Inventor database
Verified
Granville T. Woods
Electrical engineer of railway communication
At a glance
- Inventor
- Granville T. Woods
- Life
- 1856–1910
- Birthplace
- Columbus, Ohio
- Country
- United States
- Region
- United States
- Era
- 1800s
- Fields
- Transportation, Technology & Computing
- Evidence
- Verified
- Records
- 1 in this archive
What they did
Woods held roughly 60 patents in electrical engineering, most importantly systems that let moving trains and stations exchange telegraph messages by induction.
Historical context
Trains on the same line could not talk to each other or to dispatchers. Collisions were routine and often fatal.
Obstacles
Woods repeatedly had to defend his patents in court, including against claims filed by Thomas Edison's interests; he prevailed.
The legacy
Induction-based train communication is a direct ancestor of modern railway signalling and positive train control.
The evidence
US Patent 373,915 — Induction telegraph system
Granville T. Woods patent file records