The world has achieved its current state through the power of innovation and creativity. Most of the creations that people come up with help solve several world everyday challenges that people face. According to the innovation history, it seems that the black people were the ones who were responsible for most of the grand innovations. Despite slavery, most black people, especially in the US, could invent great things despite not having full ownership and recognition from the whites. Granville Woods is an example of an African-American who survived racism against black inventors and could patent most of his work. This article will discuss other black Americans who went through hardship but thrived and were successful black inventors. Other African-Americans were also able to make a fortune from their creative works.
Thomas Jennings
Thomas Jennings was a black American inventor, tradesman, entrepreneur, and abolitionist in New York City. He has the distinction of being the 1st black American patent-holder in history. He got the patent in 1821 for his novel method of dry cleaning. His invention and business expertise yielded a significant fortune that he re-invested into the US abolitionist movement.
Thomas Jennings was born on January 1st, 1791, to a free black American family in NYC. He married a woman known as Elizabeth, who was born a slave in Delaware and passed on March 5th, 1873. Thomas Jennings and his wife had more than one child. They were called Matilda Jennings, Elizabeth Jennings, and James Jennings.
In modern-day, dry cleaning is very important and helpful since it helps people get their clothes clean, particularly the hard-to-wash whiter garments.
Madam Walker
Madam C.J. Walker, born as Sarah Breedlove on December 23rd, 1867, was a black American entrepreneur, philanthropist, social and political activist. According to historical records, she was the 1st female self-made millionaire in the United States in the Guinness Book of World Records. Madam Walker made her fortune by developing and advertising a line of hair care and cosmetic products for black women through the business she founded (Madam C.J Walker Manufacturing Company).
Madam Walker became famous or well-known for her activism and philanthropy. Madam Walker made financial donations to several organizations and became an art patron. At the time of her death, people considered her as the wealthiest black American businesswoman.
From this invention, we see other beauty products such as Fenty Beauty by Rihanna that is getting her mint millions as many women get to achieve their highest degree of beauty.
Sarah Boone
Sarah Boone was a black American inventor who, on April 26th, 1892, got the United States patent number 473563 for her enhancements or improvements to the ironing board. Sarah Boone’s ironing board was designed to enhance the ironing sleeves’ quality and the women’s garments’ bodies. The ironing board was narrow, curved, and made of wood. The structure and shape allowed it to fit a sleeve, and it was reversible so that an individual could iron both sides of the sleeve. Sarah Boone was one of the black American women inventors of her time who developed the new tech for the home.
Sarah was born in Craven County, N. Carolina, near New Bern town, on January 1st, 1832. Sarah Boone was born a slave, and she underwent a brutal and challenging time. On November 25th, 1847, she was engaged to James Boone in New Bern, and they had several children, more than five. Sarah Marshal Boone passed on in 1904, and people buried her in a family plot in Evergreen Cemetery in New Haven.
Garrett Morgan (Products and Inventions)
Garrett Morgan experimented with a liquid that gave sewing machines needles a polish that prevented the needle from burning fabric as it sewed. In 1905, Garret Morgan discovered that the same liquid could also straighten hair. Garrett Morgan made the liquid into a cream and launched the G.A. Morgan Hair Refining Company to advertise or market it. Morgan also made a black hair oil dye and invented a curved-tooth comb for hair straightening purposes in the early 20th century (1910).
Garrett invented a safety hood smoke protection device after watching firefighters struggling from the smoke they faced in the line of duty. Garrett’s device employed a moist sponge to filter out smoke and cool the air. The safety hood employed or used a series of tubes to draw clean air of the lowest level the tubes could extend. The safety hood provided the user with a way to perform emergency respiration. He filed for a patent on the device in 1912 and established a company known as the National Safety Device Company two years later (1914) to market it. Garrett’s safety hood gadget was effective and simple, whereas the other devices in use at the time were difficult to put on, complicated, unreliable, and ineffective.
By WW 1, Garrett’s breathing device got refined to carry its air supply, making it a gas mask. Garret Morgan’s invention concerning the safety hood got featured on the television show called ‘Inventions that Shook the World’ and ‘Mysteries at the Museum.’
The 1st American-made automobiles were introduced to consumers just before the turn of the 20th century. Pedestrians, animal-drawn wagons, bicycles, and motor vehicles had to share the same ways or roads. To solve the problem of traffic accidents, several versions of traffic signaling devices started coming up. Garrett Morgan witnesses an accident at an intersection, and he filed for a patent for a traffic control gadget having a 3rd warning position in 1922. The patent got granted in 1923.
Alexander Miles (Elevator Innovation)
In Alexander Miles’ time, dedicated operators had to close the elevator’s doors manually. If the door was open, people could fall through it, resulting in horrific accidents. Alexander Miles improved this mechanism by designing a flexible belt attachment to the elevator cage and drums positioned to show whether the elevator has reached a floor. The belt permitted or allowed for automatic opening and closing when the elevator reached the drums on the respective floors by means of rollers and levers. Alexander Miles got a patent for this mechanism in the late 19th century (1887), improving the elevator’s safety and efficiency.
Alfred Cralle
Alfred Cralle was a black American businessman and inventor of the Ice-Cream Mold and Disher. Alfred Cralle was born in Florida Wesley Chapel in 1866. He worked with his dad in the carpentry trade as a young man and became interested in mechanics. He later settled in Pittsburgh, where he 1st served as a porter in a drug store and at a restaurant. Alfred Cralle noticed that servers at the hotel had a challenge with ice-cream sticking to serving spoons, and he created an ice-cream scoop.
On June 10th, 1896, Alfred Cralle applied for a patent on his creation. He got patent 576395 on February 2nd, 1897. The patented Ice-Cream Mold and Disher was an ice-cream scoop with a built-in scraper to allow for 1-handed operation. Alfred’s Cralle functional design is reflected in present-day ice-cream scoops. Alfred Cralle died from TB on May 6th, 1919, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Philip Downing
Philip Downing was born in 1857 and died in 1934. Philip was an African-American inventor from Newport, Rhode Island. Philip Downing is famous or best known for his patent on the present-day letterbox.
Imagine how tedious it was to mail a letter from one place to another before Philips’s great invention.
MORE:
- Granville Woods: History of Racism Against Black Inventors
- Thousands of Algerian Protestors Rekindle Protests
Jan Ernst Matzeliger
Jan Ernst Matzeliger left Dutch and worked as a mechanic on a Dutch East Indies merchant vessel for a long period before settling in Philadelphia, where he learned the shoe trade. By 1877, he spoke adequate English and moved to Massachusetts to pursue his shoe industry interest. Later, he went to work in the Harney Brothers Shoe factory.
In the early times of shoemaking, people made shoes using their hands. The customers’ feet had to be copied or duplicated in form and size for a good fit by creating a wooden or stone mold known as a last. The greatest challenge in shoemaking was the soles’ actual assembly to the upper shoe; it needed great skill to sew and tack the 2 components together. People thought that only skilled human hands could do the intricate work. As a result, this era wasn’t yet mechanized, and shoe lasters held power over the shoe industry.
After more than three years of work, Matzeliger got a patent for creating an automated shoe laster in the late 19th century (1883). A skilled hand laster could produce more than 30 pairs in a 10-hour day. Ernst Matzeliger’s machine could make between 150-700 pairs of shoes daily, reducing or cutting shoe prices across the nation in half.
Frederick Jones
Frederick McKinley Jones was an African-American inventor, entrepreneur, winner of the National Medal of Tech, and an inductee of the NIHF (National Inventors Hall of Fame). His innovations in refrigerators brought improvements to the long-haul transportation of perishable items or goods. Frederick Jones co-founded Thermo King.
Lewis Howard Latimer
Lewis Howard Latimer was an American inventor and patent draftsman for the patents of the incandescent light bulb.
