CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH

AFRICAN-AMERICAN INVENTORS

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.