Granville T. Woods
African-American inventors have gotten little recognition for their accomplishments. Indeed, it was hard to find information to even write a small report on a single one of them. However, although their names might not be as household as Thomas Edison, that does no mean that African-American inventors have not played just as important of a role in technology in America. Although we might not be able to name any African-American inventors off the top of our heads, we use their inventions everyday and not even realize it. The last time you took a train, were you worried about it derailing, or not stopping? You could thank Granville T. Woods for that. He invented the air brake for trains, the standard emergency break used today. Granville T. Woods was born on April 23, 1856 in Columbus Ohio. His parents were freed slaves and Woods himself only attended school until the age of 10. Although he stopped formal education at such a young age, Mr. Woods began to work on the railroad and study electronics. Much of his knowledge came directly from "on-the-job" training. He attended night school and took privet lessons in his teens to make up fo
(http://www.inventions.org/culture/african/gtwoods.html r the many years of lost education. In 1872 at the age of 16, Woods became a fireman on the Danville and Southern Railroad in Missouri. There, he developed a passion for trains and dreamed of becoming a railroad engineer himself. Indeed, his love of trains is what fueled many of his inventions. He moved around a lot in the next few years. In 1876 he worked part time in a machine shop in Springfield, Illinois. It was here that he began to take engineering courses in an eastern college. He took a job an engineer in 1878 aboard the Ironsides, a British Steamer, within two years he became the chief Engineer of the steamer. However, despite all of his experience and of his skin color, he never got far in these jobs. He decided to settle back in Ohio. 1. African-American Inventors & Inventions: Granville T. Woods- Prolific Inventor Regarded as one of Woods greatest invention was the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph (1887). This was the most primitive form of the radio system used in trains today. Before this invention, there was no way for a dispatcher to be able to deter
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Approximate Word count = 775
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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