The genius within:A Black history lesson
14th February 2022 · 0 Comments
Since people of African ancestry arrived on American shores, whites have pushed propaganda about their worthlessness, lack of intellect and lies about African-Americans’ contributions to America and the world.
Yet, one thing is sure: America would not be the envy of the world without the inventive genius of the Black men and women who created from mere ideas influential inventions that helped create the industrial revolution and a legacy that continues in the present.
Henry E. Baker, an assistant examiner in the United States Patent Office, wrote “The Colored Inventor” in 1913 to refute negative stereotypes about African-Americans’ intellect and their ability to contribute to American life post-slavery.
“That the colored people in the United States have made substantial progress in the general spread of intelligence among them, and in elevating the tone of their moral life; in the acquisition of property; in the development and support of business enterprises, and professional activities, is a matter of quite common assent by those who have been at all observant on the subject,” wrote Baker, a Black man.
“It is not so apparent, however, to the general public that along the line of inventions also the colored race has made surprising and substantial progress.”
Before offering a list of Black inventors who revolutionized various industries, Baker addressed the “widespread belief among those who ought to know better that the colored man has done absolutely nothing of value in the line of invention.”
Baker took offense at U.S. President Thomas Jefferson’s remark that “No colored man could probably be found who was capable of taking in and comprehending Euclid, and that none had made any contribution to the civilization of the world through his art.” “But even at that time, Jefferson knew something of the superior quality of Benjamin Banneker’s mental equipment, for it is on record that they exchanged letters on that subject,” Baker wrote.
Banneker (1731-1806) was an astronomer, mathematician, surveyor, abolitionist and inventor. He is famous for helping to lay out Washington, D.C., writing an almanac, predicting an eclipse before it occurred and inventing a wooden clock that kept time for 20 years.
“Less than ten years ago, in a hotly contested campaign in the State of Maryland, a popular candidate for Congress remarked, in one of his speeches, that the colored race should be denied the right to vote because ‘none of them had ever evinced sufficient capacity to justify such a privilege,” and that “no one of the race had ever yet reached the dignity of an inventor.’ Yet, at that very moment, there was in the Library of Congress in Washington a book of nearly 500 pages containing a list of nearly 400 patents representing the inventions of colored people,” Baker affirmed.
The author took a Richmond, Virginia newspaper to task for writing that “not a single patent had ever been granted to a colored man.” Baker’s research dispelled the lies told by whites. He found more than 1,200 patents attributed to “colored” people, 800 of which he verified as granted to Blacks.
“From the numerous statements made by various attorneys that they had several colored clients whose names they could not recall, and whose inventions they could not identify on their books, it is practically certain that the nearly 800 verified patents do not represent more than one-half of those granted to colored inventors, and that the credit for these must perhaps forever lie hidden in the unbreakable silence of official records,” Baker explained.
However, the patents Baker documented involved agricultural implements, wood and metal-working machines, land conveyances on road and track, seagoing vessels, chemical compounds, electricity through all its wide range of uses, aeronautics, new designs of house furniture and bric-à-brac, adding machines, surgical instruments, mechanical toys, and amusement devices, among others.
Baker wrote about by Granville T. Woods and his brother Lyates of New York; Elijah McCoy of Detroit; Joseph Hunter Dickinson of New Jersey; by William B. Purvis of Philadelphia; Ferrell and Creamer of New York; Douglass of Ohio; Murray of South Carolina; Matzeliger of Lynn; Beard of Alabama; Richey of the District of Columbia; and a host of others.
Woods and his brother Lyates had at least 60 patents for electrical inventions such as telegraphic and telephonic instruments, electric railways, electrical control systems, and several patents for transmitting telegraphic messages between moving trains. General Electric Company and the American Bell Telephone Company used their inventions. They also held patents for an incubator, a steam-boiler furnace, and a mechanical brake, among others.
Elijah McCoy obtained his first patent in July 1872 and his last patent in July 1912. His lubricating cup continuously oiled locomotive machinery in the West, including the great railway locomotives, the boiler engines of the steamers on the Great Lakes, transatlantic steamships, and in many factory machines. His lubricating cup prevented the stopping of equipment for oiling. His invention was so prized that it was dubbed “the Real McCoy.”
Joseph Hunter Dickinson invented devices for automatically playing the piano. Jan Matzeliger invented the machine that attached the sole of a shoe to the upper part and produced a finished shoe in minutes.
Dr. Charles Drew discovered plasma, which saved people’s lives with significant blood loss; Garrett Morgan invented mechanical traffic signals, and Morgan’s safety hood protected the lives of countless firefighters and others. Louisiana’s own Norbert Rillieux revolutionized sugar processing.
Here are a few others: Improved Ironing Board, Sarah Boone in 1892, Automatic Elevator Doors, Alexander Miles in 1867, Madam C.J. Walker, Hair-Straightening Formula in 1905, George Washington Carver, Peanut Butter/ Experiments in 1914, Marie Van Brittan Brown, Home Security System in 1966.
Blacks also invented computers, calculators, potato chips, ice cream, microphones, super soaker water guns, internet search engines, cell phone towers, the fastest microprocessor and more.
Henry T. Sampson created the first cell phone back in 1971, and computer scientist Mark Dean co-invented the first IBM Color PC monitor and gigahertz chip in the 1980s. Emmitt McHenry made a complex code (.com, .net, .edu, .gov, .net) in 1995, which allowed anyone to search the internet and use email services without being knowledgeable in computer programming.
Gladys West is a mathematician whose work contributed to the development of GPS (Global positioning system). GPS technology is included in online map services like Google. Dr. Marian R. Croak is the inventor of Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP), enabling the internet for voice and multimedia communications. Dr. Shirley Jackson is a physicist whose research and experiments led to the development of the touch-tone telephone, portable fax, caller ID and fiber-optic cable.
Fast forward to 2007 to Patricia Era Bath’s Cataract Extraction Apparatus and Method with Rapid Pulse Phaco Power, and Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, who helped lead the National Institute of Health’s team that developed the COVID-19 vaccine in 2020, and the contributions of Black inventors is undeniable. The genius within our people continues to make life better for people worldwide.
Editor’s Note: Check out the Center for Physics’ African American Inventors Patent List for more information on Black inventors’ inventions that changed the world.
This article originally published in the February 14, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
