Background
James J. Wood was born on March 25, 1856, in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland. He was a son of Paul H. Wood and Elizabeth (Shine) Wood.
6 MetroTech Center, Brooklyn, NY 11201, United States
From 1876 to 1878, Wood studied at the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute (present-day the New York University Tandon School of Engineering).
6 MetroTech Center, Brooklyn, NY 11201, United States
From 1876 to 1878, Wood studied at the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute (present-day the New York University Tandon School of Engineering).
James J. Wood was born on March 25, 1856, in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland. He was a son of Paul H. Wood and Elizabeth (Shine) Wood.
In 1864, when James was eight years old, he came to America with his parents and settled in Connecticut, where he began his schooling. At eleven years old, however, he went to work for the Branford (Connecticut) Lock Company. Wood continued his schooling as best he could and when the family moved to Brooklyn, New York, he was able to enter the Brooklyn Evening High School, from which he graduated in 1876.
Then, during the day, James worked for the Brady Manufacturing Company and the mechanical experience he gained, coupled with that, which he had received earlier in Connecticut, enabled him to complete in two years with only night attendance the course in Mechanical Engineering and Drafting at the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute (present-day the New York University Tandon School of Engineering), from which he graduated in 1878.
During his early years, at the age of eleven, James worked for the Branford (Connecticut) Lock Company, where he gained some mechanical experience, and later at the Brady Manufacturing Company in Brooklyn. By the time of his graduation from the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute (present-day the New York University Tandon School of Engineering), Wood was superintendent of the Brady Manufacturing Company, which was engaged at the time in making castings and parts for the electric dynamo machines, invented by James B. Fuller of the Fuller Electric Company and by Hiram S. Maxim of the United States Electric Lighting Company.
The work at the Brady Manufacturing Company aroused in Wood a keen interest in electric lighting, and, in 1879, after much study and experiment, he designed and built an arc-light dynamo of his own, patented on October 19, 1880. This machine was so efficient, that the Fuller Electric Company, in 1880, gave up the manufacture of Fuller's dynamo in favor of Wood's, taking Wood into partnership and reorganizing the company as the Fuller-Wood Company. This dynamo was the first of a long series of inventions, made by Wood in the succeeding forty-eight years, which brought him about 240 patents, chiefly in the electrical field.
In 1885, after five years of partnership with the Fuller-Wood Company, James became a consulting engineer, his chief client being the Thomson-Houston Company, and when this concern, in the early 1890's, joined the group of organizations, which together became the General Electric Company, Wood was retained as factory manager and chief engineer, later becoming consulting engineer of the Fort Wayne Works, Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he continued to work until his death in 1928.
While the major portion of his inventions was devised after his removal to Fort Wayne, Wood had made a number in the five-year period, between 1885 and 1890, during which he was a resident of New York. One of the most notable of these was a dynamo and arc-lighting system for floodlighting, which was first successfully used to light the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor in 1885. He also manufactured a Brayton type of internal combustion engine, which was installed in the first Holland submarine, and designed the machines for constructing the main cables, used on the original Brooklyn Bridge.
When James went to Fort Wayne, his dynamo and arc lamp were already in extensive use under the name of the Wood arc-lighting system, but in the course of the succeeding years, he added accessory equipment to the system, inventing meters, switches, coils and other devices. Between 1900 and 1918, his inventions centered on alternating current generators, motors, transformers, enclosed alternating current arc lamps, circuit breakers and numerous small motor applications, such as vibrators and fans.
James J. Wood gained prominence as the inventor of the Wood arc-lighting system. In general, he was the holder of 240 patents, covering electrical and mechanical devices.
Wood's dynamo and arc-lighting system for floodlighting was successfully used to light the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor in 1885. His other inventions include a Brayton type of internal combustion engine, which was installed in the first Holland submarine, and the machines for constructing the main cables, used on the original Brooklyn Bridge. Besides, he also built first lamps for Sir Hiram Maxim.
In recognition of Wood's valuable contributions in the electrical industry field, he was made a Fellow of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
James was a fellow of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
Wood had few outside interests and was little known except in the electrical industry.
Wood married Nellie B. (Scott) Wood on January 20, 1916. Their marriage produced three children - Venie Elizabeth, Alexander Paul and Ella May.
