Born on April 23, 1856, in Columbus, Ohio Granville T. Woods only made it to 10 years old before leaving school to work. He did so to support his family, he became an prentice to a machinist and learned to be a blacksmith and became heavily involved in the workings of machinery. This led to him becoming an inventor.

He returned to education with night school and in 1872 he got a job as a fireman on the Danville and Southern Railroad in Missouri. It was there that he became an engineer for two years before heading to Springfield, Illinois to work in a steel mill. Then he moved to an engineer on the British steamship, named Ironsides in 1878. It took just two years to become the chief engineer.

Woods established his own machine shop in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1880, much due to the discrimination he had received as a black worker in employee status positions.

His shop went onto become the Woods Electrical Company and was the base of many fine inventions.

He improved the steam boiler in 1884, invented the first top powered electric railway (which made it safe for pedestrians) and created the first telegraph service to be able to send from moving trains. This was a huge advancement in railroad safety.

He also worked on air breaks for train cars and many other machine tweaks, leading to him filing over 60 patents and selling inventions to many major companies including the American Bell Telephone Company and the General Electric Company.

He is sometimes referred to as the black Edison…. I prefer to call him Granville T. Woods.

He died on July 30, 1910.