1929

Cottrell traveled to Japan.

In 1912, Cottrell and the other electrostatic precipitation patent holders (Sir Oliver Lodge of England and Dr. Erwin Mueller of Germany) formed Research Company as a nonprofit patent administrative company with the interest of developing the precipitator worldwide. The organization acted as a clearinghouse for process improvements and established operating territories for the participating companies, including Western Precipitation in Los Angeles, Research Corporation in New York, Lodge-Cottrell in England, Lurgi Apparatebau-Gesellschaft in Germany and Japanese Cottrell in Japan.

In 1929, Fred and Jesse Cottrell set out to visit Japan. They departed on October 10, boarding the ship called President Jackson at Pier 44 in San Francisco. In his diary, Cottrell noted, “sailed at 4 pm sharp.” En route they docked in Honolulu where they did some sightseeing and met with people from University of Hawaii.

They arrived in Yokohama on October 27, then went to Tokyo where Cottrell visited Japanese Cottrell offices, research facilities and mines, as well as the Japanese Esperanto office. He also gave lectures at Imperial University and at the Mitsui Mining Company. The Cottrells attended a wedding, garden parties, flower arranging demonstrations, did a bit of shopping and “tried a Japanese bath.”