American chemist and inventor; born in New York Sept. 26, 1846; educated in the public schools of that city and at the College of the City of New York. Among Woolf's achievements may be mentioned: the introduction of peroxid of hydrogen for bleaching ostrich-feathers and for use as an antiseptic (1876), and the discovery (1889) of the antiseptic properties of sea-water decomposed by electrolysis (electrozone), a discovery now widely applied in the treatment of drinking-water, garbage, and sewage, and used by the United States authorities in suppressing yellow fever in Havana, Cuba (1899). Woolf is a member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, and of the Society of Arts, London, England.