Inventions by African Americans

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Although small they are all significant as it reinforces that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to make a difference. All of the ideas are so simple in nature that you’ll notice their everyday functionality. Most of the inventions are unaltered to this day. The most noteworthy thing is that every one of these functional ideas were patented by their African American Inventors. Keep this in mind when you start your own business as our folk from way back made sure they owned what they created. Even in the face of outright racism and death they made sure they didn’t let anyone take advantage of them or give them a suckers deal like 10 cents on the dollar.

Lloyd P. Ray of Seattle, Wash., “invented an improvement” in 1882 when he developed the dust pan. That’s right, the lowly dust pan. There had been ways to collect dirt before his invention, but Ray made the front end of the pan heavier and thinner so that dirt could be swept into it more easily. His improvement received Patent No. 587,607. Ray’s dust pan has not been greatly altered since.

Thomas W. Steward’s invention of the mop in 1893 was novel. There had been nothing like it previously. Prior to his mop, people on their knees scrubbed floors with brushes, scrub pads, and rags. Steward felt there must be a better way He put a handle on cotton fibers and forever changed the way people clean floors. Steward’s mop received Patent No. 499,402.

Phillip B. Downing, a native of Boston and son of famed abolitionist George Downing, gave us the letter box in 1891, known today as the mail box. While working at the post office, Downing came up with a box to keep letters from getting wet. Because of its unique design, our mail has been dry ever since.

William Purvis, the son of another abolitionist, entered our lives with the hand stamp, the inked rubber pad that marks “paid” or prints labels. A native of Philadelphia, Purvis wrote in his patent application that “the object of this invention is to construct a perfect self-inking printing stamp for general purpose, but more especially for postal stamps cancellation and dating the envelopes simultaneously.”

The next time you pull out your Mont Blanc, remember Purvis, who also invented the fountain pen. Before he created this writing tool, people had to carry ink with them. Until the advent of the ball-point, the fountain pen was the standard instrument used for writing and signing contracts.

Les S. Burridge and Newman R. Marshall gave the world its most popular business machine ever, the typewriter, in 1885. Its use in business and by journalists, authors, and educators changed the world in which we live. Although the computer/word processor has replaced the typewriter in most applications, the typewriter’s keyboard is still the standard for high-tech instruments.

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