Electric race-track amusement patentIn 1899, black American inventor, Granville T. Woods was issued a U.S. patent for an "Amusement Apparatus" (No. 639,692). Woods, as the most prolific African-American inventor of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, has been called the black Edison. His numerous inventions included a steam-boiler furnace, telephone, telegraph system, electric railway and automatic air brake for railroad safety. This patent design was for small scale or large scale electrically-driven cars on a closed track, such as a figure-8 layout . If carrying persons, Woods claimed that it was suitable for amusement "use at summer and other resorts, at fairs, &c., and in or out of doors." The track could cross at different levels, or on the same level.« |
