Clinton Edgar Woods

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Clinton Edgar Woods, 1902

Clinton Edgar Woods (February 7, 1863 - c. 1930) was an electrical and mechanical engineer, inventor, manufacturer of automobiles in Chicago and New York City[1] and author of one of the first books on electric vehicles.

Biography

Woods was born in Belchertown, Massachusetts, where his father was a coachbuilder.[2] The family moved to Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 1871, and Woods moved to Chicago in 1888.[3] He received his technical engineering education at the Boston School of Technology, which in his time was the first American university to offer a curriculum in electrical engineering.

After graduation he started working at the just founded Westinghouse Company, where he learned about the practical side of plant operation. He also worked at the Pope Manufacturing Company and the Pennsylvania Reaper Company[2] before starting two automobile manufacturer companies in the 1890s. The first company was the American Electric Vehicle Co. in Chicago founded in 1895 with a capitol stock of $250,000. This company merged in 1898 with Indiana Bicycle Co. to become Waverly,[4] and later Pope-Waverley[4][5] The second company was the Woods Motor Vehicle Company, manufacturer of electric automobiles founded in Chicago in 1896. At first the company turned out to be unprofitable, and had to be re-capitalized in 1899 where Woods lost his equity position.[4] In September 1899 the Woods Motor Vehicle Company made a restart based in New Jersey with a capital stock injection of $10.000,000 with Woods in the position as General Manager[6] and later as consulting engineer. In 1901 Woods formed the Woods-Wering Corporation,[3] and in 1905 he held an important position with the International Harvester Company.[2]

In 1900 Woods had started writing, and wrote one of the first books on electric vehicles. Afterwards he wrote more books on accounting, business, and factory management. Since 1907 he published under his own C. E. Woods & company based in Brooklyn, N.Y, later Woods publishing company. Woods focused on writing, education and consulting businesses. In the 1910s he moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut, where under the flag of Woods Industrial Engineering Company among other things he developed and offered mail order courses of study in Industrial Engineering.[7] In the 1920s Woods also became one of the director of the National Bank of Commerce in Philadelphia.[8]

Woods was married to Ida Norma Humphrey in 1881, and they had one daughter Florence Estella, born in 1882 and known to be the "first lady to own and operate an automobile in New York City."[1]

Publications

Books, a selection:

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sophia Smith (1903) Mack genealogy. The descendants of John Mack of Lyme, Conn., with appendix containing genealogy of allied family. p. 332
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Gijs Mom (2004) The Electric Automobile: Its Construction, Care, and Operation p. 29
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Halliday Witherspoon (1902) Men of Illinois p. 52
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Car Companies on earlyelectric.com. Accessed May 7, 2013
  5. ↑ The Waverley Company on earlyelectric.com. Accessed May 7, 2013
  6. ↑ "Woods Motor Vehicle Company Incorporated with a Capital of $10,000,000]" The New York Times, September 28, 1899. (online)
  7. ↑ Furniture Manufacturer and Artisan (1918). Vol 77, Nr. 16. p. 98
  8. ↑ Business (1925) Vol 6, Nr 6 p.5

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