De Volson Wood

De Volson Wood (June 1, 1832 – June 27, 1897) was an American civil engineer and educator. He invented a steam rock drill and an air compressor and designed an ore dock. Wood was a professor, an author of multiple monographs on mathematics and engineering, vice-president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the first president of the American Society for Engineering Education.

Biography De Volson Wood, son of Julius and Amanda (Billings) Wood, was born near Smyrna, New York. He studied in a public school, with an additional six weeks in a private academy and two terms in Cazenovia Seminary. In 1849 he began teaching, with which he was occupied until his death, his subsequent education being received while he was himself instructing. He started at Smyrna where he taught for three terms. Desiring to continue his education, he then went to the Albany State Normal School and graduated in 1853. He then obtained his first position as principal, in the Napanoch School, Ulster County, New York. Returning to the closing exercises of the Albany Normal School during a week of vacation, Wood accepted an offer of assistant professorship in mathematics.

"Trussed Bridges and Roofs." 250 pp. New York, 1872. Revision of " Mahan's Civil Engineering." 589 pp. New York, 1873. American edition of " Magnus's Lessons on Elementary Mechanics." 312 pp. London and New York, 1876. "Foundations." Johnson's Encyclopaedia. New York, 1875.

"Dynamics." Appleton's Cyclopaedia of Applied Mechanics. New York, 1879.

"Technical Education in America." American Supplement to Encyclopædia Britannica, 1897.