Multiplex Telegraph system, allowing messages to be sent/received from moving trains (1887)
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The Railway Air Brakes that provided the first safe method of stopping trains (1903)
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The Steam-boiler/radiator (1884)
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The Third Rail [subway] (1893)
The magnitude of an inventors work can often be defined by the esteem in which he is held by fellow inventors. If this is the case, then Granville Woods was certainly a respected inventor as he was often referred to as the "Black Thomas Edison."
Granville Woods was born on April 23, 1856 in Columbus, Ohio. He spent his early years attending school until the age of 10 at which point he began working in a machine shop repairing railroad equipment and machinery.
Intrigued by the electricity that powered the machinery, Woods studied other machine workers as they attended to different pieces of equipment and paid other workers to sit down and explain electrical concepts to him.
Over the next few years, Woods moved around the country working on railroads and in steel rolling mills.
This experience helped to prepare him for a formal education studying engineering (surprisingly, it is unknown exactly where he attended school but it is believed it was an eastern college.)
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Last edited by Admin on Tue 6 Apr 2010 - 1:24; edited 3 times in total