Louis's inventive nature propelled him to build a handmade camera, with which he took many of the photos which are now part of the county's historical treasure trove.
He and other younger members were energetic about all things mechanical and given the times they placed a small steam engines on boats to cruise across Lake Conemaugh and often LS would dress up as a sailor and “man” his station.
Initial sales brochures touted that it “cannot blow up or burn up” as well as its ease of control, to the point he taught his wife to drive, making her the first known woman driver in the county.
They Clarkes contributed their engineering abilities toward the war effort as Louis also designed a naval bomb fuse which was adopted as standard and also adapted for army use.
He sold his interest in the Autocar Co. in 1929 and retired at that time.”[2] Charles John Clarke (1833–1899) was one of the pioneers of Palm Beach, where he established a winter residence in the early 1880s.
Louis's father may have been a winter visitor to the Lake Worth area as early as 1885 when he appeared in a photo with hunting and fishing party near Jupiter lighthouse.
Charles liked the area so much from his first visit that he and Louisa spent the winter of 1890 - 1891 at Elijah N. Dimick's “Cocoanut Grove House” Palm Beach's only hotel at the time.
Additionally, his brother was Thomas Shields Clarke (1860–1920), a famous artist of the time, John and James also purchased property and helped to establish the new community of West Palm Beach where they entertained their affluent friends from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
After retirement LS lived and died in West Palm Beach on January 6, 1957, survived by his two children and a multitude of grand and great-grandchildren.