c. 1907

Fort Wayne Electric Works Dragon Fan

The Wood System trademark began appearing on Fort Wayne Electric Works products in the early 1890s, named for the company's chief electrician and inventor James J. Wood, who brought his direct current power generation and arc lighting systems to Fort Wayne in 1890. He accepted the challenge of develop-ing alternating current devices the year Marmaduke Slattery died and in the next ten years Wood and his team made significant advancements in motor design resulting in a drastic reduction of their size. During this time the company was absorbed by General Electric in 1899 but kept producing under the Fort Wayne Electric Works name until 1915. This eleven-inch wall-mounted fan with a "croquet-ball" motor is suspended by springs from a bracket shaped like a dragon. It was intended to hang in a phone booth and would have originally had a wire cage around the blades. Patented by James J. Wood on 15 April 1902, the fan motor is an example of the advancements Wood made in this technology. The fan was featured in a 1907 General Electric Catalog.