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.