black inventors and innovators
DESCRIPTION
Introductory slide for 2012 Black Family Technology Awareness Day at RPITRANSCRIPT
Black Inventors and
Innovators
RPI Black Family Technology Day
February 4, 2012
Thomas Fortune, entrepreneur
1791-1859
• Tailor to store owner.
• 1820 patent for “dry scouring” process.
• Used profits for abolition purposes.
• 1831, assistant secretary for the First Annual Convention of the People of Color in Philadelphia.
Representative image
Edward Alexander Bouchet
1852-1918
• 1874 first person of African descent to graduate from
Yale.
• 1876 Bouchet successfully completed his dissertation
on geometrical optics, becoming the first Black person
to earn a Ph.D. from an American university.
• Taught at the Institute for Colored Youth
for 26 years then various educational
institutions and other endeavors.
Lyda Newman
• 1898 patent for
improved hair brush.
• First brush with
synthetic bristles.
• Designed to promote
ventilation and
provide storage for
excess hair or
impurities.
Ellen Eglin, no patent
1849 - ? • Worked as a domestic laborer and invented the
clothes wringer.
• Sold the rights to patent and distribute to a white man for $18, because,
“You know I am black and if it was known that a Negro woman patented the invention white ladies would not buy the wringer, I was afraid to be known because of my color, in having it introduced into the market, that is the only reason.”
Andrew Beard
• Born enslaved
• 1897 patent for Jenny
Coupler to join two
rail cars.
• Sold rights to railroad
company for $50,000.
• Also patented a
steam driven rotary
engine, and a double
plow.
Lewis Latimer, 1848 -1928
• 1874 co patented improved
toilet system for railroad cars.
• 1876 employed by Alexander
Bell to draft necessary
drawings for Bell’s patent
application.
• 1881 patent for the "Process of
Manufacturing Carbons", an
improved method for the
production of carbon filaments
for the light bulb
Dr. Lloyd August Hall
1894-1971 • Chief chemist, director of
research, and technical director of Griffith Laboratories, Inc.
• 1930’s Introduced “flash dried salt crystals”
• Over 54 patents in food preparation and preservation.
• In 1939, he helped found the Institute of Food Technologists, the first professional organization serving chemists involved in food processing and preservation.
Elmer Samuel Imes, physicist
1883-1941
• Published work that opened study of molecular structure through the use of
infra-red spectroscopy.
• Four patents for his work.
• 1929 started Fisk's A.B. program in Physics.
• Married to Harlem Renaissance poet Nella Larsen.
Vivien Thomas,
1910-1985
• Carpenter to
laboratory assistant,
supervisor, instructor
to honorary Doctor of
Laws
• Developed surgical
instruments and
improvements in
surgical procedures at
Johns Hopkins.
Marjorie Joyner, beauty salon
owner 1912 - 1994 • 1916 graduated
cosmetology school and opened a beauty salon.
• 1919 hired as National Supervisor of Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Colleges
• 1928 patented Permanent Waving Machine to curl hair with multiple heated rods.
Alice Parker •1919 new and improved heating furnace
Herbert Smitherman, Sr. Ph.D
• Physical Organic chemist
• First Black person with a Ph.D hired by Proctor and Gamble.
• Patents include Crest toothpaste, Folgers coffee, Bounce, Safeguard and Crush soda.
• After retirement he taught at Wilberforce then started the Western Hills Design Technology School to help Black students perform better in math and science.
Percy L. Julian, chemist
(1899 -1975) • Synthesized physostigmine
which treats glaucoma.
• Used soybean protein to
create a number of
products.
• 1954 used Mexican yams
to synthesize cortisone.
• Had over 130 patents.
• 1961 sale of Julian
Laboratories made him one
of first Black millionaires.
Patricia Bath, Ophthalmologist
• Selected to participate in cancer research as a teenager.
• First Black person to complete residency in ophthalmology.
• Patented “Laserphaco probe” to remove cataracts.
Less than 1% of all mathematicians
are Black. 25% of these are women.
Christine Vonicle Mann Darden,
mechanical engineer
• Former math teacher.
• 1967 Joined National Aeronautics Space
Administration (NASA) Langley Research
Center.
• Works on wing design supersonic flow,
flap designs and sonic boom predictions.
• 3 patents filed between 2002 and 2005.
Phillip Emeagwali
• International Gordon
Bell Prize in computer
science.
• Worked on
supercomputers.
Lonnie Johnson, engineer
• Created the Super soaker water gun
National Inventors Hall of Fame Inductees Year Inducted Name of Inventor No. of Patents
1990 Dr. George Washington Carver 3
1990 Dr. Charles R. Drew 3
1990 Dr. Percy Lavon Julian 105
1997 Mark Edward Dean Over 100
1999 James E. West 40
2001 Elijah McCoy 47
2003 Dr. George Caruthers 1
2004 Lloyd Augustus Hall 54
2005 Garrett Augustus Morgan 3
2006 Andrew J. Beard 11
2006 Lewis H. Latimer 10
2006 Jan E. Matzelinger 6
2007 Granville T. Woods Over 40
2007 Emmett W. Chappelle 15
2007 Frederick McKinley Jones Over 30
2007 Alexander Miles 3
Note there have been no women of
African descent inducted into the
inventor’s hall of fame and many
pioneer men have yet to be
recognized for their contributions.
Valerie Thomas
• Began career at NASA as data analyst.
• Illusion transmitter patented in 1980.
• Designed programs to research Halley's comet and ozone holes.
• She received numerous awards for her service, including the GSFC Award of Merit and the NASA Equal Opportunity Medal.
Mark Edward Dean, electrical
engineer
• Led team to develop
the first gigahertz chip
capable of a billion
calculations per
second.
• Over 200 domestic
and international
patents.
Jelani Aliyu, designer of the 2007
hybrid electric car Chevrolet Volt
Harry Sampson
• First African American to earn a Ph.D.in
Nuclear Engineering in the US.
• Employed as a research chemical
engineer in the area of high energy solid
propellants and case bonding materials for
solid rocket motors for US Navy.
• Co-inventor of gamma electric cell.
Dr. Shirley Jackson, second woman of African descent in the
US to earn a Ph.D. in physics and current President of
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In 2009, President Obama
appointed Dr. Jackson to serve on the President’s Council of
Advisors on Science and Technology.
Filling in the Gaps in American History (FIGAH),
Inc.
For more information on people of African descent who do not
usually appear in text books, contact [email protected] , visit us on
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