PAPER: AFRICANS
CHESS: AFRICANS ALPHABET: AFRICANS MEDICINE: AFRICANS CIVILIZATION: AFRICANS AEROPLANE PROPELLING: JAMES S. ADAMS BISCUIT CUTTER: A.P.ASHBOURNE FOLDING BED: L.C.BAILEY
COIN CHANGER:JAMES A.BAUER
ROTARY ENGINE:ANDREW J. BEARD
CAR COUPLER:ANDREW J. BEARD
LETTER BOX: G.E BECKET
STAINLESS STEEL PADS:AFRED BENJAMIN
CORN PLANTER:HENRY BLAIR
COTTON PLANTER:HENRY BLAIR
IRONING BOARD:SARAH BOONE
PACE MAKER CONTROLS: OTIS BOYKIN
GUIDED-MISSILE:OTIS BOYKIN
TORPEDO DISCHARGER: H.BRADBERRY
STREET SWEEPER: CHARLES BROOKS
DISPOSABLE SYRINGE: PHIL BROOKS
HORSE BRIDLE BIT: L.F. BROWN
HOME SECURITY SYSTEM: MARIE BROWN
HORSESHOE:OSCAR E. BROWN
LAWN MOWER:JOHN A. BURR
TYPEWRITER: BURRIDGE & MARSHMAN
TRAIN ALARM: R.A BUTLER
IMAGE CONVERTER: GEO.CARRUTHERS
FOR RADIATOR DETECTOR: GEO. CARRUTHERS
PEANUT BUTTER: GEO.W. CARVER
PAINTS AND STAINS: GEO.W. CARVER
LOTIONS AND SOAPS: GEO.W. CARVER
PILLOW UTILIZING AIR/WATER: LARRY L. CHRISTIE
TRACK ATHLETE TRAINER: JOHN CLARK
AUTHOMATIC FISHING REEL: GEORGE COOK
ICE CREAM MOLD: A.L CRALLE
HORSE RIDING SADDLE: WM.D.DAVIS
SHOE: W.A DEITZ
ARM FOR RECORD PLAYER: JOSEPH DICKINSON
PLAYER PIANO: JOSEPH DICKINSON
DOOR STOP: O.DORSEY
DOOR KNOB: O.DORSEY
PHOTO PRINT WASH: CLATONIA J. DORTICUS
PHOTO EMBROSSING MACHINE: CLAYTONIA J. DORTICUS
POSTAL LETTER BOX: P.B DOWNING
BLOOD PLASMA: DR. CHARLES DREW
TOILET (COMMODE): T. ELKINS
FURNITURE CASTER: DAVID A. FISHER
GUITAR: ROBERT FLEMMING JR.
IKENGA-GYROPLANE: DAVID GITTENS
IKENGA/MK3-AUTOMOBILE:DAVID GITTENS
SKOOTERBOARD: DAVID GITTENS
GOLF TEE: GEORGE F. GRANT
MOTOR: J. GREGORY
LANTERN: MICHEAL HARVNEY
THERMO HAIR CURLERS:SOLOMON HARPER
SPACE SHUTTLE RETRIEVAL ARM: WM. HARWELL
ICE CREAM: AUGUSTUS JACKSON
GAS BURNER: B.F. JACKSON
KITCHEN TABLE: H.A. JACKSON
PROGRAM'BLE REMOTE CONTROL: JOSEPH N. JACKSON
VIDEO COMMANDER: JOSEPH N. JACKSON
O.F. CABLE W/NON-MET.SHEAT: ARTIS JENKINS
BICYCLE FRAME: ISSAC R. JOHNSON
SANI-PHONE: JERRY JOHNSON
WRENCH: JOHN A. JOHNSON
SUPER SOAKER: LONNIE JOHNSON
EYE PROTECTOR: P.JOHNSON
EGG BEATER: W.JOHNSON
DEFROSTER: FREDERICK M. JONES
AIR CONDITIONING UNIT: FREDERICK M. JONES
TWO-CYCLE GAS ENGINE: FREDERICK M. JONES
INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE: FREDERICK M. JONES
STARTER GENERATOR: FREDERICK M. JONES
REFRIGERATION CONTROLS: FREDERICK M. JONES
BOTTLE CAPS: JONES & LONG
CLOTHES DRESSER: JOHN H. JORDAN
ELECTRIC LAMP: LATIMER & NICHOLS
PRINTING PRESS: W.A. LAVALETTE
LASER FUELS: LESTER LEE
PRESSURE COOKER: MAURICE W. LEE
ENVELOPE SEAL: F.W LESLIE
WINDOW CLEANER: A.L. LEWIS
PENCIL SHARPNER: JOHN L. LOVE
FIRE EXTINGUISHER: TOM J. MARSHALL
LOCK: W.A. MARTIN
SHOE LASTING MACHINE:JAN MATZELIGER
LUBRICATORS: ELIJAH McCOY
ROCKET CATAPULT: HUGH MACDONALD
ELEVATOR: ALEXANDER MILES
GAS MASK: GARRETT MORGAN
TRAFFIC SIGNAL: GARRETT MORGAN
HAIR BRUSH: LYDA NEWMAN
HEATING FURNACE: ALICE H. PARKER
AIR SHIP (BLIMP): J.F.PICKERING
FOLDING CHAIR: PURDY / SADGWAR
HAND STAMP: W.B. PURVIS
FOUNTAIN PEN: W.B. PURVIS
DUST PAN: L.P. RAY
INSECT DESTROYER GUN: A.C. RICHARDSON
BABY BUGGY: W.H.RICHARDSON
SUGAR REFINEMENT: N.RILLIEUX
PRESSING COMB: WALTER SAMMONS
HAIR DRESSING DEVICE: WALTER SAMMONS
CLOTHES DRIER: G.T. SAMPSON
CELLULAR PHONE: HENRY SAMPSON
URINALYSIS MACHINE:DEWEY SANDERSON
HYDRAULIC SHOCK ABSORBER: RALPH SANDERSON
CURTAIN ROD: S.R. SCOTTRON
MULTI-STAGE ROCKET: ADOLF SHAMMS
LAWN SPRINKLER: J.W. SMITH
AUTOMATIC GEAR SHIFT: R.B. SPIKES
REFRIGERATOR: J. STANDARD
MOP: T.W. STEWART
CATTLE ROPING APPARATUS: DARRYL STEWART
STAIRCLIMBING WHEELCHAIR: RUFUS J. WEAVER
POLM.WATER REDUC.PAINT: MORRIS B WILLIAMS
HELICOPTER: PAUL E. WILLIAMS
FIRE ESCAPE LADDER: J.B. WINTERS
TELEPHONE TRANSMITTER: GRANVILLE T. WOODS
ELECTRIC CUT-OFF SWITCH: GRANVILLE T. WOODS
RELAY INSTRUMENT: GRANVILLE T.WOODS
TELEPHONE SYSTEM: GRANVILLE T. WOODS
ELECTRO MECH BRAKE: GRANVILLE T. WOODS
GALVANIC BATTERY: GRANVILLE T. WOODS
ELECTRIC RAILWAY SYSTEM: GRANVILLE T. WOODS
ROLLER COASTER: GRANVILLE T. WOODS
AUTO AIR BRAKE: GRANVILLE T. WOODS
George Washington Carver was born into slavery. By the late 1890s, after overcoming poverty and racial discrimination, he became the director of agricultural teaching and research at Alabama's Tuskegee Institute.
Carver discovered more than 450 products that could be made from the peanut and other cultivated plants. He made it possible for many Southern farmers to diversify their crops, and became known as "the miracle worker" throughout the South.
This photograph, taken by Clifton Johnson, a pioneer of documentary photography, shows Carver (left) with a student in the woodland at Tuskegee.
Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.
Photograph of George Washington Carver (1864-1943), about 1900, by Clifton Johnson (1865-1940), gelatin silver print
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George Washington Carver
Born Circa 1860 - Died January 5, 1943
Cosmetic and Process of Producing the Same; Paint and Stain and Process of Producing the Same
Patent Nos. 1,522,176; 1,541,478
Inducted 1990
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Agricultural chemist George Washington Carver developed crop-rotation methods for conserving nutrients in soil and discovered hundreds of new uses for crops such as the peanut, which created new markets for farmers, especially in the South.
Born of slave parents in Diamond Grove, Missouri, Carver was rescued from Confederate kidnappers as an infant. He began his education in Newton County in southwest Missouri, where he worked as a farm hand and studied in a one-room schoolhouse. He went on to excel at Minneapolis High School in Kansas. Though denied admission to Highland University because of his race, Carver gained acceptance to Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, in 1887.
Intent on a science career, he transferred to Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) in 1891 and gained a B.S. in 1894 and an M.S. in agriculture in 1897. Later that year Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute, convinced Carver to come south and serve as the school's director of agriculture.
At Tuskegee, Carver developed his crop rotation method, which alternated nitrate producing legumes-such as peanuts and peas-with cotton, which depletes soil of its nutrients. Following Carver's lead, southern farmers soon began planting peanuts one year and cotton the next. While many of the peanuts were used to feed livestock, large surpluses quickly developed. Carver then developed 325 different uses for the extra peanuts-from cooking oil to printers ink. When he discovered that the sweet potato and the pecan also enriched depleted soils, Carver found almost 20 uses for these crops, including synthetic rubber and material for paving highways.
Upon his death, Carver contributed his life savings to establish a research institute at Tuskegee. His birthplace was declared a national monument in 1953.
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Other Sites About George Washington Carver:
Great African-American Heros at The Piedmont Area Journal
George Washington Carver's Products from Peanuts.
George Washington Carver National Monument.
Tuskegee University
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THE GARRETT A. MORGAN
TECHNOLOGY AND TRANSPORTATION FUTURES PROGRAM
EDUCATING TOMORROW'S TRANSPORTATION WORKFORCE
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An American Inventor
Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. was an American inventor whose curiosity and innovation led him to develop several commercial products, the successors of which are still in use today. A practical man of humble beginnings, Morgan devoted his life to creating items that made the lives of common people safer and more convenient.
Among his creations was the three-position traffic signal, a traffic management device that greatly improved safety along America's streets and roadways. Morgan's technology was the basis for the modern-day traffic signal and was a significant contribution to development of what we now know as Intelligent Transportation Systems.
The Inventor's Early Life
Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. was born in Paris, Kentucky on March 4, 1877. His parents were former slaves. Morgan spent his early childhood attending school and working with his brothers and sisters on the family farm. He left Kentucky while still a teenager, moving north to Cincinnati, Ohio in search of employment.
An industrious youth, Morgan spent most of his adolescence working as a handyman for a wealthy Cincinnati landowner. Similar to many African Americans of his generation, whose circumstances compelled them to begin working at an early age, Morgan's formal education ended after elementary school. Eager to expand his knowledge, however, the precocious teenager hired a tutor and continued his studies in English grammar while living in Cincinnati.
In 1895, Morgan moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked as a sewing machine repair man for a clothing manufacturer. Experimenting with gadgets and materials to discover better ways of performing his trade became Morgan's passion. News of his proficiency for fixing things traveled fast and led to numerous job opportunities with various manufacturing firms throughout the Cleveland area.
Morgan opened his own sewing equipment and repair shop in 1907. It was the first of several businesses he would start. In 1909, he expanded the enterprise to include a tailoring shop which retained 32 employees. The new company made coats, suits and dresses, all sewn with equipment the budding inventor had made himself.
In 1920 Morgan started the Cleveland Call newspaper. As the years progressed, he became a prosperous and widely respected businessman. His prosperity enabled him to purchase a home and an automobile. Morgan's experiences driving through the streets of Cleveland are what led him to invent the nation's first patented three-position traffic signal.
The Three-Position Traffic Signal
The first American-made automobiles were introduced to U.S. consumers shortly before the turn of the century. Ford Motor Company was founded in 1903 and with it American consumers began to discover the adventures of the open road.
At that time, it was not uncommon for bicycles, animal-powered carts and motor vehicles to share the same thoroughfares with pedestrians. Accidents frequently occurred between the vehicles. After witnessing a collision between an automobile and a horse-drawn carriage, Morgan was convinced that something should be done to improve traffic safety.
While other inventors are reported to have experimented with and even marketed their own three-position traffic signals, Garrett A. Morgan was the first to apply for and acquire a U.S. patent for such a device. The patent was granted on November 20, 1923. Morgan later had the technology patented in Great Britain and Canada as well.
Prior to Morgan's invention, most of the traffic signals in use featured only two positions: Stop and Go. Manually operated, these two-position traffic signals were an improvement over no signal at all, but because they allowed no interval between the Stop and Go commands, collisions at busy intersections were common during the transition moving from one street to the other.
Another problem with the two-position traffic signals was the susceptibility to human error. Operator fatigue invariably resulted in erratic timing of the Stop and Go command changes, which confused both drivers and pedestrians. At night, when traffic officers were off duty, motorists frequently ignored the signals altogether.
The Morgan traffic signal was a T-shaped pole unit that featured three positions: Stop, Go and an all-directional stop position. The third position halted traffic in all directions before it allowed travel to resume on either of the intersection's perpendicular roads. This feature not only made it safer for motorists to pass through intersections, but also allowed pedestrians to cross more safely.
At night, or at other times when traffic was minimal, the Morgan signal could be positioned in a half-mast posture, alerting approaching motorists to proceed through the intersection with caution. The half-mast position had the same signaling effect as the flashing red and yellow lights of today's traffic signals.
Morgan's traffic management technology was used throughout North America until it was replaced by the red, yellow and green-light traffic signals currently used around the world. The inventor eventually sold the rights to his traffic signal to the General Electric Corporation for $40,000. Shortly before his death, in 1963, Morgan was awarded a citation for the traffic signal by the U.S. Government.
Another Significant Contribution to Public Safety
In 1912, Morgan received a patent on a Safety Hood and Smoke Protector. Two years later, a refined model of this early gas mask won a gold medal at the International Exposition of Sanitation and Safety, and another gold medal from the International Association of Fire Chiefs.
On July 25, 1916, Morgan made national news for using his gas mask to rescue several men trapped during an explosion in an underground tunnel beneath Lake Erie. Following the rescue, Morgan's company was bombarded with requests from fire departments around the country that wished to purchase the new life-saving masks. The Morgan gas mask was later refined for use by U.S. soldiers during World War I.
As word spread across North America and England about Morgan's life-saving inventions, such as the gas mask and the traffic signal, demand for these products grew far beyond his home town. He was frequently invited to conventions and public exhibitions around the country to show how his inventions worked.
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The Multiplex Telegraph
Granville T. Woods (1856-1910) is known to many as "The Black Edison," because both were great inventors who came from disadvantaged childhoods. But unlike Edison, Woods was considered fortunate to receive an education to help him on the road to his inventions. In the late nineteenth century few African-American children ever saw the inside of a classroom.
Woods further educated himself by working in railroad machine shops and steel mills, and by reading about electricity. He often had friends check out library books for him, since African-Americans were excluded from many libraries at the time. Woods managed to scrape together enough knowledge of electrical engineering to invent "telegraphony," a process that was later purchased by Alexander Graham Bell's company.
Allowing operators to send and receive messages more quickly than before, telegraphony combined features of both the telephone and telegraph. The Bell Company's purchase of this invention enabled Woods to become a full-time inventor.
Among his later inventions was the multiplex telegraph. A success in the powerful railroad industry of the late nineteenth century, the device not only helped dispatchers locate trains, but also allowed moving trains to communicate by telegraph. This invention was so useful that Woods found himself fighting patent suits filed by none other than Thomas Edison. Woods eventually won, but Edison continued to pursue the telegraph by offering Woods a lucrative partnership in one of Edison's businesses. Woods refused, preferring to be independent.
[Aug. 1996]
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