Granville Woods

Granville Tailer Woods
Illustration of Granville T. Woods
Born	Granville Tailer Woods (1856-04-23)April 23, 1856 Columbus, Ohio, United States
Died	January 30, 1910(1910-01-30) (aged 53) New York City, New York, United States
Cause of death	Cerebral hemorrhage
Resting place	St. Michael's (Episcopalian) Cemetery, East Elmhurst, New York
Residence	Columbus, Ohio; Cincinnati, Ohio (1880–1892); New York City, New York (1892–1910)
Nationality	American
Education	Elementary School until age of 10; self-taught since then
Occupation	Inventor
Home town	Columbus, Ohio
Parent(s)	Tailer Woods and Martha J. Brown
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Granville Tailer Woods (April 23, 1856 – January 30, 1910) was an American inventor who held more than 50 patents. He is also the first American of African ancestry to be a mechanical and electrical engineer after the Civil War. Self-taught, he concentrated most of his work on trains and streetcars. One of his notable inventions was the Multiplex Telegraph, a device that sent messages between train stations and moving trains. His work assured a safer and better public transportation system for the cities of the United States.

Granville T. Woods was born to Martha J. Brown and Cyrus Woods. He also had a brother named Lyates. His mother was part Native American, and his father was black. Granville attended school in Columbus until age 10, but had to leave due to his family's poverty, which necessitated in his need to work; he served an apprenticeship in a machine shop and learned the trades of machinist and blacksmith. Some sources of his day asserted that he also received two years of college-level training in "electrical and mechanical engineering," but little is known about where he might have studied.

In 1872, Woods obtained a job as a fireman on the Danville and Southern Railroad in Missouri, eventually becoming an engineer. In December 1874, he moved to Springfield, Illinois, and worked at a rolling mill, the Springfield Iron Works. He studied mechanical and electrical engineering in college from 1876-1878. In 1878, he took a job aboard the "Ironsides", and, within two years, became Chief Engineer of the steamer. When he returned to Ohio, he became an engineer with the Dayton and Southwestern Railroad in southwestern Ohio. In 1880, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio and established his business as an electrical engineer and an inventor. After receiving the patent for the multiplex telegraph, he reorganized his Cincinnati company as the Woods Electric Co, but in 1892 he moved his own research operations to New York City, where he was joined by a brother, Lyates Woods, who also had several inventions of his own.

Some internet sources claim he was married. However, the newspapers of his day generally referred to him as a "bachelor." The one indication that he had been married at some point was a brief mention in 1891 that said he was being sued for divorce by a woman identified as Ada Woods. But while little more was said of his personal life, Granville T. Woods was often described as an articulate and well-spoken man, as well as meticulous and stylish in his choice of clothing, and a man who preferred to dress in black. At times, he would refer to himself as an immigrant from Australia, in the belief that he would be given more respect if people thought he was from a foreign country, as opposed to being an American Negro. In his day, the black newspapers frequently expressed their pride in his achievements, saying he was "the greatest of Negro inventors", and sometimes even calling him "professor," although there is no evidence he ever received a college degree.