Granville T. Woods
Granville T. Woods, image from The Cosmopolitan Magazine, 1895, Wikimedia Commons
Electrical Engineer - Mechanical Engineer - Inventor - Entrepreneur
Granville T. Woods was born on April 23, 1856 in Columbus, Ohio. As a life-long learner, he spent much of his free time studying and learning about things that interested him, on his own. He became an apprentice to a machinist and learned blacksmithing and how to work with machines. He studied in school for a brief period of time and eventually got a job with the Danville and Southern Railroad company in Missouri, in 1872. He later went to work in a steel mill in Illinois and by 1878 he was an engineer aboard a steamship.
In most of these areas he was promoted quickly because of his skill, but could not be promoted beyond a certain point, according to him, because of discrimination.
He then decided to open his own machine shop in 1880, in Cincinnati, Ohio. This business became the Woods Electrical Company. He eventually moved to New York City and worked with his brother, Lyates Woods, who also shared in some of his inventions.
He contributed, heavily, to electric railways, both above ground railways and below ground railways (i.e., subways).
He developed additional uses for telegraph and telephone technology, including the telegraphony, which was purchased by the American Bell Company (the forerunner of AT&T).
His work saved lives on railways across the world for generations to come.
He moved to New York City in 1890 and he and his brother’s contributions to the subway system, the overall transit system and even amusement parks are a part of the historical landscape of that city.
Some of his inventions are listed below.
Granville T. Woods from Men of Mark by Rev. William J. Simmons, 1887.
Famous Inventions
Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph
U. S. patent no. 373,915 - November, 29, 1887, Induction Telegraph System
This invention created a magnetic field through which communication could be sent. A large magnet was placed underneath the train and attached to a telegraph or telephone in the train operator’s cabin. The magnetic force generated by this invention allowed for messages to be sent to and from a train that was moving in any direction. Dispatchers and train operators could use telegraphs, or telephones, to talk in real time or through morse code, and dispatchers could see the location of trains on their display boards.
Imagine riding on a train and the train’s operators don’t know exactly where other trains are along the same tracks. This is what this invention addressed. It dramatically reduced train accidents and saved many, many lives.
Electric Conduits for Railways and Amusement Parks
U. S. patent no. 639,692 - December 19, 1899, Amusement Apparatus
His Amusement Apparatus created ways for electricity to be conducted from tracks to the “motor truck of a roller coaster and back to the tracks.” This idea was scalable and was used in the New York City Subway system via a “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” which created a constant flow of electricity.
The Dead Man’s Brake or Handle
U. S. patent no. 813,193 - October 16, 1906, Safety Apparatus for Railways
He, along with help from his brother, invented a device some called the “Dead Man’s Handle.” It was a controller that slowed down a train, automatically, if the train’s operator was incapacitated and unable to operate the train, for any reason.
He also created an automatic brake, which could be used from any car, to help the train come to a stop.
Further, he also created a brake that could be used from the tracks to slow down the train. These inventions, more specifically, the systematic ideas they created are used in transit systems around the world today and are part of standard safety protocols for trains around the globe.
His Legacy
From improvements to air brakes, to safety systems on railways, to applications for even amusement parks…Granville T. Woods was a prolific inventor. He should’ve died a millionaire, but the challenges he faced defending his patents in court (two of which were against Thomas Edison and he won both of them); the outright theft he apparently endured and the racial discrimination he had to fight left him without very much money even though he sold patents to American giants like the American Bell Company, General Electric and Westinghouse.
Granville T. Woods died on July 30, 1910 having received over 50 patents in his lifetime.
References:
Frederick, Candice. “Granville T. Woods: An Early STEM Pioneer,” Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. April 22, 2016. Accessed online March 2023.
“Granville Woods: Multiples Telegraph and Electric Railway Improvements,” Lemelson-MIT, accessed online March 2023.
“Granville T. Woods.” Ohio History Central, accessed online March 14, 2023.
Padnani, Amisha. “Granville T. Woods: 1856 - 1910,” New York Times., accessed online March 2023.
Simmons, William J., Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. (Cleveland: Geo. M. Rewell, 1887)
“Transit Innovator: Granville T. Woods,” New York Transit Museum, accessed online March 14, 2023.