Graville Woods patentIn 1888, African-American inventor Granville Woods was issued a U.S. patent titled "Tunnel-Construction For Electric Railways" (No. 386,282). The tunnel referred to was not for the train itself, but for electric conductors in the railbed to be below the surface of the ground, with a slot at the railbed surface for travelling conductors to transfer power to the motor on the electric car. As the most prolific African-American inventor by career of the late 19th and early 20th century, Woods has been called the Black Edison.«[Image: detail from patent diagram.] |
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