Granville T. Woods

By: Lucas Brown

Who is Granville T. Woods

● Granville T. Woods is a African American engineer who created many revolutionary inventions for trains and railroad systems

● He was born 1856 and died in 1910 in New York● He was born to Martha J Brown and Cyrus Woods● He is an astonishing 7 feet tall● He has around 60 patents ● Granville T. Washington didn’t have a overwhelming

struggle with racism, but it impacted his everyday life

● Granville overcame racism because of his vast engineering knowledge and accomplishments

Granville T. Woods famous portrait

His early beginnings

● He was born in Columbus, Ohio, April 23, 1856

● He didn’t have much of an education because of his lack of

wealth

● His parents and him were free although slavery was still

present

● His jobs includes an engineer on a british ship, a worker in a

steel mill, and a railroad engineer and worker.

● His most important job was at the Jackson and Pomeroy

Railroad and the Dayton southeastern railroad company

● Their he worked at the pumping station and switched train

cars

● During this early period of his life he created many ideas

that would make him apart of engineering historyThis is Granville at a early age

His Inventions

● His first inventions included a advanced steam boiler

● He also created a improved telephone transmitter

● He created a troller which was later used for trolleys to

collect power

● One of his most important invention was the multiplex

telegraph which was used to spread information through

train cars and prevent accidents○ He received a offer from Edison to become a partner and he

later won a lawsuit against him for the rights of the patent

● His second most important invention was the power pick up

device which later became a third rail for trains

● Granville T. Woods invented some of the technology in roller

coaster which was presented in Coney IslandGranville’s patent for the Induction telegraph

His contributions and legacy

● Granville T. Woods died as a respectful engineer

● He is commonly referred to as the African American “Thomas Edison”

● Many of his inventions help create the subways and trains we use today

● His patents were bought by many famous inventors including Edison and Westinghouse

Granville T. Woods grave

Sources

Writers, “Granville T. Woods” Biography.com, Web, Updated Jan 8th, 2021, viewed March 15th,

2021, https://www.biography.com/inventor/granville-t-woods

Writors, “A Great African American Inventor” cetla.howard.edu, Written unknown, viewed

March 15th 2021,

http://www.cetla.howard.edu/oes/science/GRANVILLE.html#:~:text=Woods%20and%20his%

20parents%20were,machine%20shop%2C%20doing%20unskilled%20labor.

Editors, “Granville Woods” en.wikipedia.org, Edited March 1st, 2021, viewed March 15th, 2021,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granville_Woods