Background
He was born in Dryden, New York, the son of Susan Augusta Giles and Abram Millard Ford, the publisher and editor of the weekly Dryden Herald.
He was born in Dryden, New York, the son of Susan Augusta Giles and Abram Millard Ford, the publisher and editor of the weekly Dryden Herald.
Ford entered Cornell University in 1899 to study electrical engineering.
While a student he also worked as a mechanic in the Sibley College electrical-engineering laboratory.
He received the B. S. in engineering in 1903.
He worked for two years as an assistant in the mechanical department of J. G. White and Company, a New York City engineering firm then involved in the construction of the Manila tramways and the Hudson River tunnel that connected New York with New Jersey by rail.
It was during his employment at White that Ford became interested in the problems of the New York City subway system. He obtained a patent in 1906 for a system that controlled the speed of trains in areas where rail traffic was dangerously heavy. His invention made it possible to control automatically the speed of closely spaced trains in order to insure maximum safety.
In 1906 Ford joined the Smith-Premier Typewriter Company and remained with the firm until 1909. During this period he secured patents for a series of improvements and attachments for business typewriters. In 1909 Ford assisted Elmer A. Sperry in the development of the gyroscope, and when Sperry organized the Sperry Gyroscope Corporation in 1910 in Brooklyn, New York, Ford became its chief engineer. In the five years that he worked with Sperry they developed an automatic steersman to hold ships on a fixed course, a gyrostabilizer to counteract the rolling of ships on rough seas, and a gyrocompass to point to true north regardless of conditions.
These navigational instruments and aids were soon adopted by the United States and foreign navies and merchant marines. Ford left Sperry in 1915 to organize the Ford Marine Appliance Company in Long Island City, New York, with Jules Breuchaud, who became its president.
The firm was reorganized in 1916 as the Ford Instrument Company.
After the United States entry into World War I, Ford Instrument developed and manufactured a comprehensive system of naval gunfire control invented by Ford. Probably most significant of these inventions was a sophisticated computing machine that controlled the range and accuracy of gunfire. It allowed for remarkable firing precision, even from the rolling decks of vessels at sea.
The firm also manufactured antiaircraft and other precision instruments for the United States Navy.
After the war he continued his experimentation with gyroscopic and navigational apparatus, and in 1921 he received a patent for a range keeper, first used on the battleship Texas, which further facilitated the control of gunfire.
When the Sperry Corporation (now Sperry Rand Corporation) was formed in a reorganization of North American Aviation in 1933, Ford continued as the president of the Ford Instrument division of Sperry; he remained in this position until his retirement in 1943.
Ford died in Kingsport, New York. Because of his contributions to twentieth-century navigational technology, virtually all modern vessels employ navigational and gyroscopic instruments that are directly related to his inventions.
Preferring to involve himself with the technical end of the business, Ford took the position of vice-president and general manager.
He was a member of the Army and Navy Country Club in Washington, D. C.
On July 4, 1918, Ford married Katherine Moyer.