Pioneers in Technology: Granville T. Woods

Some years ago, I had the good fortune of meeting a retired New York City transit worker by the name of David Head who had written a groundbreaking book on the African American inventor Granville T. Woods.

Prior to his retirement, Mr. Head had successfully campaigned to have Woods commemorated by the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) during their centennial celebration in 2004.

As a result of this effort, in 2004 the MTA issued four million MetroCards commemorating Woods’ contribution to the development of New York City’s transportation system.

During my early conversations with Mr. Head who is now a good friend and associate, I learned some amazing facts about a few of Granville T. Woods lesser-known inventions such as the automatic air brake, the Figure 8 electrical roller coaster, and the telegraphony communication system which sent telegraph and voice messages over the same wire.

Like a majority of inventors both then and now, Granville T. Woods would often use his creative ingenuity to improve upon preexisting technology, as he did with the electrical roller coaster and Third Rail, while in other instances his designs were totally new innovations like the telegraphony system he created.

Among the many other fascinating things I discovered from talking with David Head was of the ongoing legal battles Woods had to fight in order to protect his inventions and ideas from being stolen.

The competition and rivalries that existed at the time between companies like Westinghouse and General Electric was fierce, and even inventors like Thomas Edison, who Woods won several lawsuits against, tried to take credit for some of Woods’ inventions.

Business Insider:  Thomas Edison tried to take credit for a device created by a Black American inventor
Cincinnati Magazine:  Granville T. Woods: The Inventor Who Beat Thomas Edison

While there is so much more to Granville T. Woods story, I would encourage folks to check out our brand-new Pioneers In Technology jigsaw puzzle to learn about Granville T. Woods and other unsung innovators and inventors.