Leon Byron Woodworth, electrical and mechanical engineer, was
the son of Dr Judson Newell Woodworth and his wife Doma Atell Tuller. He was educated in Buffalo, New York, and continued
his studies at a college in Buffalo and at the University of Rochester. In 1893
he completed a six month apprenticeship with General Electric Company in
Schenectady, New York, and joined the Buffalo Electric Transit Company in 1894
as construction superintendent. The next year he resigned and came to South
Africa, where he joined Hubert Davies and Company as construction engineer. In
1898 he became assistant mechanical engineer and chief electrical engineer for
the New Heriot Gold Mining Company in Johannesburg. During the Anglo-Boer War
(1899-1902) he served with the British forces in the Royal Engineers with the
rank of lieutenant. After the war he returned to his former position until
1908. The next year he became assistant to the consultant mechanical and
electrical engineer for H. Eckstein and Company, Johannesburg. He remained
there when the company became the Central Investment and Mining Corporation, becoming
sectional engineer in the electrical and mechanical department in 1923 and
consulting engineer from 1939 until his retirement in 1941. During these years
he also did research at the Rand Mines Mechanical Laboratory in Johannesburg
and served as engineering consultant for various mining and industrial plants.
Woodworth was a member of the South African Institute of
Electrical Engineers and served as its president for 1921/2. His research dealt
mainly with electric and magnetic methods of ore separation, a topic on which
he contributed several papers to the Institute's Transactions (1911, 1921, 1928), including his presidential address
(1921). He and Samuel T. Tregaskis were furthermore granted a United States
patent in 1924 for an improved magnetic separator. Other publications by Woodworth
in the same journal included 'Notes on three-phase winding equipment' (1913),
and 'The camera as an aid in electrical and mechanical engineering' (1929). Among
others he was granted United States patents for an 'Isolating plugging-in box
for electric power cables' (1931), a 'Junction box system for electric power
cable installations' (1932), and an 'Electric detonator' (1940).
Woodworth was a member of the (British) Institution of
Electrical Engineers, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, and the
Certificated Engineers of the Union of South Africa. He represented the South
African Institute of Electrical Engineers on the Joint Committee of Technical Societies,
established in 1919, and in February 1922 was elected joint vice-president of
the resulting Associated Scientific and Technical Societies of South Africa.
Woodworth was married to Edith Annie Humphrey, with whom he
had three children, but they were divorced in 1917. He was survived by his
second wife, Gladys Mary Hollins, whom he married in June 1920.
