In 1856, just before the US Civil War, Granville T Woods, known in his later life as the ‘Black Edison’, was born to a part Native American mother and African American father. At age 10, poverty meant he was forced to leave school and take a machine shop apprenticeship.
Here, however, is where Woods discovered his true calling, engineering. How he studied this novel subject is unclear, but he must have learned on the job and may have gone to night school. At 16, he began a series of jobs on the railway and in an iron works while studying electrical engineering in college. Six years later he was working on the British steamer ‘Ironsides’, where he was rapidly promoted to chief engineer.
Woods had more sophisticated plans. In 1880, he moved back to his native Ohio and set up as an inventor and electrical engineer. He was particularly interested in electrical communication and in 1884, formed the Woods Railway Telegraph Company to exploit his new idea of...