Black Inventors And Innovators

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Black Inventors and Innovators RPI Black Family Technology Day February 4, 2012

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Introductory slide for 2012 Black Family Technology Awareness Day at RPI

Transcript of Black Inventors And Innovators

Page 1: Black Inventors And Innovators

Black Inventors and

Innovators

RPI Black Family Technology Day

February 4, 2012

Page 2: Black Inventors And Innovators

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

Page 3: Black Inventors And Innovators

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.

Page 4: Black Inventors And Innovators
Page 5: Black Inventors And Innovators

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.

Page 6: Black Inventors And Innovators

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.”

Page 7: Black Inventors And Innovators

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.

Page 8: Black Inventors And Innovators

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

Page 9: Black Inventors And Innovators

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.

Page 10: Black Inventors And Innovators

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.

Page 11: Black Inventors And Innovators

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.

Page 12: Black Inventors And Innovators

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.

Page 13: Black Inventors And Innovators

Alice Parker •1919 new and improved heating furnace

Page 14: Black Inventors And Innovators

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.

Page 15: Black Inventors And Innovators

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.

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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.

Page 17: Black Inventors And Innovators

Less than 1% of all mathematicians

are Black. 25% of these are women.

Page 18: Black Inventors And Innovators

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.

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Phillip Emeagwali

• International Gordon

Bell Prize in computer

science.

• Worked on

supercomputers.

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Lonnie Johnson, engineer

• Created the Super soaker water gun

Page 21: Black Inventors And Innovators

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

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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.

Page 23: Black Inventors And Innovators

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.

Page 24: Black Inventors And Innovators

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.

Page 25: Black Inventors And Innovators

Jelani Aliyu, designer of the 2007

hybrid electric car Chevrolet Volt

Page 26: Black Inventors And Innovators

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.

Page 27: Black Inventors And Innovators

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.

Page 28: Black Inventors And Innovators

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

Facebook or call 518.210.6028