Granville T. Woods

Inventor of the Railway Train System, Egg Incubator, Telephone Transmitter, Electric Motor and more!

(April 23, 1856 - January 30, 1910)

One of America's greatest electrical engineers, Granville T. Woods was born in Columbus, Ohio. Woods was a Major World inventor. Woods dedicated his life to developing a variety of inventions relating to the railroad industry. To some he was known as the "Black Edison", both being considered great inventors of their time. Ironically enough, Woods successfully sued Thomas Edison for attempting to steal his patents on two separate occasions. Woods invented more than a dozen devices to improve electric railway cars and many more for controlling the flow of electricity.

Granville Woods literally learned his skills on the job. Attending school in Columbus until age 10, he served an apprenticeship in a machine shop and learned the trades of machinist and blacksmith. During his youth he also went to night school and took private lessons. Although he had to leave formal school at age ten, Woods realized that learning and education were essential to developing critical skills that would allow him to express his creativity with machinery.

In 1872, Woods got a job as a fireman on the Danville and Southern Railroad in Missouri, eventually becoming an engineer. He spent his spare time in studying electronics. In 1874, Granville Woods moved to Springfield, Illinois, and worked in a rolling mill. In 1878, he took a job aboard the Ironsides, a British steamer, and, within two years, became Chief Engineer of the steamer. Finally, his travels and experiences led him to settle in Cincinnati, Ohio.

In 1888, Woods patented a system for overhead electric conducting lines for railroads. In his early thirties, he became interested in thermal power and steam-driven engines. And, in 1889, he filed his first patent for an improved steam-boiler furnace. In 1887, he patented devices for wireless induction telegraphy, with the aim to communicate with moving trains. 

Alexander Graham Bell's company purchased the rights to Woods' "telegraphony," enabling him to become a full-time inventor. Among his other top inventions were a steam boiler furnace and a variation on air brakes used to slow or stop trains.

A patent interference filed by Lucius Phelps, over Woods' patent on minor improvements to the induction telegraph, was decided in a Patent Office hearing in favor of Woods; sources on the web would have us believe that Thomas Edison filed suit over this patent, but that is simply not true.