 |
Clinton WoodsInventor, engineer
Country:
 USA |
Content:
- Clinton Edgar Woods: Innovator, Engineer, and Automotive Pioneer
- Engineering and Automotive Ventures
- Literary Pursuits
- Later Career
- Family
Clinton Edgar Woods: Innovator, Engineer, and Automotive Pioneer
Early Life and EducationClinton Edgar Woods was born in Belchertown, Massachusetts, to a carriage maker father. His family moved to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1871, and then to Chicago in 1888. Woods received his technical education at the Boston School of Technology, the only American university that offered a program in electrical engineering at the time.
Engineering and Automotive Ventures
After graduating, Woods worked for the newly founded Westinghouse Company, gaining valuable manufacturing experience. He also worked for Pope Manufacturing Company and Pennsylvania Reaper Company before establishing his own automotive ventures. In 1895, he founded American Electric Vehicle Co. in Chicago with a capital of $250,000. The company merged with Indiana Bicycle Co. in 1898, giving rise to Waverly and Pope-Waverly. Woods also founded Woods Motor Vehicle Company in Chicago in 1896, specializing in electric vehicles. While initially unprofitable, he restructured the company and raised $10,000,000 of capital in New Jersey in 1899. In 1901, Woods established Woods-Wering Corporation and joined the International Harvester Company in 1905.
Literary Pursuits
Woods began his writing career in 1900, publishing one of the first books on electric transportation. He continued to write extensively on subjects such as accounting, business, and factory management. From 1907 onwards, he published his works through his own publishing house, C. E. Woods & Company (later Woods Publishing Company), based in Brooklyn, New York.
Later Career
Woods gradually shifted his focus away from automotive manufacturing towards education, writing, and consulting. In the 1910s, he moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he worked for Woods Industrial Engineering Company. Among his notable projects was a mail-order industrial engineering education course. Woods also served as an executive at the National Bank of Commerce in Philadelphia in the 1920s before passing away in the same decade.
Family
Clinton Woods married Ida Norma Humphrey in 1881 and had a daughter, Florence Estella, born in 1882. Florence became known as the "first woman in New York to own and operate a motor car."
