madame walker inventor

Her own words: “I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations. I have built my own factory on my own ground”.

She developed a scalp condition that caused her to lose some of her hair so she made her own product to correct her problem, a scalp conditioning and healing formula, that she began selling. She promoted her products by an exhaustive sales drive throughout the South and Southeast selling door-to-door and giving demonstrations.

She opened a college to train “hair culturists” in Pittsburgh in 1908.  At one point she headed a thriving national corporation that employed well over 3,000 people. The Walker System – a broad offering of cosmetics, licensed agents, schools that all offered opportunities for personal growth and employment for thousands of Black women.

Daniel was apprenticed to a shoemaker in Baltimore but soon ran away to join his mother who had moved to Rockford, IL. He then left to join his sister in Edgerton, WI moving to nearby Janesville where he became fascinated with the local physician, Dr. Henry Palmer.  He apprenticed with Dr. Palmer for two years before entering the now known Northwestern University Medical School.

Daniel graduated in 1883 to open his own medical office in Chicago, IL. There were primitive social and medical conditions existing in this era and Dr. Williams was forced to treat many patients in their own homes.  He was known to perform surgery on kitchen tables but he used the emerging sterilization methods and procedures of the day and quickly became known for his professionalism.

dr daniel hale williams at work

He became a surgeon on staff at South Side Dispensary and a clinical instructor in anatomy at his former college, Northwestern.  He was appointed to the Illinois State Board of Health in 1889 and one year later set about to establish an interracial hospital. The Provident Hospital & Training School Association, a three-story building with 12-beds was founded to serve the community.

Several black nurses and doctors of all races were trained at the school.  In just one year of operating, the Provident Hospital has treated more than 189 patients, 141 of these patients saw a complete recovery with only 22-deaths.  This was significant success for a new hospital because Dr. Williams insisted on the highest standards for procedures and sanitary conditions.

On July 9, 1893 something revolutionary happened at Provident Hospital.  James Cornish, a young black man was stabbed in the chest in a bar fight with a knife. By the time Cornish was transported to Provident, he had lost a considerable amount of blood and had gone into shock.

daniel williams open heart surgery patient

Dr. Williams made the decision to open the man’s chest cavity something that was unheard of in those days because such action often resulted in certain infection and the death of the patient. Dr. Williams repaired the man’s pericardium, the sac surrounding the heart, and sutured it.  He then applied antiseptic procedures before closing his chest.

Fifty-one days later Cornish walked out of Provident Hospital fully recovered and would go on to live for another 50-years but Dr. Williams was too busy to document the procedure which allowed others to lay claim to be the first to perform open heart surgery.

Fortunately for Dr. Williams, local newspapers of the day did help to spread the news and he later received the acclaim he deserved.  He was therefore noted as the first person to perform open heart surgery but more noteworthy; he was the first surgeon to successfully open a chest cavity without the patient dying of infection.  His procedures were later used as standards for internal surgeries.

miles electric elevator patent drawing

Throughout history dating as far back as the 1800s, blacks (African Americans) have been responsible for either inventing or significantly improving upon various inventions without the due recognition.

Several African American kids are growing up thinking that black people are only exceptional in sports and entertainment. It should be also noted that mainstream press can always find time to highlight the short-comings of the few high profile blacks without the same attention afforded to their accomplishments.

Thisinventionisblack seeks to highlight as many of the accomplishments as we can find to educate all kids about African American people and their contributions to our society.

Did you know these black inventions?

On February 5, 1884, W. Johnson patented a spring-like whisk device made of wires and a handle that today is used to help mix ingredients. Johnson’s eggbeater changed the way ingredients are mixed together from the time-consuming hand-mixing that was quite labor-intensive.

On March 17, 1896, C.B. Brooks designed and patented the street sweeper to clean the streets mechanically rather than teams of workers having to pick up the trash by hand or sweep it with hand-held brooms.  As cities grew larger and more trash accumulated on our streets, the street sweeper is now an indispensable tool to keep our environment clean.

On November 23, 1897, J.L. Love developed and patented the pencil sharpener out of complete frustration for having to use his knife to repeatedly shave off thin slices of wood from his pencil in order to make a new point to write his notes and letters.  Love’s pencil sharpener consisted of a crank and roter that was used to shave off the slices of wood until a point was created.

On October 11, 1887, Alexander Miles of Duluth, MN patented an electrical elevator that improved upon the existing elevators that required patrons to manually shutoff the access door to the elevator shafts.  While Alexander Miles did not invent the elevator, his improvement to create an automatic mechanism to close the access door to the elevator shaft resulted in fewer accidents.  Often people would forget to close the access door that leads to the elevator shaft and people would accidentally plunged down the shafts and be seriously injured.

Meredith Gourdine Engineer Inventor

Meredith Gourdine, Ph.D in Engineering attended Cornell University, was born in Newark, NJ and grew up in Brooklyn and Harlem, NY.  He pioneered the research that led to electrogasdynamics that disperses fog and smoke. He is also responsible for developing the technique that removes smoke from buildings – incineraid. His techniques for gas dispersion led to the techniques developed to remove fog from airport runways.

Based on his ideas in electrogasdynamics (EGD) Meredith Gourdine was able to build a multi-million dollar corporation that employed over 150 people.  He developed a generator using the principles of EGD to successfully convert natural gas to electricity.  Other applications of EGD include refrigeration, desalination of sea water and reducing the pollutants in smoke.

At the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Meredith Gourdine won the silver medal for long jump. He died in Houston, TX on November 20, 1998 while still serving as the president of Energy Innovation, Inc.  He held over 40-patents for various inventions.

Emmett W. Chapelle Scientist

Emmett W. Chappelle holds 14 U.S. patents and was recently recognized as one of 100 most distinguished African American scientists and engineers of the 20th century.

Chappelle has a master’s in biochemistry from the University of Washington in Seattle.  He started with NASA in 1966 in support of NASA’s manned space flight initiatives.  He developed techniques to detect bacteria in urine, blood, spinal fluids, drinking water and foods.

In 1977, Chappelle started research on using remote sensing through laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) to determine vegetation health.  Working closely with scientists at Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, he advanced the development of LIF as a means of detecting plant stress.

Professor James E. West

James “Jim” West co-inventor of the electret microphone knows what it is to be challenged and how to overcome those challenges.  He grew up in the south before the Civil Rights Movement but was nevertheless able to go to college and study physics.  His father wanted him to become a doctor but he knew that he would only be happy studying physics and “tinkering”.

As a young boy of just 8-years old, he inadvertently conducted his first scientific experiment.  He conducted 120 volts of electricity through his body when he attempted to plug the cord of a radio he had repaired into an electrical outlet.  Instead of being shocked into fear of electricity, he became more fascinated with it and was determined to learn all he could about it.

Jim West is dyslexic so he memorized his textbooks in an effort to disguise his reading disability from everyone.  People with learning disadvantages often see the world through different glasses and this difference can make them very successful inventors.  The moral of Jim’s story is to embrace your differences and face your challenges head on finding ways to overcome them and make them work in your favor. Today, James E. West is a research professor at John Hopkins University.

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Dr. Patricia Bath at home office, LA

Patricia Bath, M.D., ophthalmologist, inventor of the Laserphaco was born in Harlem, NY in 1942.  She is the daughter of Rupert Bath, an educated, well-traveled merchant seaman and Gladys Bath who was a homemaker and house-cleaner.

Dr. Bath’s parents emphasized education and being supportive, they encouraged their children to believe in their dreams and ideas.  Thus, Patricia Bath developed a love of books, especially science and excelled at school showing an aptitude in biology in high school becoming the editor of the Charles Evans Hughes high school’s science paper. She won numerous science awards and in 1959, she was chosen to participate in a summer program that was offered by the National Science Foundation at Yeshiva University when she was only 16 years old.

It was while working at Yeshiva that she gained notoriety when she derived a mathematical equation for predicting cancer cell growth. In 1960, one of her mentors in the program, Dr. Robert O. Bernard, incorporated her findings into a paper that he presented at an international conference held in Washington, D.C.

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Frederick McKinley Jones Refrigerator Inventions

Frederick McKinley Jones patented more than 60 inventions in his lifetime and may be one of the most prolific Black inventors.  More than 40 of these patents were in the field of refrigeration. Jones is most famous for inventing an automatic, roof-mounted refrigeration system for long distance cartage trucks and railroad cars used to keep perishable cargo fresh.

Jones got the idea after a trucker told him a story of how he lost his entire cargo of chicken because he couldn’t reach his destination before the ice that had been packed with his load melted.

Jones also invented an air-conditioning unit for military field hospitals, a refrigerator for military field kitchens, a self-starting gas engine, a series of devices for movie projectors and box-office equipment that gave tickets and made change. Jones was posthumously awarded the National Medal of Technology in 1991 – the first Black inventor to ever receive such an honor.

Dr Charles Drew inventor blood bank

Dr. Charles Drew was born in 1904 in Washington, D.C.  He was not only an intellectual but also excelled in athletics.  After completing his medical studies, he worked as a college instructor. At Columbia University, he completed his thesis ‘Banked Blood’ and invented the process to store and separate blood plasma for subsequent use.

How many hundreds of thousands of people would have lost their lives without the contributions of African-American inventor Dr. Charles Drew? This physician, researcher and surgeon revolutionized the understanding of blood plasma that resulted in the invention of blood banks.

At the onset of World War II, Dr. Drew was called upon to put his techniques into practice. He emerged as the leading authority on mass transfusion and processing methods, and went on to head the American Red Cross blood bank. When the Armed Forces ordered that only Caucasian blood be given to soldiers, Drew protested and resigned.

Boykin Pacemaker Inventor

Look around the house today and you’ll see a variety of devices that utilize components made by Boykin – including computers, radios and TV sets. Boykin’s inventions are all the more impressive when one considers he was an African American in a time of segregation and the field of electronics was not as well-established as it is today.

He earned 11 patents and invented 28 different electronic devices. Some of his lesser known inventions include a burglar-proof cash register and a chemical air filter – both of which were never produced. His most famous invention was the control device for the pacemaker that uses electrical impulses to maintain a regular heartbeat.