Woodward, Inc. was founded as The Woodward Governor Company by Amos Woodward in 1870. Initially, the company made controls for waterwheels (first patent No. 103,813), and then moved to hydro turbines. In the 1920s and 1930s, Woodward began designing controls for diesel and other reciprocating engines and for industrial turbines. Also in the 1930s, Woodward developed a governor for variable-pitch aircraft propellers. Woodward parts were notably used in the GE engine on United States military's first turbine-powered aircraft. Starting in the 1950s, Woodward began designing electronic controls, first analog and then digital units.