help_outline Skip to main content
West Washtenaw
Business Association
HomeBlogsRead Post

Amazing Contributions

Blog Index
Recent Posts
Amazing Contributions
2/1/2020
Amazing Contributions
By James H Lewis II
Posted: 2020-02-01T13:00:00Z
In honor of Black History Month.  I thought to do a blog post talking about all the inventions we owe to the black Americans.  When I was doing this research, I was amazed by all the odd things that someone had to invent and I just never knew who did!



1) Potato Chips Inventor – George Crum Created in August 24, 1853

2) Carbon-filament Light Bulb  Inventor – Lewis Latimer Patented in January, 1881

3) Gas Mask Inventor – Garrett A. Morgan First used in 1916

4) The Traffic Signal Inventor – Garrett A. Morgan Created in 1923

5) Blood Banks Inventor – Dr. Charles Richard Drew Established in 1940

6) Automatic Refrigeration Systems Inventor – Frederick M. Jones Patented on July 12, 1940.

7) Electroacoustic Transducer Electret Microphone Inventor – James E. West Patented in 1962.

8) Closed-circuit Television Security System Inventors – Marie Van Brittan Brown and Albert Brown Patented in 1966

9) Far-Ultraviolet Camera and Spectrograph Inventor – George Carruthers Patented in November 11, 1969

10) Laserphaco Probe and Cataract Surgery Procedures Inventor – Dr. Patricia Bath Completed in 1986


Like Potato Chips, I mean before 1853 they were not even a thing which I find down-right amazing.  I would of thought before then someone would of thought of throwing some taters in deep fat to make chips.  Then there was Carbon filament bulb.  To think Edison didn’t get that one done when he was fist cracking out light bulbs. 

Then there are gas masks which invented during WWI saved how many lives from Mustard Gas and then later in WWII with nerve gas that would of killed who knows how many…

 

Then there is the Traffic Signal.  As much as I hate stopping for them.  I am glad they exist.  Can you imagine still having someone standing in the middle of the road flagging traffic through.  The efficiency that added to our economy is amazing as people became more and more independent and traveled.

 

I don’t think we can even begin to top the WORLD changing impact of the BLOOD BANK.  Asides being a buffet for your local vampire.   It is quintessential surgery and survival.  Did you know at one point it was better to forgo the surgery because the risk of death was greater with it than without.  Clearly blood banks played a role in that (most likely in conjunction with antibiotics)

 

These are just a few of the AMAZING contributions black Americans have added to our history of this country.

 

Now let’s talk about the movers and shakers of today.  The future innovators and inventors.  You see it is out the fertile mind of the entrepreneur that creates the things we will use tomorrow.  I included a link to a good article that gives you the origin story of over 30 black entrepreneurs that are coming up.  I thought it a nice end to my black history month blog post. 

That is the beauty about America, no matter who you are, you can make it here.  This is still like then, the land of opportunity.  Let our fellow black citizens show the way that opportunity is abundant, it is up to us to capitalize on it.

Click here for link to article

IDIC