Granville T. Woods in Washington Courthouse

Granville T. Woods in Washington Courthouse. 1878–1880. , Granville T. Woods was a pivotal African American inventor during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Woods invention of a telegraph device enabled railway companies to know the location of each of their trains. This new technology greatly enhanced train scheduling and reduced the frequency of fatal collisions throughout the railway industry. From 1878 through 1880 Woods was a railroad locomotive engineer employed by the Springfield, Jackson and Pomeroy Railroad Company and later by the Dayton and Southeastern Railroad. With frequent stops in Washington Courthouse and extensive leisure time, Woods learned telegraphy from a local telegraph operator. , During one of Woods’ trips from Washington Courthouse to Dayton, he visited the Beckel House. Here he observed the passenger elevator’s mode of signalling to be inadequate. Woods felt that he could improve the process through the use of electrical induction. This planted the seed for one of Woods’ first invention, the induction telegraphy system. After his tenure with the railroad, Woods relocated to Cincinnati, where he began to focus on inventing. In 1886 the Woods Electric Company was organized for the purpose of putting Woods’ inventions on the market. Woods died in New York in 1910.