Life in America Today is Better Because of Their Inventions!

Hanging up in the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum in Houston, Texas is a large frame poster entitled: “Black Magic: The Magic of Black Inventors and Scientists.” Today’s tidbit comes from that poster.

There are over 130 inventions listed on that poster, including things like:

Safety Hood (Gas Mask) in 1914 by Garrett Morgan, who developed the first human hair straightener. This was standard equipment of soldiers in the field and saved thousand of lives. Morgan also invented the Traffic Signal in 1922.

Norbert Raileux’s inventions revolutionized the world’s sugar industry with his vacuum Pan and Sugar Refiner in 1843 and 1846. Jan Earnest Matzeliger invented the lashing machine which improved shoe making from 50 pair a day to 700 pair a day.

Elijah McCoy had over fifty patents from 1872 to 1898, including an ironing table, lawn sprinkler, and his lubrication system which greatly improved air brakes on trains and other vehicles. People soon invented the saying “It’s the real McCoy,” meaning that whatever it was, it was well made. Another man that made work easier and saved thousands of lives worldwide on trains was Andrew J. Beard, who invented the car coupler and rotary engine for trains.

Granville T. Woods received patents that were bought by GE, Westinghouse, Bell and Thomas Edison. This included the steam boiler furnace, electric railway, electric railway system, automatic air brake, telephone transmitter, and amusement apparatus.

Lewis H. Latimer worked with Alexander Graham Bell and drew the plans for his application for a patent for the telephone. Latimer also received patents on an electric lamp and manufacturing carbons.

Percy Lavon Julian was an organic chemist and invented a drug that reduces the pressure in the eye of people with glaucoma, a substance that put out oil and gas fires (which saved the lives of thousands of American troops during World War II); and produced a drug that relieved the suffers of arthritis.

Lloyd A. Hall discovered an improved way of preserving meat and foods containing fats and oils that are in use today in the meat industry. He also patented a process for curing bacon from six to fifteen days to only hours and over 95 other patents.

Daniel Hale Williams was the first person in medicine to successfully open up the chest and perform open heart surgery, making medical history. His patient, a black man, lived for 50 more years!

Louis Tompkins Wright and his daughter, Dr. Jane Wright, researched chemicals that attack and destroy cancer cells, a process we now call chemotherapy.

A few examples of other inventions by black Americans included:

Lawn mower, boot (improvement), shoe (improvement), letter box (mailbox), folding bed, stair climbing wheelchair, urinalysis machine, disposable syringe, medicine tray, dry cleaning process, home security system with television surveillance, the range gas burner, guitar, golf tee, spark plug, motor, wrench, portable weighing scales, bicycle frame, caps for bottles, envelope seal, pencil sharpener, fire extinguisher, lock coin changer, elevator, pressure cooker, hand stamp, fountain pen, typewriter improvement, clothes wringer, clothes drier, refrigerator, mop, fir escape ladder, sanitary belt, bathroom tissue holder, horseshoe, riding sales, wagon, umbrella stand, liniment, ventilated shoe, apparatus for melting snow, kitchen table, stainless steel pads, egg beater, animal trap, window cleaner, hair brush, printing press steam gage, register, dust pan, bottle, churn, propeller for vessels, razor strapping devise, scaffold, and oh, so many more!

The next time someone poses the question: “And just what have African Americans done to create wealth in America?” give them this article. Or, just have them drop into any African American bookstore, or go online and type in “African American Inventions.”

Next time: A few African American explorers also helped America.

What is October known for? Halloween? The Bilingual Child Month? Church Library Month? Church Safety and Security Month? Domestic Violence Awareness Month? Dyslexia Awareness Month? German American Heritage Month? Global Diversity Awareness Month? National Breast Cancer Awareness Month? National Crime Prevention Month? National Dental Hygiene Month? Polish American Heritage Month? Women’s Small Business Month?

Credit: http://www.brownielocks.com/october.html

You need to check out this web site…it may blow your mind:

http://www.freemaninstitute.com/RTGseminar.htm

And, here are some more:

www.Black101.com

www.BlackChurchMissions.org

www.RosettaStoneReplicas.com

DID YOU KNOW? There is another resource to help you learn more about Black History? Check out: www.yenoba.com

And another? Check out: http://www.blackhistorypages.net/index.php

SPECIAL NOTE:

Leave a legacy for future generations by helping to restore an armory for the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum in 2010. Less than $4 million is needed for the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum to restore the historic Houston Light Guard Armory (1925). Buy a brick for $100 or $500 or $1,000 or $2,500 or $5,000. Have your name added in their “Legacy of Fame” hall. Get your NFL, NBA, or other professional sports relative to invest $1 million or more and thus give back to future generations by having a hall or room named after them. Get your relative in entertainment to donate $1 million or more and thus leave a legacy that will outlive them by having space dedicated to them.

Contact Ed Udell @ 832-216-7786 for your next speaker at your church conferences, youth meetings, community events, or for diversity programs, teaching writing grant writing, and/or teaching others about health/nutrition, and help for senior citizens.

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Life in America Today is Better Because of His Inventions!

Today’s Information On African American History: October 28, 2009

I don’t think it ever occurred to my folks to tell me when I was small about inventions made by African American people. Although I was aware that I was living in “a white man’s world,” I spent most of my time suffering in the “black folk’s world.”

I was part of a black family which worked hard 6 – 7 days a week in labor work, and although my mother spent as much time with me as she could between 2 – 3 jobs, we didn’t talk much about inventions. However, she always encouraged me to believe that I could do anything. Like the time when we were in the cotton fields and I told her that I saw a machine in my mind that could “suck up” cotton, clean it, and put it in a big container. The older folks in the field just roared with laughter. “Boy, don’t you know that our hands are made for pik’ng cotton? Just look at our hands and look at those boles of cotton. Our hands fit neatly inside the boles and just yanks out the cotton! Boy, nothing will ever replace us in these heah cotton fields!”

I will never forget the roaring laughter all over the field. People could not believe that there would ever be a machine to replace them. While people laughed at my preposterous idea, my mom smiled and said, “That’s alright, son. I believe you. Maybe you will build that machine.” Of course I never did. I just couldn’t see me building much of anything.

Years later when I saw these machines in the field called “cotton-picking machines,” I couldn’t believe that they were so similar to the idea in my head. Since I didn’t know of any black people inventing anything, I just couldn’t see me building a machine. That could be the reason my mother spent a lot of her money buying me books. Books never laughed at me. Books fueled my imagination for better. Then, of course, there was the Bible. Wow! Folks in the Bible days could do all kinds of things, but the art work in the Bible didn’t resemble me.

My maternal grandfather went from laborer to labor contractor to handyman to home and church builder. But I still couldn’t see myself doing that. I was too clumsy, slow, stammered, and things got mixed up in my head. We didn’t know about dyslexia or attention deficit disorder or information processing disorder at that time. We all just knew that “Ed is slow.” Of course, students at school called me other names, but that’s another story!

My mother observed my interest in reading and made sure I had access to books, magazines, and newspapers. Then she subscribed to The Chicago Defender Newspaper, The Pittsburg Courier Newspaper, or some other black newspaper. This fueled my interest in reading further. Then she subscribed to some magazines that had a LOT of black people and a LOT of stories about black people. These magazines were called EBONY, JET, and ¬The Crisis magazine of the NAACP. Now, my creative juices were really flowing!

Between my mother and some key teachers at school, I found out about a great inventor named George Washington Carver, a genius of a black man, a friend of the wealthy Henry Ford, and a man that helped Tuskegee University, and even spent time inventing things to help white farmers. This man was born a slave in 1860 in Diamond Grove, Missouri, didn’t go to college until he was 30, and died one year after I was born.

Mr. Carver intrigued me. Some people called him “The Peanut Man.” I loved peanuts and peanut butter. My maternal grandfather raised peanuts. We roasted peanuts. Our whole family enjoyed peanuts. Mr. Carver was my man!

It seemed that my teachers and a few white historians wanted to make sure youth of my day knew about George Washington Carver. I was especially interested in him because as a child he stammered, like me. His first name was my middle name. And then there were those premonitions and his direct talks with the Creator. Once, his slave master wanted to hurt him bad because George Washington Carver had cut off some of the limbs from his precious orchard, without permission, and seemingly without any good reason.

While the slave master was getting ready to beat George, George tried to explain but his teeth, tongue and mouth got in the way and he stammered. Thankfully, the owner’s wife understood stammering and told her husband to stop. George then picked up a limb and explained by showing the disease growing on the limb. The wife was thankful; the slave owner was amazed; George was thankful! Because of this insight by Mr. Washington, the slave owner was able to save his orchard from blight.

George went on to do more experiments and have these talks with the Creator. The slave master sent George to school and encouraged him in his education. His education included Minneapolis High School in Kansas, Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, Iowa Agricultural College (which is now known as Iowa State University), Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now known as Tuskegee University). He was offered a scholarship at Highland University in Kansas, but when the president met him and discovered he was "a Negro," the scholarship offer was rejected!

Being turned down didn't seem to affect Mr. Carver too much. It wasn’t long before he was making headlines at Tuskegee University with the peanut, from which he invented peanut butter. Along came about 400 more inventions, including a way to improve the soil of white farmers who were losing money because they didn’t understand about nutrients needed in the soil and the need to rotate the crops. The rich became richer off Mr. Carver but he didn’t seem to mind.

Some of Mr. Carver’s inventions including ink, facial cream, shampoo, paint, and soap. He also experimented with the sweet potato “and was able to develop more than 115 products from it including flour, starch and synthetic rubber (the United States Army utilized many of his products during World War I.)”

Many African Americans were not too happy with Mr. Carver. They believed he should have sold his inventions and made millions for himself and “his people.” Mr. Carver didn’t seem to be interested in making money; he just wanted to help America any way he could. He was one of many African Americans who would use their mind unselfishly to create wealth for America, and died without knowing that America would soon scale back on their debt to African Americans.

Next time: Mr. Carver made many white people rich, thus creating wealth for America. There were other African American inventors, male and female, who did likewise. We will review a few next time!

What is October known for? Halloween? The Bilingual Child Month? Church Library Month? Church Safety and Security Month? Domestic Violence Awareness Month? Dyslexia Awareness Month? German American Heritage Month? Global Diversity Awareness Month? National Breast Cancer Awareness Month? National Crime Prevention Month? National Dental Hygiene Month? Polish American Heritage Month? Women’s Small Business Month?

Credit: http://www.brownielocks.com/october.html

You need to check out this web site…it may blow your mind:
http://www.freemaninstitute.com/RTGseminar.htm

And, here are some more:
www.Black101.com
www.BlackChurchMissions.org
www.RosettaStoneReplicas.com

DID YOU KNOW? There is another resource to help you learn more about Black History?
Check out: www.yenoba.com

And another? Check out: http://www.blackhistorypages.net/index.php