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Granville was forced to leave school at the age of 10 and not allowed inside a library because of his race. Self-educated, he earned more than 60 patents for electrical and mechanical inventions.
At the age of 24 he began his own company and succeeded in selling many of his inventions to some of the country's largest corporations, including Bell Telephone, General Electric and Westinghouse. In 1888, he developed and patented a system for overhead electric conduction lines for railroads, which aided in the development of modern-day overhead railroad systems currently found in Chicago, St. Louis and New York City.
One of his most famous inventions was the "Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph."
The device used the technology of the telephone and telegraph to help dispatchers locate trains, send messages faster between trains and the station, and warn railroad engineers of trains immediately in front or behind that could cause an accident. Bell Telephone's purchase of this invention enabled Woods to become a full-time inventor. Thomas Edison was a contemporary and a competitor who offered Woods a lucrative partnership in one of this businesses, but Woods preferred to work independently through his own company.
Check out more African-American inventors.
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