St, Richmond, Victoria, Australia

Problems/Questions Profile manager: James Dale [send private message]

Biography

In January 1914 Kauper accompanied Hawker on his trip to Australia to demonstrate the Sopwith Tabloid to the Australian Defence Department. They returned to England in June and on the outbreak of the First World War Kauper became works manager for Sopwiths. Here he developed the Sopwith-Kauper interrupter gear which allowed the firing of a machine-gun through a rotating aircraft propeller. First used in April 1916, 3,950 were fitted to Sopwith aircraft during the war. On 12 May 1919 he married Beatrice Minnie Hooper, who had also worked at Sopwiths.

In 1919 he returned to Australia and in October formed the Harry J. Butler & Kauper Aviation Co. Ltd, which pioneered commercial aviation in South Australia but went into liquidation in 1921. Kauper had become interested in radio, and in 1920 he established station 5BG, one of the earliest low-powered crystal radio transmitters in Australia, at Dulwich Hill, New South Wales.

In 1925 Kauper and George Towns built the first portable radio for the Rev. John Flynn. Powered by a generator driven by the rear wheel of Flynn's truck, it worked well but Flynn wanted a radio which did not rely on a fuel supply: in 1926 Kauper introduced Flynn to Alfred Traeger who developed the pedal wireless which was to be used by the Flying Doctor Service of Australia.

Sources

• *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Kauper
• http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/kauper-henry-alexis-harry-6898
• http://www.harryhawker.com.au/The-Three-Harry-s-and-Eric.html
• http://trove.nla.gov.au/list?id=40776
• http://archive.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_112182/article.html
• http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/find/harry+butler