*Whenever people are asked about African American inventors, all they can think about is George Washington Carver.
When Carver was convincing his fellow Southern farmers about his unique crop rotation method, he became utterly fascinated with peanuts. While the farmers obliged, they couldn’t come up with ways to sell all those peanuts. This is when Carver went back to his drawing board and started brainstorming ways to market all those peanuts. Not only did he inspire the creation of peanut butter, he also came up with 300 different ways to consume peanuts!
But most people already know about Carver – let’s dig deeper into African American inventors most people don’t know about.
1.    The Gas Mask
A handyman of the 20th century – Garrett Morgan was already an inventor before he came up with his idea for firefighters that were killed on the job. His first invention was a formula to straighten hair; something he stumbled onto which tying to formulate a fluid to polish his sewing needles.
Not only did Morgan create the Gas Mask, but he also let the world know about it quite dramatically. He used his invention to save trapped workers in a 1916 tunnel explosion!
2.    Protective Mailbox
People used semi-open mailboxes in 1891 – which made it easy for people or the weather to damage important letters. This is when Philip B. Downing came up with a design which featured an inner and outer safety door for the mailbox. This ideation was the precursor to what is being used everywhere nowadays.
3.    Blood Banks
Charles Richard Drew had become very interested in the research of the preservation of blood. This is when he discovered a method of separating plasma and red blood cells to elongate the storage capacity of blood. This innovation caused for people to receive transfusions while saving countless lives in the US Navy and the Army.
4.    Carbon-Filament Light Bulb
More often than not, Edison gets the credit for the light bulb. There were, however, many who were working to perfect this concept before him- including a gentleman named Lewis Latimer. While Latimer was working with Graham Bell to perfect the telephone, he was also exploring the world of light.
Edison was transfixed onto paper filaments for his light bulb – where the paper would burn down in less than 15 minutes. Latimer, however, had come up with a solution – carbon filaments. These not only lasted longer, but their production was much cheaper. People could easily afford to light up their homes because of his innovation.
How many more African American inventors would you think made our everyday lives easier? The answer is – so many that you would lose count!
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