Activities for Kids on Granville T. Woods' Inventions

Communications

• Nineteenth-century railway travel could be hazardous because dispatchers and train engineers had no way to know where the trains were in relation to one another because they could not communicate train-to-train or train-to-station. As a result, collisions were frequent. Woods' invention of the synchronous multiplex railway telegraph and induction telegraph system solved this problem and saved lives by allowing messages to be sent from a moving train to let the station and other trains know its location at all times. The communication system worked on the principles of electrical induction and by Morse code. So your child can explore induction science by building a simple electrical circuit and experimenting with different objects as the resistor and the number of coils that produce the best flow of electrical energy. If he attaches the circuit to a miniature light bulb or electrical buzzer, he can practice sending messages in Morse code with a friend. Research Woods' railway telegraph design and draw a diagram, or come up with circumstances in which people in separate locations need to communicate and create a communication system that they could use if they didn't have computers, mobile devices and cell phones handy.

Electric Railways

• Trains and streetcars in the 1800s received power from electric lines parallel to the tracks which were a hazard for pedestrians. Woods' designed an overhead electrical conducting system that powered the trains safely and helped the streetcars maintain constant contact with the wires so breakdowns and stoppages became much less common. His third rail power distribution system is still used by modern light rail trains in some cities. Making a model railroad with overhead catenary wires can be a fun, long-term parent-child project that provides hours of togetherness memories as well as exposing children to the challenges Woods faced in designing the system.

Egg Incubator

• In 1900, Woods received a patent for a thermostatically controlled electric egg incubator that would incubate dozens of eggs at a time. From his original design descended modern machines that can hold as many as 50,000 eggs at one time. Help your child research the optimum temperature for incubating eggs and come up with ideas about how she could keep a dozen fertilized chicken eggs reliably at this temperature until hatching. If you raise chicks, let her design a simple heating and cooling system to keep the eggs at the right temperature. Or, visit a chicken hatchery to see the modern system that has developed from Woods' work.

Air Brakes

• Woods designed improvements to air brake systems in the early 1900s. He sold the designs to the Westinghouse Air Brake Co., which allowed him to continue inventing. A railway air brake works by compressed air, allowing the train to stop safely so it can travel at higher speeds and therefore, contributing to faster rail travel for passengers. Your child can experiment with air pressure with a ball and paper airplane. Go outside and throw a ball in an open area, noting how fast it flies and how far it goes. Try the same with a paper airplane. Explain that each object is subject to air pressure as it moves through the air and the more air pressure, the more friction on the object's surface so the slower it will fly. Train air brakes release compressed air to take advantage of this scientific principle to slow and stop a moving train. Buses and many types of large trucks also use air brakes so you and your child can take a ride in a vehicle with air brakes and ask the driver to demonstrate and explain how they work.