Black Inventors

Benjamin Banneker

Using a model of a pocket watch he had borrowed from a merchant or traveler, Banneker carved wooden replicas of each piece and used the parts to make a clock that struck hourly.

Benjamin Banneker

Banneker had successfully created the first clock ever built in the United States

He completed the clock in 1753, at the age of 22. The clock continued to work until his death.

Banneker did not receive a patent

J. L. Love

• On November 23, 1897, Love patented the pencil sharpener which called for a user to turn a crank and rotor off thin slices of wood from the pencil until a point was formed

J. L. Love

• Four years earlier, Love created and patented his Plasterer's Hawk. This device, a flat square piece of board made of wood or metal, upon which plaster or mortar was placed and then spread by plasterers or masons. This device was patented on July 9, 1895

Andrew Beard

• On November 27, 1897 Beard received a patent for a device he called the Jenny Coupler. The Jenny Coupler automatically joined cars by simply allowing them to bump into each other, or as Beard described it the "horizontal jaws engage each other to connect the cars." Beard sold the rights to his invention for $50,000.00 and the railroad industry was revolutionized

Andrew Beard

Andrew BeardDuring his lifetime, Beard received a number of other patents, including a steam driven rotary engine, and a double plow.

Double Plow Steam Driven Rotary Engine

Miriam Benjamin

• Ms. Benjamin received a patent for an invention she called a Gong and Signal Chair for Hotels.

• Her chair, as she stated in her patent application would “reduce the expenses of hotels by decreasing the number of waiters and attendants, to add to the convenience and comfort of guests and to obviate the necessity of hand clapping or calling aloud to obtain the services of pages.”

Miriam Benjamin

Ms. Benjamin was the second Black woman to receive a patent.

Henry Blair

• Henry Blair was the second Black inventor issued a patent by the United States Patent Office

• His first invention was a seed planter which enabled farmers to plant more corn utilizing less labor in a smaller period of time. He received a patent for this invention on October 14, 1834

Henry Blair

Henry Blair

• Two years later, in 1836, Blair received a second patent for a cotton planter

• The cotton planter worked by splitting the ground with two shovel-like blades pulled along by a horse, followed by a wheel-driven cylinder which dropped seen into the newly plowed furrow

Sara Boone

• Sara Boone received a patent on April 26, 1892 for a device which would help to neatly iron clothing.

• This device, the predecessor to our modern ironing board was made of a narrow wooden board, with collapsible legs and a padded cover and was specifically designed for the fitted clothing worn during that time period.

Sara Boone