Theodore Tuttle Woodruff (April 8, 1811 – May 2, 1892) was an American inventor.
Biography
Theodore Tuttle Woodruff was born in
Jefferson County, New York
Jefferson County is a county on the northern border of the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 116,721. Its county seat is Watertown. The county is named after Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United St ...
on April 8, 1811.
He married Eliza Lord Hemenway on July 25, 1833, and they had two children.
[
On December 2, 1856, Woodruff received two patents for a convertible car seat, which led to his invention of the sleeping car for railroads. He also helped to manage the Pennsylvania Railroad through its general manager ]Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...
.
Woodruff also invented a coffee-hulling machine, a surveyor's compass and a steam plow.
He lost his fortune in the Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the ...
.[
He was killed when he was struck by a train in ]Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
on May 2, 1892.
Legacy
One of Woodruff's descendants was the 20th century diplomat, Charles Woodruff Yost.
See also
*Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...
References
1811 births
1892 deaths
19th-century American inventors
People from Jefferson County, New York
Railway accident deaths in the United States
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