Granville Wood

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Granville Tailer Woods (April 23, 1856 – January 30, 1910) was an American inventor who held

more than 50 patents.[1] He is also the first American of African ancestry to be a mechanical and
electrical engineer after the Civil War.[2] Self-taught, he concentrated most of his work
on trains and streetcars. One of his notable inventions was the Multiplex Telegraph, a device that
sent messages between train stations and moving trains. His work assured a safer and better
public transportation system for the cities of the United States.

Early life
Granville T. Woods was born to Martha J. Brown and Cyrus Woods. He also had a brother
named Lyates.[3] His mother was part Native American, and his father was African
American.[4] Granville attended school in Columbus until age 10, but had to leave due to his
family's poverty, which necessitated in his need to work;[5] he served an apprenticeship in a
machine shop and learned the trades of machinist and blacksmith. Some sources of his day
asserted that he also received two years of college-level training in "electrical and mechanical
engineering," but little is known about where he might have studied.[6]

Career
In 1872, Woods obtained a job as a fireman on the Danville and Southern Railroad in Missouri,
eventually becoming an engineer. In December 1874, he moved to Springfield, Illinois, and
worked at a rolling mill, the Springfield Iron Works. He studied mechanical and electrical
engineering in college from 1876-1878.[7] In 1878, he took a job aboard the "Ironsides", and,
within two years, became Chief Engineer of the steamer. When he returned to Ohio, he became
an engineer with the Dayton and Southwestern Railroad in southwestern Ohio. In 1880, he
moved to Cincinnati, Ohio and established his business as an electrical engineer and an inventor.
After receiving the patent for the multiplex telegraph, he reorganized his Cincinnati company as
the Woods Electric Co, but in 1892 he moved his own research operations to New York City,
where he was joined by a brother, Lyates Woods, who also had several inventions of his own.[8]
Some internet sources claim he was married. However, the newspapers of his day generally
referred to him as a "bachelor." [9]The one indication that he had been married at some point was
a brief mention in 1891 that said he was being sued for divorce by a woman identified as Ada
Woods. [10] But while little more was said of his personal life, Granville T. Woods was often
described as an articulate and well-spoken man, as well as meticulous and stylish in his choice of
clothing, and a man who preferred to dress in black.[11] At times, he would refer to himself as an
immigrant from Australia,[12] in the belief that he would be given more respect if people thought he
was from a foreign country, as opposed to being an African American. In his day, the black
newspapers frequently expressed their pride in his achievements, saying he was "the greatest of
Negro inventors",[13] and sometimes even calling him "professor," although there is no evidence
he ever received a college degree

.
Inventions
Woods invented and patented Tunnel Construction for the electric railroad system, and was
referred to by some as the "Black Edison."[14]
In 1885, Woods patented an apparatus which was a combination of a telephone and a telegraph.
The device, which he called "telegraphony", would allow a telegraph station to send voice and
telegraph messages over a single wire. He sold the rights to this device to the American Bell
Telephone Company. In 1887, he patented the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph which
allowed communications between train stations from moving trains, a technology pioneered
by Lucius Phelps[15] in 1884.
Thomas Edison later filed a claim to the ownership of this patent.[16] In 1888, Woods manufactured
a system of overhead electric conducting lines for railroads modeled after the system pioneered
by Charles van Depoele, a famed inventor who had by then installed his electric railway system in
thirteen U.S. cities. In 1889, he filed a patent for an improvement to the steam-boiler furnace.
Granville Woods often had difficulties in enjoying his success as other inventors made claims to
his devices. Thomas Edison made one of these claims, stating that he had first created a similar
telegraph and that he was entitled to the patent for the device. Woods was twice successful in
defending himself, proving that there were no other devices upon which he could have depended
or relied upon to make his device. After Thomas Edison's second defeat, he decided to offer
Granville Woods a position with the Edison Company, but Granville declined.
Woods is sometimes credited with the invention of the electric third rail, however, many third rail
systems were in place in both Europe and North America at the time Woods filed for his patent in
1901. Thomas Edison had been awarded a patent for the third rail almost two decades earlier, in
1882.[17]
Woods is also sometimes credited with the invention of the air brake in 1904 for trains,
however, George Westinghouse patented the air brake almost 40 years prior.[18]
Over the course of his lifetime Granville Woods would obtain more than 50 patents for inventions
including an automatic brake and an egg incubator and for improvements to other inventions such
as safety circuits, telegraph, telephone, and phonograph. He died on January 30, 1910 in New
York City, having sold a number of his devices to such companies as Westinghouse, General
Electric and American Engineering. Until 1975, his resting place was an unmarked grave, but
historian M.A. Harris helped to raise funds, and persuaded several of the corporations that used
Woods's inventions to donate towards a headstone. It was erected at St. Michael's Cemetery in
Elmhurst, Queens NY.[19]
Baltimore City Community College established the Granville T Woods scholarship in memory of
the inventor.
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Patents Issued to Granville T. Woods

# Patent Invention Date


1 U.S. 299,894 Steam Boiler Furnace [First Patent] June 3, 1884
2 U.S. 308,876 Telephone Transmitter Dec. 2, 1884
3 U.S. 315,368 Apparatus for Transmission of Messages by Electricity April 7, 1885
4 U.S. 364,619 Relay Instrument June 7, 1887
5 U.S. 366,192 Polarized Relay July 5, 1887
6 U.S. 368,265 Electro Mechanical Brake Aug. 16, 1887
7 U.S. 371,241 Telephone System and Apparatus Oct. 11, 1887
8 U.S. 371,655 Electro Mechanical Brake Apparatus Oct. 18, 1887
9 U.S. 373,383 Railway Telegraphy Nov. 15, 1887
10 U.S. 373,915 Induction Telegraph System Nov. 29, 1887
11 U.S. 383,844 Overhead Conducting System for Electric Railway May 29, 1888
12 U.S. 385,034 Electro-Motive Railway System June 26, 1888
13 U.S. 386,282 Tunnel Construction for Electric Railway July 17, 1888
14 U.S. 387,839 Galvanic Battery Aug. 14, 1888
15 U.S. 388,803 Railway Telegraphy Aug. 28, 1888
16 U.S. 395,533 Automatic Safety Cut-Out for Electric Circuits Jan. 1, 1889
17 U.S. 438,590 Automatic Safety Cut-Out for Electric Circuits. Oct. 14, 1890
18 U.S. 463,020 Electric Railway System Nov. 10, 1891
19 U.S. 507,606 Electric-Railway Supply System. Oct. 31, 1892
20 U.S. 509,065 Electric Railway Conduit Nov. 21, 1893
21 U.S. 569,443 System of Electrical Distribution Oct. 13, 1896
22 U.S. 630,280 System of Electrical Distribution. Aug. 1, 1897
23 U.S. 639,692 Amusement Apparatus Dec. 19, 1899
24 U.S. 656,760 Incubator. August 28, 1900
25 U.S. 662,049 Automatic Circuit-Breaking Apparatus. Nov. 20, 1900
26 U.S. 667,110 Electric Railway Jan. 29, 1901
27 U.S. 678,086 Electric Railway System July 9, 1901
28 U.S. 681,768 Regulating and Controlling Electrical Translating Devices Sept. 3, 1901
.

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