f this subject. I like to tell of what has been done by
Granville T. Woods and his brother Lyates, of New York; by Elijah McCoy,
of Detroit; by Joseph Hunter Dickinson, of New Jersey; by William B.
Purvis, of Philadelphia; Ferrell and Creamer, of New York; by Douglass,
of Ohio; Murray, of South Carolina; Matzeliger, of Lynn; Beard, of
Alabama; Richey, of the District of Columbia; and a host of others that
I could mention.

Foremost among these men in the number and variety of his inventions, as
well as in the commercial value involved, stands the name of Granville
T. Woods. Six years ago Mr. Woods sent me a list of his inventions
patented up to that time, and there were then about thirty of them,
since which time he has added nearly as many more, including those which
he perfected jointly with his brother Lyates. His inventions relate
principally to electrical subjects, such as telegraphic and telephonic
instruments, electric railways and general systems of electrical
control, and include several patents on means for transmitting
telegraphic messages between moving trains.

The records of the Patent Office show that for valuable consideration
several of Mr. Woods' patents have been assigned to the foremost
electrical corporations of the world, such as the General Electric
Company, of New York, and the American Bell Telephone Company, of
Boston. These records also show that he followed other lines of thought
in the exercise of his inventive faculty, one of his other inventions
being an incubator, another a complicated and ingenious amusement
device, another a steam-boiler furnace, and also a mechanical brake.

Mr. Woods is, perhaps, the best known of all the inventors whose
achievements redound to the credit of our race; and in his passing away
he has left us the rich legacy of a life successfully devoted to the
cause of progress.

[Illustration: ELIJAH McCOY.]

In the prolific yield of his inventive genius, Elijah McCoy, of Detroit,
stands next to Granville T. Woods.

So far as is ascertainable from the office records Mr. McCoy obtained
his first patent in July, 1872, and the last patent was granted to him
in July, 1912. During the intervening forty years he continued to invent
one thing after another, completing a record of nearly forty patents on
as many separate and distinct inventions. His inventions, like those of
Woods', cover a wide range of subjects, but relate particularly to the
scheme of lubricating ma