<Tr> <Th> Parent (s) </Th> <Td> Tailer Woods and Martha J. Brown </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> Signature </Th> </Tr> <P> Granville Tailer Woods (April 23, 1856--January 30, 1910) was an American inventor who held more than 50 patents . He is also the first American of African ancestry to be a mechanical and electrical engineer after the Civil War . Self - taught, he concentrated most of his work on trains and streetcars . One of his notable inventions was the Multiplex Telegraph, a device that sent messages between train stations and moving trains . His work assured a safer and better public transportation system for the cities of the United States . </P> <P> Granville T. Woods was born to Martha J. Brown and Cyrus Woods . He also had a brother named Lyates . His mother was part Native American, and his father was African American . Granville attended school in Columbus until age 10, but had to leave due to his family's poverty, which necessitated in his need to work; he served an apprenticeship in a machine shop and learned the trades of machinist and blacksmith . Some sources of his day asserted that he also received two years of college - level training in "electrical and mechanical engineering," but little is known about where he might have studied . </P>

Who invented the train to station communication system