1B - February 22, 2017 The Chroniclewww.charlestonchronicle.net SECTION B

BLACK HISTORY MONTH SPECIALBLACK INVENTORS

Known as "Black Edison," Granville Woods wasan African-American inventor who made keycontributions to the development of the tele-phone, street car and more.SynopsisGranville T. Woods was born in Columbus,Ohio, on April 23, 1856, to free African-Ameri-cans. He held various engineering and indus-trial jobs before establishing a company todevelop electrical apparatus. Known as "BlackEdison," he registered nearly 60 patents in hislifetime, including a telephone transmitter, atrolley wheel and the multiplex telegraph (overwhich he defeated a lawsuit by Thomas Edi-son). Woods died in 1910.Early LifeBorn in Columbus, Ohio, on April 23, 1856, tofree African Americans, Granville T. Woods re-ceived little schooling as a young man and, inhis early teens, took up a variety of jobs, includ-ing as a railroad engineer in a railroad machineshop, as an engineer on a British ship in a steelmill, and as a railroad worker. From 1876 to1878, Woods lived in New York City, takingcourses in engineering and electricity—a sub-ject that he realized, early on, held the key tothe future.Back in Ohio in the summer of 1878, Woodswas employed for eight months by the Spring-field, Jackson and Pomeroy Railroad Company

to work at the pumping stations and the shiftingof cars in the city of Washington Court House,Ohio. He was then employed by the Dayton andSoutheastern Railway Company as an engineerfor 13 months.During this period, while traveling betweenWashington Court House and Dayton, Woodsbegan to form ideas for what would later be cred-ited as his most important invention: the "induc-tor telegraph." He worked in the area until thespring of 1880, and then moved to Cincinnati.Early Inventing CareerLiving in Cincinnati, Woods eventually set up hisown company to develop, manufacture and sellelectrical apparatus, and in 1889, he filed his firstpatent for an improved steam boiler furnace. Hislater patents were mainly for electrical devices,including his second invention, an improvedtelephone transmitter.The patent for his device, which combined thetelephone and telegraph, was bought by Alexan-der Graham Bell, and the payment freed Woodsto devote himself to his own research. One of hismost important inventions was the "troller," agrooved metal wheel that allowed street cars(later known as "trolleys") to collect electricpower from overhead wires.Induction TelegraphWoods's most important invention was the mul-

tiplex telegraph, also known as the "inductiontelegraph," or block system, in 1887. The deviceallowed men to communicate by voice over tele-graph wires, ultimately helping to speed up im-portant communications and, subsequently,preventing crucial errors such as train accidents.Woods defeated Thomas Edison's lawsuit thatchallenged his patent, and turned down Edi-son's offer to make him a partner. Thereafter,Woods was often known as "Black Edison."After receiving the patent for the multiplex tele-graph, Woods reorganized his Cincinnati com-pany as the Woods Electric Co. In 1890, hemoved his own research operations to NewYork City, where he was joined by a brother, Ly-ates Woods, who also had several inventions ofhis own.Woods's next most important invention was thepower pick-up device in 1901, which is the basisof the so-called "third rail" currently used byelectric-powered transit systems. From 1902 to1905, he received patents for an improved air-brake system.Death and LegacyBy the time of his death, on January 30, 1910, inNew York City, Granville T. Woods had in-vented 15 appliances for electric railways. re-ceived nearly 60 patents, many of which wereassigned to the major manufacturers of electri-cal equipment that are a part of today's dailylife.

Lewis Howard LatimerAlice ParkerElijah McCoyElijah J. McCoy (May 2, 1844[2] – October 10, 1929) was an AfricanCanadian-American inventor and engineer, who was notable for his57 U.S. patents, most to do with lubrication of steam engines.

In Michigan, McCoy could !nd work only as a !reman and oiler at theMichigan Central Railroad. In a home-based machine shop in Ypsi-lanti, Michigan McCoy also did more highly skilled work, such as de-veloping improvements and inventions. He invented an automaticlubricator for oiling the steam engines of locomotives and ships, "Im-provement in Lubricators for Steam-Engines" (U.S. Patent 129,843).Similar automatic oilers had been patented previously; one is the dis-placement lubricator, which had already attained widespread useand whose technological descendants continued to be widely usedinto the 20th century. Lubricators were a boon for railroads, as theyenabled trains to run faster and more pro!tably with less need tostop for lubrication and maintenance.

McCoy continued to re!ne his devices and design new ones; 50 of hispatents dealt with lubricating systems.

Lewis Howard Latimer was an inventor and draftsman best knownfor his contributions to the patenting of the light bulb and the tele-phone.Lewis Howard Latimer was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, on Sep-tember 4, 1848, to parents who had "ed slavery. Latimer learned theart of mechanical drawing while working at a patent !rm. Over thecourse of his career as a draftsman, Latimer worked closely withThomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell, in addition to designinghis own inventions. He died in Flushing, Queens, New York, on De-cember 11, 1928.Latimer's talents were well-matched to the post-Civil War period,which saw a large number of scienti!c and engineering break-throughs. Latimer was directly involved with one of these inventions:the telephone. Working with Alexander Graham Bell, Latimer helpeddraft the patent for Bell's design of the telephone. He was also in-volved in the !eld of incandescet lighting, a particularly competitive!eld, working for Hiram Maxim and Thomas Edison.Latimer's deep knowledge of both patents and electrical engineeringmade Latimer an indispensible partner to Edison as he promoted anddefended his light bulb design. In 1890, Latimer published a bookentitled Incandescent Electric Lighting: A Practical Description of theEdison System. He continued to work as a patent consultant until1922.

Alice H. Parker was an African-American inventor who !led the !rst UnitedStates patent for the precursor to a central heating system. Parker washighly educated compared to most Americans during the early 1900s. Shewas a graduate of Howard University, a historically African-American uni-versity that accepted both male and female students since its founding inNovember 1866, shortly after the Civil War. While little is known about herlife, her design for a heating furnace is a de!nite forerunner to what wasdeveloped decades later as a means of heating residential and commercialstructures.

Parker was o#cially granted her patent on December 23, 1919, while shewas a resident of Morristown, NJ. The drawings included in the patent !l-ing show a heating furnace that was powered by gas. To heat an entirehouse, there were several heating units, each controlled by individual hotair ducts. The ducts were then directed to di$erent parts of the buildingstructure.

Although this design was never used in an actual structure, using gas topower a heating furnace was a revolutionary idea since coal and wooddominated at this time. This patent also marks the !rst time that a patentdocuments the idea that duct work could individually deliver heat to di$er-ent areas of the house.