James PackardBorn 5 Nov 1863; died 20 Mar 1928 at age 64.James Ward Packard was an American engineer and inventor who founded Packard Automobile Co. A few years after graduation, as foreman at Sawyer-Mann Electric Co., N.Y., manufacturers of the Sawyer-Mann incandescent electric lamp, he acquired several patents. These included a new form of incandescent lamp, a lamp socket, and improvements in vacuum pumps for exhausting the air from incandescent lamp bulbs. In 1889, he and his brother started an electrical business, the Packard Electric Company. His next patents included manufacturing electrical transformers, fuse boxes, measuring instruments, and cables. Later, he designed and built his first automobile, which he road tested on 6 Nov 1899. He then formed the Packard Motor Co. A Packard Model F left San Francisco on 21 Jun 1902on a transcontinental journey ending 21 Aug 1903 in NYC.« |
