Granville Woods (1856-1910),Afro-American inventor. Woods was born in Ohio,USA. He left school at the age of 10 and worked as an apprentice in a machine shop. In 1872,Woods became a fireman,which eventually led to him becoming Chief Engineer on board a British steamer. Following this,Woods moved into devising and marketing electrical devices,which he succeeded in selling to some of the USA's largest corporations. In 1888,Woods produced a system called a troller,which provided overhead current to tramcars and lead to the name 'trolley cars'. Over his lifetime,Woods was awarded more than 60 patents |