Celebrating Black History Month: Sarah Boone, African American inventor of the ironing board

Sarah Boone, born in 1832 in Craven County, North Carolina, was a slave, forbidden a formal education, so was home schooled by her grandfather.  In November 1847, she married a free black man, James Boone, and was granted her own freedom.

She moved with her family to New Haven, Connecticut before the Civil War.  She worked as a dressmaker during a time where people ironed their clothes by placing a wooden plank across two chairs. Boone created a narrower, curved board that could slip into sleeves and allow a garment to be shifted without getting wrinkled.  Her invention was padded to prevent impressions from the wooden board, and she made it collapsible for easier storage.

She was awarded US Patent No. 473,653 on April 26, 1892, making her one of the first African American women to earn a US patent.

Boone passed away from Bright's disease in October 1904, 

Celebrating Black History Month: Granville T. Woods, inventor

Granville T. Woods, born April 23, 1856 in Columbus, Ohio, was an African American inventor who held over 50 US patents.  He had to leave school at age 10 to work to help support his poor family.  He worked in a machine shop, where he learned machining and blacksmithing.  

In 1872, he worked as a fireman for the Danville and Southern Railroad in Missouri. In 1874, he moved to Springfield, Illinois where he worked at a rolling mill.  He studied mechanical and electrical engineering in college but there is no evidence he received a college degree.

Among his inventions are a egg incubator, an automatic brake, a steam boiler furnace, and a patented Synchronous Multiplex Railway telegraphs, which allowed communications between train stations from moving trains.  

Thomas Edison filed a claim to ownership of this invention, saying he had created it first.  He took Woods to court twice, but Woods prevailed both time. Woods spent a lot of time defending his inventions from others who claimed they were the ones who invented them.

Woods died of a cerebral hemorrhage in New York City, January 30, 1910.  In 2006, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Celebrating Black History Month: Thomas Elkins, African-American inventor

Thomas Elkins, born in 1818, was a dentist, surgeon, pharmacist and inventor.  He received an education in pharmacy and ran a small drugstore until economic difficulties forced him to close.  He focused on dentistry and minor surgery.  He studied dentistry under Dr. Charles Payne, and surgery under Dr. Marsh.  

He participated in the Underground Railroad, helping slaves escape to Canada.  The house where he and his wife operated the "best-run" Underground Railroad station in New York is now owned by the Underground Railroad History Project of the Capital Region, Inc.

During the Civil War, Governor John Andrew of Massachusetts appointed him to be the medical examiner in the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Infantries. He improved the refrigerating apparatus, which prevented the decay of human corpses and food.  

He patented an chamber-commode, a predecessor to the toilet.  

Elkins died in August 1900.

Celebrating Black History Month: Frederick McKinley Jones, first African-American to receive the National Medal of Technology

Frederick McKinley Jones, born May 17, 1893 in Cincinnati, Ohio was an African-American inventor who was awarded 61 patents over his lifetime.  After serving in the US Army during WWI, he went back to Hallock, Minnesota where he had lived prior to the war.  He built a transmitter for the new radio station in town.  He invented a device to combine sound with motion pictures, since the local theater could not afford the speaker system for "talkies". 

About 1938, Jones designed a cooling system that made it possible to transport food over long distances without spoiling.  These portable cooling units were used during WWII to preserve blood, medicine and food which were so important to army hospitals.  His inventions helped save thousands of lives.

He passed away in Minneapolis in 1961.  In 1977, he was inducted into the Minnesota Inventors Hall of Fame.  In 1991, then President George Bush awarded the National Medal of Technology to Joseph Numero, who hired Jones in 1930, and Fred Jones, making Jones the first African-American to win the award.

Celebrating Black History Month: Garrett Morgan, African-American inventor of the gas mask

Garrett Morgan, born March 4, 1877 in Claysville, Kentucky, was an African-American inventor who invented the smoke hood, the predecessor to the gas mask.  He noticed firefighters struggling against smoke while they battled fires, which led to his invention of the smoke hood.  Not a success at first, Morgan got the chance to demonstrate his invention in a real-life situation.  

In July 1916, an explosion in a tunnel under Lake Erie left many workers trapped.  Two attempts were made to rescue the men, but the rescuers were overcome by smoke and fumes.  Morgan  arrived on the scene with his brother Frank.  Garrett made four trips helping retrieve survivors and the bodies of those who perished.

By WWI, his smoke hood was refined to carry its own air supply, making it a gas mask.

Morgan also developed hair products for straightening hair and a three-position traffic signal.  He passed away in July 1963.

Celebrating Black History Month: Otis Boykin, African-American inventor of the resistor

Otis Boykin, born August 29, 1920 in Dallas, Texas, invented the electrical resistor, a small, unassuming piece of equipment that revolutionized electronics.  His invention vastly improved the pacemaker, which uses electrical impulses to maintain a regular heartbeat.  His mother passed away when he was one year old, and that is probably the impetus for his life's work.  

He passed away in March 1982 in Chicago, Illinois.

Celebrating Black History Month: Lonnie Johnson, super genius inventor of the Super Soaker

Lonnie Johnson, born October 6, 1949 in Mobile, Alabama, is a NASA scientist and entrepreneur.  Although he owns a number of patents for his work developing a nuclear power source for the Galileo probe to Jupiter, and the stealth bomber program, he is more famous for inventing the Super Soaker.  The Super Soaker first appeared in 1990 and in November 2013, after months of litigation, he was awarded almost $73M from Hasbro.

Celebrating Black History Month: Henry Blair, African-American inventor

Henry Blair, born in 1807 in Glenn Ross, Maryland, was the second African-American to receive a US patent.  He first invented the Seed-Planter, for which he received a patent in October 1834.  Two years later, he was granted a second patent for a cotton planter.

He passed away in 1860.  

Celebrating Black History Month: Lewis Latimer, African-American inventor

Lewis Howard Latimer, born September 4, 1848 in Chelsea Massachusetts, was an African-American inventor.  On February 10, 1874, he was granted a patent with Charles Brown for an improved toilet system for railroad cars called the Water Closet for Railroad Cars.  (U.S. Patent 147,363).

In 1879, Latimer went on to draft drawings necessary for Alexander Graham Bell's telephone. In 1881, he invented a light bulb with a carbon filament to improve Thomas Edison's original work.  Latimer received a patent in 1882 for the process of manufacturing carbons.  He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his work on electric filament manufacturing techniques.