As Black History Month reaches its halfway point, we felt it best to introduce (or familiarize) you with several African-American inventors who created products we still use today.
Benjamin Banneker
Invented: The wooden clock.
Without Banneker, there would be no tick-tock, Big Ben or no reason to logical go cuckoo.
Gerald A. Lawson
Invented: The first cartridge video game console
In 1976, Lawson released the Fairchild Channel F video game console, which in turn, lead him to create software for the Atari 2600. The rest, they say, is history.
James E. West
Invented: The M-I-C
Great and struggle musicians alike owe West’s Electroacoustic Transducer Electret Microphone a great deal of gratitude.
Granville T. Woods
Invented: The multiplex telegraph,
The Columbus, OH native’s improvements to the telephone still hold up to this day. He is known as the “Black [Thomas] Edison.”
George Crum
Invented: The potato chip.
A perfectly good potato has endless possibilities but they still have to be tapped. In 1832, Crum developed the recipe.
Photo: Steve Searle/WENN.com
Thomas Jennings
Invented: Dry cleaning.
On March 3, 1821, Jennings became the first African-American to get a patent. It was for dry cleaning but he used the money to free his family from slavery.
George Washington Carver
Invented: The peanut…as we’ve come to know it.
Jimmy Carter gets the credit for being the “peanut president” but Carver’s botany enhancement’s to the nut as well as sweet potatoes and soybeans, are a thing of legend.
Photo: Peter Maclaine/WENN.com
Charles Brooks
Invented: The street sweeper.
Everyone likes clean streets, so thank Brooks for that. We just need for someone to develop a patent to make them quieter.
Photo: Wikipedia Commons
Lewis Latimer
Invented: Carbon filaments for lightbulbs and patent for the telephone.
By worked closely with Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell, Latimer obtained the patent for the aforementioned lightbulb improvement as well as being instrumental in developing the telephones.
Photo: BBC
Philip Emeagwali
Invented: Internet pioneer.
In 1989, Emeagwali created the world’s fastest computer. He also received the Gordon Bell Prize that same year.
Garrett Morgan
Invented: The gas mask.
Once created for the betterment of the fireman’s job, the design would go on to become the full-proof gas mask.
Photo: WENN
Charles Drew
Invented: Blood banks.
Thanks to his in-depth knowledge of blood transfusions, Dr. Drew was able to create large-scale blood banks in World War II that saved thousands of lives of the Allied Forces.
Lonnie Johnson
Invented: The Super Soaker.
Before Johnson’s 1989 creation, the water gun wasn’t being done a great deal of service. All it took was a little science.
Photo: WENN
Philip B. Downing
Invented: The mailbox.
Tampering with the mail is a federal offense. Thanks to Downing’s invention, it’s even more secure.
David Crosthwait, Jr.
Invented: Central air.
If you think X-Men’s Storm is a master of the elements, just know that Crosthwait had 119 patents all for the improvement of air and heating systems.
George E. Alcorn
Invented: X-ray spectroscopy
Due to Alcorn’s studies, scientists have a better understanding on the density of the materials they’re examining in x-rays.
Madam C. J. Walker
Invented: Beauty products worth their weight in chemicals.
The first self-made woman millionaire in the United States helped shape up the cosmetology game to be a lucrative and viable resource of the modern-day female.
Walter Sammons
Invented: The hot comb.
Like Walker’s contributions to the beauty world, Sammons’ invention is still very valued to this day.
Photo: WENN
Alfred L. Cralle
Invented: The ice cream scoop.
If Cralle didn’t come along, just think about the zillions of bent spoons the world would have lying around since 1897.
Kenneth J. Dunkley
Invented: 3-D glasses.
Hollywood should throw Dunkley millions every time a new movie comes out, just for the fact they can now charge extra bucks for the 3-D movie tickets.
Patricia Bath
Invented: Laserphaco Probe.
Bath’s invention is the go-to device for treating cataracts these days. She’s also the first African-American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical purpose and have a resident in ophthalmology at New York University.
Marie Van Brittan Brown
Invented: The home security system.
Burglar alarms are a necessity these days and you can salute a Black woman born in 1920s Queens, NY for that.
Frederick M. Jones
Invented: Portable refrigeration units.
People use think the world was flat and refrigerators only belonged in the kitchen. Jones changed that in 1940.
Photo: Wikipedia Commons
Miriam Benjamin
Invented: Gong and Signal Chair for Hotels
Created in 1988, Benjamin developed a way for hotels to be uniform and cost-effective with her ingenious design.
Otis Boykin
Invented: A control unit for the artificial heart pacemaker.
Photo: Wikipedia Commons
Sarah E. Goode
Invented: The cabinet bed.
**Bonus**
In 1885, Goode became the first African-American woman to receive a patent in the United States for the cabinet bed.
