Granville T. Woods

Granville T. Woods was an inventor, engineer, mentor and trailblazer. But the most fitting title is the one given by his peers: “Black Edison.”

Woods registered nearly 60 patents during the latter part of the 1800s and early 1900s, mostly for electrical devices that included a telephone transmitter, a trolley wheel and the multiplex telegraph, perhaps his most renown invention. The multiplex telegraph was a safety device for railways that sent messages between trains and train stations, and was heralded nationwide for its ability to reduce train accidents.

But Woods’s multiplex telegraph also brought controversy. In the late 1880s, Thomas Edison filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against Woods, claiming that he invented the multiplex telegraph, and not Woods. In defeat, Edison offered Woods a prominent position in the engineering department of the Edison Electric Light Co., which Woods declined.

A combination telephone/telegraph

Another of Woods’ inventions, the telegraphony, was a combination telephone/telegraph that allowed a telegraph station to send voice and telegraph messages over a single wire. Woods sold the rights of the telegraphony to the American Bell Telephone Co. He sold the patent for his telephone transmitter to Alexander Graham Bell.

Woods was also a pioneer as the first African American in the post-Civil War era to become an electrical and mechanical engineer.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1856 to free black parents, Woods received little schooling but worked numerous jobs as a teenager and young adult, including one on the British steamer known as the Ironsides. Within two years, he became the steamer’s chief engineer.

He traveled the country extensively, learning about mechanical and electrical engineering, before coming to New York City, where he worked in a machine shop during the day and took classes at night.

Although his education and work success should have garnered Woods prestigious and high-paying positions with companies, he was denied opportunities because of his race.

Woods often referred to himself as an Australian immigrant, believing that United States citizens would give him more respect as a foreigner than they would a black American.

In 1884, Woods opened the Woods Electrical Co. in Cincinnati to develop, manufacture and sell electrical apparatus.

Despite having sold his products to major companies such as Westinghouse and General Electric, Woods spent nearly all of his money fighting lawsuits regarding his products that were brought against him.

He died in poverty in New York City in 1910 and was buried in an unmarked grave.