Granville T. Woods
April 23, 1856- January 30, 1910
An Early STEM Pioneer
INVENTOR OF 50 PATENTS
(The Black Edison)
To make another African American bio without much information The prolific Granville life was very difficult in researching therefore I will not use assumptions by others. To date what has been recorded is that he was born April 23 1856 to parents Cyrus Woods and Martha J. Brown. He was a prolific inventor and a perfectionist that brought thought to life with his passion and drive to create. He was educated and obtained two trade degrees in engineering. 1880–1892 he resided in Columbus Ohio. Granville Woods developed several improvements to the railroad system, and was referred to by some as the “Black Edison.” In 1885, Woods patented an apparatus which was a combination of a telephone and a telegraph system that helped prevent train accidents.The device, which he called “telegraphony”, allows messages to send voce by 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.The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. cited Woods as “an expert in electric motors, whose many patents speeded the growth and improvement at the beginning of this century.”
In 1892 Woods patented a transit improvement known today as the third rail, the device that allows electricity to power trains without the use of batteries or exposed wires. He originally designed it for trains but later modified it to power an amusement ride known as the Figure Eight Roller Coaster, an invention he first demonstrated at Coney Island.
During his lifetime Woods encountered much resistance to his patents and inventions because of the prevailing belief that a black man could not have come up with creative innovations. Many rivals took advantage of this attitude, and some of his patents were stolen outright by competitors such as Thomas Edison. Woods was forced to defend himself in court and eventually won.
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.
In 1888, Woods manufactured a system of overhead electric conducting lines for railroads in 1889; he filed a patent for an improvement to the steam-boiler furnace. 1892–1910 Granville Woods resided and invented his patent designs in New York. 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 the second defeat, Thomas Edison decided that it would be better to work with Granville Woods than against him and thus offered him a position with the Edison Company. Over the course of his lifetime Granville Woods would obtain more than 50 patents for inventions including an automatic brake and an egg incubator which outshined some of his other inventions for the machine would hatch 50,000 eggs at a time. 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. On January 30, 1910 Granville T. Woods died from cerebral hemorrhage he was buried, but his burial site was a mystery it was not until 1975, that his burial site was found as an unmarked grave a 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.
Here are the full list of patents for Granville T. Woods Patents
Here are three examples of how Woods’s patents revolutionized transportation:
Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph
This invention used the idea of ‘induction’: a large battery-powered magnet was put underneath the train, attached to a telegraph or telephone in the train operator’s cab. When turned on, the whole apparatus would give off a magnetic force. The telegraph lines parallel to the tracks would also emit a similar but opposite magnetic force. This allowed messages to be sent to or from a moving train in any direction (hence ‘multiplex’). Train operators and dispatchers could send morse code (telegraph), or with the addition of a telephone receiver, even have real time conversations (synchronous), and could show the location of a moving train on a dispatcher’s display board.
Thomas Edison attempted to take credit for the “Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph”. Woods was determined to protect his invention, and though Edison twice took him to court, he won his case both times.
Woods died of a cerebral hemorrhage at Harlem Hospital in New York City on January 30, 1910, 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’ inventions to donate funds to purchase a headstone. It was erected at St. Michael’s Cemetery in Elmhurst, Queens.
Baltimore City Community College established the Granville T. Woods scholarship in memory of the inventor.
In 2004, the New York City Transit Authority organized an exhibition on Woods which utilized bus and train depots, and an issue of four million MetroCards commemorating the inventor’s achievements in pioneering the third rail.
In 2006, Woods was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
In April 2008, the corner of Stillwell and Mermaid Avenues in Coney Island was named Granville T. Woods Way.
Amusement Apparatus and Electric Railway Conduit
These patents demonstrated how electricity would pass from the tracks and up into the motor truck of the roller coaster and back into the tracks. One of the crucial parts of this system is that it is scalable: it could be used in toy slot cars to life sized amusement park cars. It was this scalability that allowed it to be used in the New York City subway system via contact shoe, the point where electricity flows into the motor truck of a subway car from the third rail, and then back into a running rail creating a constant circuit of electricity.
Improvement of Train Control and Braking Mechanisms
Woods designed a ‘Dead Man’s Handle’, which is a type of controller that automatically slows down the train if the train operator is suddenly too sick to operate the train anymore. He also came up with an automatic brake that could be pulled from inside any train car, and a brake that could be pulled from the tracks. Variations on all three of these systems are currently used in transit systems throughout the world and have become a global standard for safety.
Granville T. Woods. Biography”, bio.true story.
“Black Edison.” Kansas City (KS) American Citizen
Daniel Murray, “Color Problem in the United States” The Seattle Republican (Seattle, Washington),
Friday, 30 December 1904, p. 2.( Granville Woods referred to as the Black Edison)