Wave 4: Progressive Era Inventions (1890s to 1920s)
ARCHITECTURAL AND CURATORIAL TECH
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ARCHITECTURAL AND CURATORIAL TECH 〰️
The early 1900s were a watershed of Black inventions that began meeting some level of international press and national self-promotion as “honor for these achievements was paramount for the black psyche since a host of African Americans were skeptical and suspicious of their own people’s achievements” (p.55). In 1884, Senator Blanche Kelso Bruce, chief of Department of Colored Exhibits for New Orleans 1884, wrote a letter to Department of Interior’s Commissioner Marcellus Gardner to ask for artifacts related “colored men” patents (pg. 77). A decade later, On August 10, 1894, an inventor and Congressman George Washington Murray of South Carolina read the names of 92 Black patentees and their inventions into the Congressional record. This list was researched by an ambitious, steadfast patent examiner named Henry E. Baker, an examiner with the U.S. Patents and Trademarks Office. Baker became influential in the dissemination of a new narrative the work of Black patents research.
The American Negro Exhibit in Paris in 1900 was a milestone in breaking the silence and the ignorance in popular perception. In recognition, W.E.B. DuBois wrote an article “The American Negro in Paris” in the American Monthly Review of Reviews. This was the first time the U.S. Patent Office systematically identified African American inventors thanks to Henry Baker who found 357 patented inventions by 1900 (pg. 83). This exhibition was replicated in 1913 for the Emancipation Exposition in Philadelphia. By 1913, Baker identified 1,200 “instances” but could only verify 800 patents by African Americans. The world’s only copy of this book published resides at Howard University’s Moorland-Spignarn Research Center.
Beyond individuals, the systematic promotion of national venues was created solely to promote inventors and now began having “Colored” sections in part to respond to the omissions from “White City” technosolutionism. These included The Franklin Novel Institute of Philadelphia and Agriculture Society Exhibition in Burlington, NJ showcased inventors like George M. Williams in 1885. While World fairs like New Orleans Cotton Centennial (1884), Chicago’s World Fair (1893), Southern Exposition in Atlanta (1895) had Colored Exhibitions, Philadelphia played a leading role in this with the founding of the Colored American Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts and Sciences in 1851 and eventually the 50-year anniversary of liberation - the Emancipation Exposition in 1913.
A few years after the Paris exhibition, the Negro Exhibit in Jamestown in 1907 where the drawings from 341 U.S. patents and around 50 models were exhibited. The Negro building of 1907 was beautifully constructed by the Black contracting firm Bolling and Everett, based in Lynchburg Virginia. It was designed by architect Sidney Pittman. The list of inventions is on a table on page 87, Notably inventors Philip B. Williams of Washington, D.C. patented an electric car switch for a railcar which had a miniature model.
The developer of the first Negro Exhibit in America was Giles B. Jackson, who founded the Negro Development and Exposition Company of the United States of America (NDEC-USA) and who was appointed the Director General. He appealed to Congress for $1.2 million but they only gave $300k. The headquarters of the NDEC-USA is pictured on page 90 and Giles is pictured on page 89. Giles wanted a permanent location for these inventions to be “National Museum for Colored People” but after pitching it to several cities and states and federal, he abandoned it.
Nonetheless, the Negro Exhibit idea traveled to other cities like Negro National Fair in 1908 (Mobile, Alabama), Chicago Jubilee Exposition (1915), and Second National Negro Exposition (1915). The continued campaigns to promote the dignity and respect(ability) of Black people culminated into bold efforts to create traveling forums – fairs and expositions – through in the late 1800s and early 1900s that would do more justice than the segregated “colored” or “Negro” sections of the state fairs. This was a civil rights issue too because many talented people were rightfully afraid of being known for their inventions and existed behind acronyms to give their inventions a chance at being recognized for its value, not boxed out of the economy.
SPORTING AND SONIC TECHNOLOGY
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SPORTING AND SONIC TECHNOLOGY 〰️
Outside of transportation and communications, Notable inventors of this period in areas of leisure also included father and son inventors Joseph Hunter Dickinson and Samuel Dickinson were famous makers of music instruments: patented a reed organ, a phonograph, From Detroit Mi, and began inventing through his job with Clough and Warren Organ Company, then a partnership with his father-in-law in the Dickinson-Gourd Organ Co. for manufacturing parlor and chapel organs. The New Orleans exhibition included their large organ as a symbol of national pride in musical manufacturing. The Centennial Exhibition in 1876 included his large combination organ and received both a diploma and a medal (Pg. 57, as chronicled by G.F. Richings in the book Evidences of Progress among Colored People). Later, Joseph Dickinson went on to pioneer the "Duo Art" roll in the world's largest pianola manufacturer - Aeolia - which built a factory where he helped launch as the Director of Experimental Research in New Jersey.
In Boston, a Black dentist George F. Grant made the modern golf tee in 1899, for which it was patented five months later in December 1899.
BEAUTY & HOSPITALITY TECH
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BEAUTY & HOSPITALITY TECH 〰️
Amid a Progressive Era where Women’s Rights and suffrage became a point of activism, Black women finally secured some semblances of freedom and recognition, albeit limited. The women who did get patents often did so in domains of beauty and domestic work, to ease their burdens. The first patentee Black woman was Judy W. Reed for her dough kneader and roller machine in 1884 of Washington, D.C. Many think it was Sarah E. Goode in Chicago who created the “cabinet-bed” in 1885, which is a similar device as the foldaway beds. Hers would “fold up into “an ordinary office-desk”. Most famously, Madame C.J. Walker (Sarah Breedlove Walker) patented the “Anti-Kink Walker System” and filed for several trademarks between 1913 and 1917. Mary Jane Reynolds patented the Hoisting and Loading Mechanism in 1920.
Following in her footsteps, Marjorie Stewart Joyner of Chicago patented a “permanent wave machine” for both black and white hair in 1928. She applied and received another in 1929. She assigned these patent rates to Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company since it was meant to be used in Walker chain of beauty salons and she was on the board of directors. However, did not receive financial benefit. Beyond that, she created her own beauty association – now called Alpha Chi Pi Omega – in 1945. She became wealthy patron.
An unexpected inventor emerged. Garrett A. Morgan began his invention career by attempting to solve for the sewing needle problem that polishing would prevent overheating. Instead, he discovered the first human hair straightening mixture. He packaged that through founding G.A. Morgan Hair Refining Company in 1913 and began selling it as a cream, which thrived. He made related two related products – a “black hair oil stain for men and a curved-tooth iron comb for women” in 1910. This cultural foundation was just the beginning of his career.
AVIATION, ENGINEERING, & TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES
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AVIATION, ENGINEERING, & TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES 〰️
Railways and the steam engine economy played a larger role in inventions, as major infrastructure and railroad construction was huge in this period of U.S. expansionism. Elijah McCoy – son of slaves from Kentucky who escaped for Canada – was the most prominent symbol of Black innovation. In 1872, he received his first patent after two years of experimentation on what he called “Improvement in Lubricators for Steam Engines” – an understatement because it was the first of its kind that did not require hand oiling. He moved to Ionia Michigan where he received his 1875 patents on “steam-cyclinder lubricators.”
The phrase “the real McCoy” became associated with this lubricant that saved locomotives from part failures from friction and heat. Simultaneously, jealous racists ridiculed his creation as “N*gger Oil Cup”. He was also hired to supervise wherever the cup was installed. Ultimately, he patented 23 methods of inventive oiling methods for steam engines. He also invented many other kinds of devices like a lawn sprinkler. His most prized invention was the “graphite lubricator” in 1915 dubbed “Locomotive Lubricator” that suspended a solid lubricator in free-flowing oil for preventing any obstruction in the chokeplug of superheated engines. Eventually founded the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company in Detroit in 1920 to sell his inventions. McCoy obtained patents all around the world – Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Russia.
Unfortunately, he died relatively poor due to the obstacles in the marketplace despite his 57 inventions, while others made millions from him. The Henry Ford Museum has honored him in Dearborn Michigan, given how central McCoy’s work was to the Henry Ford company’s car. In 1989, an exhibition at Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum dubbed The Real McCoy for African American Invention and Innovation, 1619-1930.
Andrew Jackson Beard was born a slave in Jefferson County Alabama and freed at age 15 and lived near Birmingham. He invented the “Jenny coupler” in 1897 to help automatically join two rail cars rather than dangerously join them manually. He lost a leg to an accident that inspired this. He sold the invention for $50,000 to a firm in New York and died wealthy in 1921.
Later, Monroe Nathan Work of Tuskegee Institute authored the book Negro Yearbook and wrote: “During 1917-1918, Negroes made a larger number of invention. Many of these related to the war.” (pg. 55). He lists:
L.A. Hayden’s airship stabilizer adopted by the British Government
Julius Hart of Columbus Georgia war bombs that War Department paid $15,000
Jacob W.F. Berry of Decatur, Alabama invented “electrically driven submarine”
George Bryan of Asbury Park, NJ invented a device for protecting ships at sea called “an apartment torpedo and mine shield” and “Also claims that in 1914 he invented a street signal ‘Stop and Go’…says…it was put in operation in a different form and claimed by someone else.”
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
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TELECOMMUNICATIONS 〰️
Telecommunications was another major domain of invention and competition, especially as international conflicts arose and required military intelligence. Granville T. Woods was the most emblematic of the electrical wizards, dubbed “Black Edison.” He competed with Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell, even litigating over who invented certain devices first. From Columbus, Ohio but left at 16 for Missouri where he worked as a fireman and engineer in Iron Mountain Railroad. Founded his own factory to pursue his passion for designing equipment in Cincinatti. Received two patents in 1884, one for a steam furnace and the second for a telephone transmitter that sent sound over a distance by means of electric current (pg. 70); This was eight years after Bell invented the telephone in 1876. Woods received another patent in 1885 on an apparatus that used electricity to transmit Morse code or voice messages, a method he called “telegraphony” He sold the rights to American Bell Telephone Company and was rewarded handsomely for it, a rare feat at the time.
Woods and his brother Lyates founded Woods Electric Company in 1887. The same year, on November 15, 1887, patented the “induction telegraph system” which helped deter accidents for trains to communicate about how far another was and which station. He called it “Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph”. The work around the electric railway telegraph systems is what led to some litigation against Thomas Edison and Woods won those battles. In 1888, the American Catholic Tribune promoted Woods as “the greatest person knowledgeable in electricity in the world” (pg. 71) He continued selling his inventions to major corporations – American Engineering Company and General Electric Company of New York.
Woods moved to NYC in 1890 to position himself within the electric engineering marketplace, especially on the electric streetcar. He patented “dynamotors” to prevent fires on streetcars. He patented a grooved wheel, the troller, which is the root word for “trolley car.” Ultimately patented over 60 inventions, 35 of which on electricity and 15 with electric railways. In 1901, Woods patented “third rail” innovation entitled “Electric Railway”; These inventions were often sold to Westinghouse Air Brake Company or General Electric. Despite his sales, Woods died in poverty due to legal battles. He is buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery in Queens, NYC, which recently honored him in 2022. He has been honored with a Public School 335 in Brooklyn named after him as well as a street in New York.
Inventor William Hunter Dammond from New York invented the “track circuit” which was the “only known way then to operate signals on the subway system” and was awarded a patent in 1903 as “Signalling System”. This signal system controlled the lines from Manhattan to D.C. His second patent in 1906 involved improving the system to include messages like railroads: “clear”, “caution,” “danger”. He did not receive proper monetary compensation and he refused to teach rail experts the full workings of his Dammond track circuit; his employers sent him to work in England long enough that his inventions came into the public domain. He died poor at 82 in Manhattan in 1956. He was the first Black graduate of the University of Pittsburgh.