African American Inventors
Thomas Elkins
In addition to other inventions, Elkins created the modern toilet, and the chamber commode in 1872. It included a mirror, washstand, mirror, and more.
Alexander Miles
Known as “the wealthiest colored man in the Northwest,” Miles created an automatic device to open and close elevator doors. Because of his invention, we are able to enjoy this modern luxury.
Benjamin Bradley
Benjamin was born a slave in 1830 and showed a talent for invention and later devised the first steam engine for a ship.
Showing a great natural talent for invention, his master referred him to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland to take up a position as an assistant in their Science Department. It was here that he developed his own design for a steam engine.
Being a slave he was not able to patent his invention - he did sell the rights to it, however, and bought his own freedom.
George Grant
George was an African America dentist, academic, and inventor. He is famed for being the first Black American professor at Harvard and developing the "Perfectum Golf Tee”.
Lydia Newman
Lydia worked privately in Manhattan as a family hairdresser. While working here, she developed her concept for a new design of hairbrush. Her design greatly improved on conventional through its improved efficiency and hygiene.
Philip Emeagwali
Emeagwali was born in Nigeria in 1954. Although he came of age during a brutal civil war, he earned many advanced degrees including a Ph.D. in scientific computing. In 1989, he created the world’s fastest computer.
Daniel Hale Williams
Williams was born in Pennsylvania in 1856. He would go on to become a physician and surgeon. In 1891, he founded the first integrated hospital, and just two years later, he became the first person to successfully complete open-heart surgery.
Henry Brown
Henry patented his invention for storing and preserving documents and valuables in 1886. Brown’s invention was, later on, improved to evolve into what is known today as a strongbox.
Sarah Goode
Sarah opened a furniture store in Chicago and this is where she conceived of her revolutionary cabinet bed design after hearing complaints from the neighborhood about bed sizes in their crowded homes.
Samuel Scottron
Samuel Scottron was a Black American inventor and entrepreneur. He was a prominent member of Brooklyn’s Black Elite community and is best known as the inventor of the Scottron's Improved Mirror.
Frederick Jones
Jones was a self-taught engineer with a number of important inventions. His most notable invention was a refrigeration machine used to transport blood, food, and medicine during World War II.
Garrett Morgan
Born in Kentucky in 1877, Morgan is the inventor of something many utilize everyday, the traffic signal. He created this after witnessing so many accidents on busy urban intersections. In addition to this, he created the gas mask which grew in popularity when it was used to aid workers after an underground explosion.
Alfred Cralle
Cralle is best known for his invention of the ice cream scoop. He worked various odd jobs and he would devise the idea for his scoop whilst working at a hotel in Pittsburgh where he noticed how much difficulty people were having serving ice cream with spoons and ladles alone.
Betty Harris
Dr. Betty Harris is an American organic analytical chemist, a leading expert in explosives, environmental remediation, and hazardous waste treatment. She was awarded a patent for her TATB spot test, which identifies explosives in a field environment.
Temple Lewis
Lewis was born in 1800. He is most famed for his invention of a revolutionary harpoon that was based on an Eskimo design. He never patented it and so it became freely copied.
Patricia Bath
Bath is a contemporary inventor and ophthalmologist from Harlem, New York. She is the first black female doctor to receive a medical patent. In 1986, she invented the Laserphaco Probe, which has revolutionized the treatment of cataracts.
Sarah Boone
Sarah invented the ironing board. Her invention was made from a narrow wooden board that had collapsible legs with the entire device having a padded cover.
Prior to this invention, the most common solution was a simple plank of wood placed across a pair of chairs.
Martha Deleon
Martha was the second African-American woman to receive and patent for her invention. Her invention was an early precursor of the steam tables that we see at food buffets worldwide today.
James Maceo West
James Maceo West is a prolific American inventor and professor best-known for the invention of an early microphone called the electroacoustic transducer electret microphone (ETEM). He holds over 250 other patents as well.
Valerie Thomas
Valerie Thomas is an accomplished African-American scientist and inventor who patented the illusion transmitter and contributed greatly to NASA research.
Lewis Latimer
Born in 1848 to runaway slaves, Latimer became an inventor and engineer. In addition to his invention of one of the earliest air conditioning units, he assisted in the development of some of the world’s most important inventions, including the light bulb and the telephone.
Otis Boykin invented a control unit for pacemakers, although he would ironically die from a heart attack in 1982.
Boykin would graduate from Fisk College, Tennessee in 1941 and later took up work at in 1945 P.J. Nilsen Research Laboratories to fund further studies at Illinois Institute of Technology. He dropped out two years later and started his own business in 1947.
Ellen Eglin
Little is known about Ellen Eglin except she was born in 1849 and worked as a housekeeper and is the inventor of a mechanical clothes wringer.
Afraid that no-one would buy the invention because of her ethnicity she sold her invention for pennies in 1888.
Benjamin Montgomery
Benjamin was born into slavery in 1837. Later on in his life, he developed a special propeller design especially for dealing with shallow waters.
Joseph Winters was a Black American abolitionist and inventor. He is best known for his patent for a wagon-mounted fire escape ladder.
Joseph developed his ladders after noting the trouble fireman had unloading and raising their ladders from wagons.