5 BLACK INVENTORS WHO MADE LIFE EASIER
- Garrett Morgan
Garrett Morgan came up with several significant inventions, including an improved sewing machine and the gas mask. However, one of Morgan’s most influential inventions was the improved traffic light. Morgan’s was one of the first three-light systems that were invented in the 1920s, resulting in widespread adoption of the traffic lights we take for granted today.
- Alexander Miles
Before automatic doors, people had to manually shut both the shaft and elevator doors before riding. Forgetting to do so led to multiple accidents as people fell down elevator shafts. As the story goes, when the daughter of African American inventor Alexander Miles almost fatally fell down the shaft, he took it upon himself to develop a solution. In 1887 he took out a patent for a mechanism that automatically opens and closes elevator shaft doors and his designs are largely reflected in elevators used today.
- Granville T. Woods
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Woods accumulated nearly 60 patents during his lifetime, many of which improved the functioning of railroads. His most notable are the induction telegraph system, which allowed traveling trains to communicate with one another while also allowing dispatchers to locate them, and the first electricity-powered railway.
- Percy Lavon Julian
American chemist Percy Lavon Julian made various vital contributions to modern medicine as a result of experimenting with soybeans. He synthesized a drug called physostigmine, which is used to treat glaucoma. Julian also discovered how to mass produce cortisone and the steroid progesterone, which was used to produce sex hormones.
- Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner
Though she filed a total of five patents, Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner is thought to be one of the most “forgotten” Black inventors, despite her contributions to society. She patented the sanitary belt in 1957, which was adjustable and had a moisture proof napkin pocket in a time where women were still using cloth pads for their periods. She also created a serving tray that could be attached to a walking frame, a toilet tissue holder, and back washer that could be mounted on the wall of the shower.
