Edgar Woods Mix was born February 4, 1867, near Columbus, Ohio. After graduating from The Ohio State University in 1888 with a Batchelor of Science degree, Mix found employment with the Thomson-Houston Company in Lynn, Massachusetts, working on the development of the Thomson Recording Wattmeter, the forerunner of the standard 20th-century home electric current consumption meter. After the meter won a prize at a Paris competition in 1890, Mix remained in France, working with the Paris Electric Light Company. Three years later, a French branch of Thomson-Houston (Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston) was formed in Paris, with Mix serving as its chief electrical engineer. Mix traveled extensively over the next 15 years as the company's representative in Europe, and in 1901 began to use his Richard Verascope stereo camera to record his adventures.
Paris at the beginning of the 20th century was a center for aeronautical experimentation and innovation. Mix became friends with Alfred Leblanc, a French ballooning enthusiast and early airplane pilot, and on March 16-17, 1906, Mix made a long-distance flight with Leblanc in the balloon Le Limousin, for which Leblanc was awarded the Aéro-Club de France (ACF) Coupe de distance du Gaulois. Mix, now a member of the ACF, made his first solo balloon flight on April 21, 1907, in the balloon Albatros, taking off from Paris and landing in Belgium after a flight of 177 miles (285 km). Despite being an American citizen, Mix served as a member of one of the teams representing France in the 2nd Gordon Bennett International Balloon Race (Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett), held October 21, 1907, in St. Louis, Missouri. Mix flew as Leblanc's co-pilot in the balloon Ile de France, alongside teammates René Gasnier and Charles Levée in the balloon Anjou. Mix and Leblanc finished in second place, edged out by the German balloon Pommern. Two years later, Mix (with French balloonist André Roussel as his co-pilot) won the 4th Gordon Bennett International Balloon Race, held October 3, 1909, in Zurich, Switzerland, with an epic 35-hour, 697 mile (1,121 km) flight in the balloon America II, the sole American entry. Mix, now a well-respected balloonist, served as a judge for balloon competitions at the Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne international aviation meets in Reims, France, in both 1909 and 1910.
At the end of October 1911, Mix resigned as the Chief Engineer of the French branch of the Thomson-Houston Company to take a position as manager of the European division of the General Motors and Exports Company of Detroit, Michigan. In early November 1911, Mix traveled from Paris to London to attend a conference of American and English automobile engineers. To the amazement of his friends and family, Mix disappeared from the Channel steamer returning him home to France on the night of November 12, 1911, leaving behind his overcoat and baggage and a note stating that "on account of my great mental depression and the feeling that I am losing my mind, I have jumped overboard from this steamer since it left the English coast on this trip and am undoubtedly drowned before you see this letter." Mix was 45 years old.