Inventions by black people are considered rare. Shewas the first woman ophthalmologist to be appointed to the faculty of the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine Jules Stein Eye Institute and the first woman to chair an ophthalmology residency program in the United States. These obstacles, no doubt, suppressed the wealth, fame, and influence of Black inventorsand yet, many succeeded in making important contributions to American technological and economic development. In the late 19th century, the ironing board was improved by Sarah Boone. Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window), Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window), Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window), Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window), Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window), Public Domain & T-Vector Icons/Getty Images, Fotosearch/Getty Images & Amin Yusifov/Getty Images, Bettmann Archive/Getty Images & Marina Parfenova/Getty Images, Image courtesy of Dr. Mark Dean & Sergei Korolko/Getty Images, How an Enslaved African Man in Boston Helped Save Generations from Smallpox, 10 More Black Inventors Who Changed Your Life, https://www.history.com/news/8-black-inventors-african-american, 8 Black Inventors Who Made Daily Life Easier. Chappelle: The Man, His Life, His Work And His Aspirations.". Most patents filed by white Americans also came from northern residents (90%), reflecting regional differences in education and industrial concentrations. Latimer got a patent for his invention in 1882, something countless Black innovators in the generations before him were unable to do. Modern Black inventors continue to play a pivotal role in developing innovations that shape our lives. Thomas Edison is credited with inventing the lightbulb, but it was Lewis Latimer, the son of formerly enslaved people, who patented a new filament that extended the lifespan of lightbulbs so they wouldnt die out after a few days. Woods received little schooling as a young man but later spent some time working on railways and took courses in engineering and electricity. Using a new database of inventors, this report demonstrates that Black contributions to the Industrial Revolution were influenced by the disproportionate number of Black Americans who lived in the U.S. South in the late 19th and early 20th century, where their opportunities to acquire and apply skills were severely limited by oppressive institutions. Additional information: Joseph Winters was a Black American abolitionist and inventor. Concerned about the slow police response times to their neighborhood, Brown created a system that would allow her to know who was at her home and contact authorities quickly in the event of a break-in. She started her career at Bell Telephones, helping to invent developments like touch-tone dialing and call-waiting. Patent records do not record the race of the inventor or other demographic information, other than their name and address. 1. George Crumwas working as a chef at a resort in New York. The patent system was ostensibly open to free black people. He is best known for his invention of the ice cream scoop. Walker pioneered the use of female sales agents, who traveled door to door across the U.S. and Caribbean selling her products. - Potato Digger (Date: April 23, 1895, Patent No: 537953), - Steam Boiler Furnace (Date: June 3, 1884, Patent No: 299894), - Apparatus for Transmission of Messages by Electricity (Date: April 7, 1885, Patent No: 315368), - Relay Instrument (Date: June 7, 1887, Patent No: 364619), - Polarized Relay (Date: July 5, 1887, Patent No: 366192), - Electro-Mechanical Brake (Date: August 16, 1887, Patent No: 368265), - Telephone System and Apparatus (Date: October 11, 1887, Patent No: 371241), - Electro-Magnetic Brake Apparatus (Date: October 18, 1887, Patent No: 371655), - Railway Telegraphy (Date: November 15, 1887, Patent No: 373383), - Induction Telegraph System (Date: November 29, 1887, Patent No: 373915), - Overhead Conducting System for Electric Railway (Date: May 29, 1888, Patent No: 383844), - Electro-Motive Railway System (Date: June 26, 1888, Patent No: 385034), - Tunnel Construction for Electric Railway (Date: July 17, 1888, Patent No: 386282), - Galvanic Battery (Date: August 14, 1888, Patent No: 387839), - Railway Telegraphy (Date: August 28, 1888, Patent No: 388803), - Automatic Safety Cut-Out for Electric Circuits (Date: January 1, 1889, Patent No: 395533), - Electric Railway System (Date: November 10, 1891, Patent No: 463020), - Electric Railway Conduit (Date: November 21, 1893, Patent No: 509065), - System of Electrical Distribution (Date: October 13, 1896, Patent No: 569443), - Amusement Apparatus (Date: December 19, 1899, Patent No: 639692), - Electric Railway (Date: January 29, 1901, Patent No: 667110), - Electric Railway System (Date: July 9, 1901, Patent No: 678086), - Regulating and Controlling Electrical Translating Devices (Date: September 3, 1901, Patent No: 681768), - Electric Railway (Date: November 19, 1901, Patent No: 687098), - Automatic Air Brake (Date: June 10, 1902, Patent No: 701981), - Electric Railway System (Date: January 13, 1903, Patent No: 718183), - Electric Railway (Date: May 26, 1903, Patent No: 729481). Julian was quoted as saying, "I have had one goal in my life, that of playing some role in making life a little easier for the persons who come after me.". His successes would garner him further attention from the the U.S. Electric Lighting Company, putting him at a company in direct competition with Edison, in 1880. And I think part of it is, for me, to open up the conversation of what inventiveness is and can be., Museum collections have historically excluded the contributions of marginalized people, a failing the Smithsonians Lemelson Center readily acknowledges. To put in perspective the extraordinary number of patents given to Black people in the North in the decades after the end of slavery, consider that patenting in northern Black communities was equal to white Americans nationally. She moved to Chicago and opened a furniture store. Updated: Jan 13, 2021 (1832-1904) Who Was Sarah Boone? Jonathan Rothwell, Jose Lobo, Deborah Strumsky, and Mark Muro, Patenting Prosperity: Invention and Economic Performance in the United States and its Metropolitan Areas (Washington: Brookings Institution. We strive for accuracy and fairness. His designs are largely reflected in elevators used today. He obtained a patent for his first invention, the Scottron Mirror, in March 1868. - Photodetector having semi-insulating material and a contoured, substantially periodic surface (Date: November 26, 1985, Patent No: 4555622), - Integrated optical device having integral photodetector (Date: November 3, 1987, Patent No: 4703996), - High-speed circuit measurements using photoemission sampling (Date: January 26, 1988, Patent No: 4721910), - Lawn Mower Attachment (Date: September 10, 1889, Patent No: 410836), - Grass Receivers for Lawn Mowers (Date: June 10, 1890, Patent No: 429629), - Bicycle Frame (Date: October 10, 1899, Patent No: 634823), - Swinging Chairs (Date: November 15, 1881, Patent No: 249530), - Eye Protector (Date: November 2, 1880, Patent No: 234039), - Egg Beater (Date: February 5, 1884, Patent No: 292821), - Gearing for Overcoming Dead Centers (Date: February 4, 1896, Patent No: 554223), - Gearing for Overcoming Dead Centers (Date: October 11, 1898, Patent No: 612345), - Caps for Bottles (Date: September 13, 1898, Patent No: 610715), - Ticket Dispensing Machine (Date: June 27, 1939, Patent No: 2163754), - Air conditioning Unit (Date: July 12, 1949, Patent No: 2475841), - Method for Air Conditioning (Date: December 7, 1954, Patent No: 2696086), - Method for Preserving Perishables (Date: February 12, 1957, Patent No: 2780923), - Two-Cycle Gas Engine (Date: May 29, 1945, Patent No: 2376968), - Starter Generator for Cooling Gas Engines (Date: July 12, 1949, Patent No: 2475843), - Two-Cycle Gas Engine (Date: March 11, 1947, Patent No: 2417253), - Means for Thermostatically Operating Gas Engines (Date: July 26, 1949, Patent No: 2477377), - Rotary Compressor (Date: April 18, 1950, Patent No: 2504841), - System for Controlling Operation of Refrigeration Units (Date: May 23, 1950, Patent No: 2509099), - Apparatus for Heating or Cooling Atmosphere within an Enclosure (Date: October 24, 1950, Patent No: 2526874), - Prefabricated Refrigerator Construction (Date: December 26, 1950, Patent No: 2535682), - Refrigeration Control Device (Date: January 8, 1952, Patent No: 2581956), - Methods and Means of Defrosting a Cold Diffuser (Date: January 19, 1954, Patent No: 2666298), - Control Device for Internal Combustion Engine (Date: September 2, 1958, Patent No: 2850001), - Thermostat and Temperature Control System (Date: February 23, 1960, Patent No: 2926005), - Removable Cooling Units for Compartments (Date: December 14, 1943, Patent No: 2336735), - Means for Automatically Stopping & Starting Gas Engines (J.A. Mark E. Dean holds an IBM chip. - Lawn Mower (Date: May 9, 1889, Patent No: 624749), - Substitute for Inking Ribbons on Typewriters (Date: January 12, 1897, Patent No: 575145), - Boot or Shoe (Date: November 28, 1899, Patent No: 638043), - Train Alarm (Date: June 15, 1897, Patent No: 584540), - Luggage Carrier (Date: October 10, 1899, Patent No: 634611), - Improvement in Holders for Reins for Horses (Date: February 6, 1872, Patent No: 123328), - Apparatus for Detaching Horses From Carriages (Date: March 19, 1872, Patent No: 124790), - Improvement in Neck Yokes For Wagons (Date: April 30, 1872, Patent No: 126181), - Improvement in Car Couplings (Date: December 1, 1874, Patent No: 157370), - Self-Setting Animal Trap (Date: August 30, 1881, Patent No: 246369), - Invalid Cot (Date: July 25, 1899, Patent No: 629658), - Cooking Range (Date: July 25, 1876, Patent No: 180323), -Image converter for detecting electromagnetic radiation, especially in short wavelengths (Date: November 11, 1966, Patent No: 3478216), - Umbrella Stand (Date: August 4, 1885, Patent No: 323397), -Cosmetics And Producing The Same (Date: 6th January 1925, Patent No: 1522176), -Paint And Stain And Producing The Same, Producing Paint And Stains Cosmetics And Producing The Same (Date: June 9, 1925, Patent No: 1541478), - Process of Producing Paint And Stains (Date: June 14, 1927, Patent No: 1632365). We have a ton of stuff on Edison and Tesla [electricity] and Steve Jobs [innovator of Apple products and devices] and whomever, but it's incumbent on us now to make sure that we're preserving the stories of Madam C.J. 2016. The company was critical during World War II, helping to preserve blood, food and supplies during the war. Montgomery later created a propellor that could cut into the water at different angles, allowing boats to navigate more easily in shallow water. African Americans and women still participate at each stage of the innovation process at lower rates than their male and white counterparts. Now he wants to kill it", "Thirty years later, the personal computer's obsolete, IBM PC designer says", "ANNIE JEAN EASLEY's Obituary on The Plain Dealer", "Lloyd Ferguson, a pioneering African American professor/chemist from Cal State L.A., has died", "Alumni Honored at Black Engineer Gala News and Current Events, A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland", "Virginia Women in History Past Honorees", DURHAM -- Julius Chambers has only begun to make his case for North Carolina Central University. (Date: October 4, 1887, Patent No: 371107), - Pipe Connection (Date: October 9, 1888, Patent No: 390821), - Illusion Transmitter (Date: October 21, 1980, Patent No: 4229761). Table 1. His improvements are what we call today "oven racks" and allows us to heat different kinds of food at different levels of heat intensity. She was freed at the end of the Civil War, and went on to become one of the first African-Americans to be awarded a patent. in Physics in 1962, a Masters in 1963, and Ph.D. in 1967. - Hame Attachment (Date: April 14, 1891, Patent No: 450550). Still, they prevailed and proved their genius to the world. Mike Andrews and Jonathan Rothwell, Reassessing the Contributions of African American Inventors to the Golden Age of Innovation (SSRN Working Paper, 2020). And some of the most popular everyday products, inventions, and household items were created by African Americans. He would go on to receive various patents for his inventions. After graduating from high school he went toRensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he was one of only two Black students at the school. 2. - Waste Trap (Date: October 16, 1883, Patent No: 286746), - Waste Trap for Basins, Closets, etc. This suggests that these states were especially bad at providing practice opportunities, but many Black people born there achieved inventive success elsewhere after migrating. News/Opinion, "Mr. C.W. Showing a great natural talent for invention, his master referred him to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland to take up a position as an assistant in theirDepartment of Natural and Experimental Philosophy. The firefighting solution he devised, known as bean soup, helped save the lives of thousands of sailors and naval airmen during World War II. There are certain types of things that are patentable, and certain things that are not patentable, and that is a distinction that I do think leaves a lot of people out of the ecosystem. She began her lifelong career at NASA in 1964. Invention was seen as this God-given ability. He made fundamental innovations to railways, especially in the form of communication systems and the distribution of electricity to the rail cars.16, Sarah Boone invented the ironing board, winning a patent in 1892. In our database, 87% of inventions were traced to people born in the United States, and 2.7% were invented by Black Americansa larger share than nearly every immigrant group. He showed interest in mechanics from a young age andbegan working in machine shops at the age of 10. Born Sarah Breedlove, Madame C.J. He went on to have a lengthy career as an inventor.15, Granville Woods was another influential Black inventor of the era, born in Ohio in 1856. But we know enough to feel sure that if others knew the story even as we ourselves know it, it would present us in a somewhat different light to the judgment of our fellow men, and, perhaps, make for us a position of new importance in the industrial activities of our country.. Black people also invented the clothes dryer, the automatic gear shift in vehicles, the modern toilet, lawn sprinkler, peanut butter and potato chips. A few observations stand out (Figure 2). This page was last edited on 3 June 2023, at 00:46. That rate fluctuated somewhat, but remained fairly constant. Learn about the work that these Black scientists and inventors have accomplished that make our lives better. To understand the rate of patenting by northern Black Americans during this period, we compare it to the average rate of patenting throughout U.S. history. Boones design morphed into the modern board that we use today. He died in 1854 from injuries sustained after falling into a hole near his shop. [5][6][7], List of African-American inventors and scientists, "Inventor of Heart Stimulator Honored at Memorial Service.". The rate of patenting per capita among northern Black and white residents was extremely high (0.31 per 1,000 residents for Black people and 0.39 for white people). Larami Corporation was eventually purchased by Hasbro, the second largest toy manufacturer in the world. He was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia in 1931. In 1845, inventor Joseph Hawkins made some improvements upon the gridiron, a metal rack attached to a wooden handle that was usually placed on a campfire or fireplace. When she was first hired to work on the space program, Vaughans department was segregated, or separated, by race. Dr. George Grant is notable for being the second Black man to graduate from Harvard's dental school, and the first Black man to serve as a professor at the Ivy League .