Granville T. Woods

Granville Tailer Woods held over 60 patents and was known as the "Black Edison" — though Edison himself tried to claim credit for Woods's inventions, losing in court twice. Woods's most important innovation was the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph in 1887, which allowed moving trains to communicate with each other and with stations, dramatically reducing the deadly collisions that plagued America's railroads.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1856, Woods received limited formal education but was a voracious self-learner. He worked as a railroad engineer, steamship engineer, and blacksmith, gaining firsthand knowledge of the mechanical and electrical challenges that would fuel his inventions. He moved to New York and established the Woods Electric Company to develop and market his patents.

Woods's innovations spanned electrical engineering: he improved the telephone transmitter, developed an overhead conducting system for electric railways (the precursor to the trolley), and created an automatic air brake. His work on the "third rail" — the electrified rail that powers subway systems — helped make modern urban transit possible. Despite his prolific output, Woods died in relative obscurity in 1910, a reminder of how systematically Black innovation has been erased from the American story.