Without doubt, the most visible black invention of the modern era by miles is the traffic lights. Garret A. Morgan, an African-American (born in Kentucky, USA, on 4 March 1877) invented the automatic traffic signalling system in 1923, and later sold the rights to the General Electric Corporation (GEC) for $40,000.
Morgan, the 7th of his parent's 11 children, had only an elementary school education, but he was smart. His working life started as a sewing machine technician. He soon invented a belt fastener for sewing machines. He sold the invention in 1901 for less than $50.
Morgan went on to invent the first gas mask in 1912 and was given a patent for it by the US government. He subsequently set up a company to manufacture the mask. Business was good initially, especially during World War I, but when his customers discovered that he was black, the orders started to dry up. Morgan tried to circumvent the downturn in business by inventing a cream which he used to straighten his hair, in order to pass as an Indian from the Walpole Reservation in Canada. He died in 1963, aged 86.
Another of the great black inventors was Elijah McCoy (he of the real McCoy fame). He was born on 2 May 1843 in Colchester, Ontario, Canada. His parents escaped slavery from America's South and went to live in Canada with their 12 children.
Young Elijah was great on mechanical devices. After schooling in Edinburgh (Scotland), he went back to Canada but could not find a job. He ended up in the US where he got a job as a railway labourer in Detroit, Michigan. He was put in charge of oiling machinery. McCoy was intrigued when the machines ground to a halt because they needed oiling, and started investigating.
This led to his setting up a manufacturing company in 1870 to work on a solution to stop machinery from grinding to a halt. In 1872, he invented the "drip cup" for oiling factory machinery. He followed it up by inventing the "lubricator cup", a new device for steam engines which allowed them to remain in constant use.
When he died in 1929 he had over 50 patents to his name, including an iron table and lawn sprinkler. His device for the steam engines, says the black magazine, Ebony, "paved the way for the industrial revolution of the 20th century".
The popular phrase, "the real McCoy" was coined when other inventors tried to copy McCoy's inventions. But as they tried to sell the replicas, the prospective buyers realising that the replicas were not as good as McCoy's, would often ask: "Is this the real McCoy?"
Back home in Africa, the Ghanaian scientist, Dr Raphael E. Armattoe (1913-1953), who was runner-up for the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1948, found the cure for the water-borne guinea-worm disease with his Abochi drug in the 1940s. He also carried out extensive research into different species of African herbs and roots for medicinal use.
America's black inventors
In America alone, thousands of black inventors and scientists have contributed hugely to national, if not global, life, without being acknowledged or celebrated.
Here is a sample - a small sample - of black inventors in America in the modern era:
In medicine, Charles R. Drew became a pioneer in the development of the blood bank. In 1940, his work with blood plasma and storage opened the way for the development of the blood bank in the US.
In 1935, Dr William Hinton, published the first medical textbook written by an African-American, based on his research into syphilis.
The physicist, Lloyd Quarterman, played a major role in the US scientific team that developed the first nuclear reactor in the 1930s and thus brought the world the atomic age.
Another physicist Robert E. Shurney developed the wire mesh tires for the buggy used in the Apollo 15 moon landing in 1972.
George Washington Carver, an agricultural genius, developed new farming methods that saved the economy of the US South in the 1920s. In 1927 he made vast improvements to the process of making paints and stains. He also researched widely into soil and plant diseases, and developed 325 different products from groundnut - ranging from printing ink, face power, milk substitute, soap, cheese etc.
Jan Ernst Matzeliger (1852-1889) invented the "Lasting Machine" that greatly impacted on the shoemaking industry of the world. He was given a patent for his invention by the US government in March 1883. He later sold the rights to the Consolidated Hand Method Lasting Machine Co. By the time he died in 1889, he had 37 more patents to his name. America honoured him in 1992 by printing a special postage stamp with his portrait embossed on it.
Dr Ernest E. Just (1883-1941): His study into egg fertilisation and cellular research just before World War I was hailed as a first. He gave the world the insight into how the building blocks of the human body - the cells - work.
Granville T. Woods (1856-1910) began his career as an inventor by improving steam boiler furnaces in 1884. He went on to invent a new telephone transmitter that revolutionised the quality and distance that sound could travel. The Bell Telephone Company bought the patent from Woods whose most memorable work was the improvement he brought to the railways. First, he invented the "railway telegraphy system" used to send messages from train to train. He bettered it in 1888 by inventing the "overhead electric system" to power trains. He followed it up by inventing "the third rail" used today to power trains that do not use the overhead electric system.
Richard Spikes developed the automatic gear shift for cars in 1932.
George Carruthers, an astro-physicist of the US space agency, NASA, developed the Far Ultraviolet Camera used on the Apollo 16 mission which gave the world the groundbreaking view of the moon in the 1970s. His combination telescope and camera is still used in shuttle missions.
Fredrick M. Jones invented the automatic refrigeration system for long distance trucks in 1949 and revolutionised the eating habits of America, and by extension the world. "He secured over 60 patents, including a silent movie projector to accommodate talking films and box office equipment that delivers tickets and change," according to Ebony magazine.
James West, an acoustical engineer, jointly invented the foil-electric microphone with Gerhard M. Sessler in the mid-60s. Commercial production of their invention started in 1968. The knock-on effect was a revolution in the telecoms and broadcasting industries.
In 1986, Dr Patricia E. Bath, an ophthalmologist, invented the Laserphoto Probe, a laser device that has had great impact on cataract surgery since then.
Dr Shirley Jackson, another African-American woman of renown, who once chaired the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is a great theoretical physicist.
In 1989 Dr Philip Emeagwali, a Nigerian emigré in the US performed the world's fastest computer computation - a staggering 3.1 billion calculations per second. His feat has since changed the way global warming and weather conditions are predicted, and has also helped solve one of America's 20 Grand Challenges - understanding how oil flows underground.
Dr Daniel Hale Williams became the first in 1893 to perform an operation on the human heart.
Mark Dean, an electrical engineer with IBM, along with his colleague Dennis Moeller, developed the "ISA systems bus", an interface that enables multiple devices, like modem and printer, to be connected to personal computers".
The chemist, Percy L. Julian, "one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century", according to Ebony magazine, led the way to the developments of treatments for Alzheimer's disease and glaucoma when his experiments broke new grounds in 1933. "His research into the synthesis of physostigmine, a drug to treat glaucoma, improved memory in Alzheimer's patients and served as an antidote to nerve gas," according to Ebony.
In 1980, the Ghanaian emigré in the US, Dotsevi Y. Sogah, a chemist, along with his colleagues Owen Webster and William B. Farnham, developed a new method of synthesising polymers and petroleum compounds used in making plastic paints and synthetic fibers.
Benjamin Banniker was the first notable African-American inventor. He made the first clock in America, and dabbled in astrology. Later he became assistant to the Frenchman LaFlan who was planning the city of Washington. When LaFlan left in a huff with all his papers because he was unhappy with the Americans, Banniker remembered the plans, and as Dr John Henrik Clarke puts it so nicely, "Benjamin Banniker is responsible for the designing of the city of Washington, one of the few American cities designed with streets wide enough for 10 cars to pass at the same time."
Lewis Latimer was one of the greatest talents of the 19th century. A draftsman of great repute, this African-American did the drawings for the world's first telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell. Later, Latimer improved upon Thomas Edison's light bulb which, until Latimer came in, had a lifespan of only 20 mintues. Latimer created the carbon filament that vastly increased the lifespan of the incandescent light bulb, and in 1882 invented a machine to manufacture the carbon filaments.
The above is by no means an exhaustive list. There are thousands more black inventors and inventions all over the world that cannot be mentioned in this article. Yet if you asked our Ghanaian secondary school teacher: Who invented the "Hot Comb", the "Wonderful Hair Grower", and the "Ecocharger", he might well say: "Not a black person".
Yet Madam C. J. Walker (1867-1919), America's first woman millionaire, who invented the Hot Comb, the Wonderful Hair Grower, the Vegetable Shampoo and Glossine, was black. Her parents were ex-African slaves.
And the inventor of the Ecocharger, Ron Headley, was black. He moved to England in 1952 from Jamaica at the age of 13.
The Ecocharger is described in the book, Black Scientists and Inventors, as "a cleaner diesel engine emission system [that] improves the performance of diesel cars because it reduces smoke emission, fuel consumption and allows cars to run for 150,000 miles without major maintenance. Ron's innovation succeeds where others fail. It works on the fuel before combustion, so there is no need for a catalytic converter to clean up the exhaust afterwards. This allows us all to breathe cleaner air."
Black Scientists and Inventors (£5.99)
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