Granville Tailer Woods (April 23, 1856 – January 30, 1910) was an American inventor who held more than 60 patents in the United States. He was the first African American mechanical and electrical engineer after the Civil War ended. He was self-taught and focused most of his work on trains and streetcars. One of his inventions was the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph, a type of induction telegraph that used static electricity from existing telegraph lines to send messages between train stations and moving trains.

Granville T. Woods also invented and patented Tunnel Construction for the electric railroad system and electrical rollercoasters.

Early life

Granville T. Woods was born to Martha J. Brown and Cyrus Woods. He had a brother named Lyates and a sister named Rachel. His mother was part Native American, and his father was African American. Granville attended school in Columbus, Ohio, until he was 10 years old but had to leave because his family could not afford to pay for school. He worked in a machine shop and learned the skills of a machinist and a blacksmith. Some sources from his time said he also studied for two years in college-level courses about electrical and mechanical engineering, but there is little information about where he might have studied.

Career

In 1872, Woods got a job as a fireman on the Danville and Southern Railroad in Missouri. He later became an engineer and moved to Springfield, Illinois, in December 1874. There, he worked at a factory called the Springfield Iron Works. From 1876 to 1878, he studied mechanical and electrical engineering in college.

In 1878, he began working on a ship called the Ironsides and became chief engineer within two years. After returning to Ohio, he worked as an engineer for the Dayton and Southwestern Railroad. In 1880, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and started his own business as an electrical engineer and inventor. After receiving a patent for the multiplex telegraph, he changed the name of his Cincinnati company to the Woods Electric Co.

In 1892, he moved his research work to New York City. His brother, Lyates Woods, joined him there. Lyates also had several inventions.

Inventions

Granville Woods received more than 50 patents for his inventions and improvements to other technologies, such as the automatic brake, egg incubator, safety circuit, telegraph, telephone, and phonograph.

In 1884, Woods received his first patent for a steam boiler furnace. In 1885, he patented a device called "telegraphony," which combined a telephone and a telegraph. This device allowed telegraph stations to send both voice and telegraph messages using Morse code over a single wire. Woods sold the rights to this invention to the American Bell Telephone Company. In 1887, he patented the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph, which enabled communication between train stations and moving trains by creating a magnetic field around a coiled wire under the train. Before patenting this technology, Woods caught smallpox, and Lucius Phelps patented it first in 1884. In 1887, Woods used notes, sketches, and a working model to secure the patent. His invention was so successful that he founded the Woods Electric Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, to market his patents. However, the company eventually focused on creating new inventions until it was dissolved in 1893.

Later, Thomas Edison claimed ownership of the induction telegraph patent, stating he had created a similar device first. Woods successfully defended his rights in court twice, proving no other devices existed that he could have used to create his invention. After Edison’s second loss, he offered Woods a job at the Edison Company, but Woods declined.

In 1888, Woods developed a system of overhead electric lines for railroads, inspired by the work of Charles van Depoele, who had already installed an electric railway system in 13 U.S. cities.

Following the Great Blizzard of 1888, New York City Mayor Hugh J. Grant ordered all above-ground wires, which powered the city’s rail system, to be removed and buried underground. Woods’ patent improved existing third rail systems by using wire brushes to connect with metallic terminal heads, reducing the risk of injury by keeping wires hidden. This invention was tested successfully in February 1892 on the Figure Eight Roller Coaster in Coney Island. It is often incorrectly said that Woods invented underground third rail systems, but many other inventors were working in this field at the time, and Woods made only small improvements.

Later that year, Woods was arrested and charged with libel after placing an advertisement in a trade magazine warning people not to support the American Engineering Company of New York City. The company had funded Woods’ invention, but a key component was missing from the agreement, and the company’s manager, James Slough Zerbe, later stole it. A jury found Woods not guilty, but Zerbe had already patented a version of the design in Europe, which was valued at $1 million. Woods patented the invention in 1893 and sold it to General Electric in 1901.

In 1896, Woods created a system for controlling electrical lights in theaters called the "safety dimmer." This system used electricity more efficiently, saving 40% of energy.

Woods is sometimes credited with inventing the air brake for trains in 1904, but George Westinghouse had already patented the air brake nearly 40 years earlier. Woods’ contribution was an improvement to the existing invention.

Personal life

Although newspapers at that time often called him a bachelor, Woods was married to Ada Woods. However, Ada was given a divorce from him in 1891.

In 1902, the Kansas City American Citizen described Woods as a clearly spoken man who was very careful about how he dressed. He often wore black clothing. At times, he told people he was an immigrant from Australia, because he thought people would respect him more if they believed he came from another country instead of being African American. During his lifetime, Black newspapers often celebrated his accomplishments, calling him "the greatest of Negro inventors" and referring to him as "professor," even though he did not have a college education.

Death and legacy

Granville T. Woods died without money on January 30, 1910, from a brain hemorrhage at Harlem Hospital in New York City. Before his death, he sold many of his inventions to companies such as Westinghouse, General Electric, and American Engineering. He was buried in an unmarked grave at St. Michael's Cemetery in Elmhurst, Queens. Later, historian M.A. Harris helped collect money from companies that used Woods' inventions to buy a headstone, which was placed at his gravesite in 1975.

Baltimore City Community College created the Granville T. Woods scholarship to honor his work as an inventor.

In 2004, the New York City Transit Authority held an exhibition about Woods at bus and train stations. They also released four million MetroCards with his image to celebrate his contributions to third rail electrification.

In 2006, Woods was added to the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

In 2008, the corner of Stillwell and Mermaid Avenues in Brooklyn was renamed Granville T. Woods Way. The location is across Stillwell Avenue, opposite the Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue rail and bus terminal.