As a businessman he was president, key engineer, or advisor of different companies related to electrical equipment.

He saw the Alexander Graham Bell telephone exhibit and discovered the principle of the apparatus was basically the same as that of a similar device he had been experimenting with at the laboratory of Ohio State University.

[4] He was married in Washington, D.C., July 26, 1881, to Mary F. Morrison, of Columbus, Ohio, and had three sons and one daughter.

The motor had its armature direct-connected to the streetcar's axle for the driving force thereby eliminating energy-wasting gears.

[7][8][11] Short pioneered the use of a conduit system of a concealed electrical third rail and cabling thereby eliminating the necessity of overhead wire, trolley poles and a dangerous exposed electrified third rail of street cars and trolley railways.

[4][7][8] While at University of Denver he conducted important experiments which established that multiple unit powered cars were a better way to operate trains and trolleys.

[7][8][12] He later resigned his professorship at the University of Denver and gave his entire attention to street railway work.

He built a number of street railway lines in the western cities of the United States using both the underground conduit and overhead electrical trolley systems.

In 1893 he left those positions and went to Cleveland to become vice-president of Walker Company in charge of their engineering department.

This led to his design of motors and generators, which business developed quickly, and later merged into Westinghouse Company.

[6] In December 1898 Short sailed for Europe to complete arrangements which had already been under discussion for some time with Dick Kerr and Company.

Short was also in the process before he died of construction of large shops in Paris for the manufacture of machinery using his patents.