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Inventors

Alfred L. Cralle (September 4, 1866 – May 3, 1920) was an African-American businessman and inventor of the "Ice Cream Mold and Disher". Cralle was born in Kenbridge, Virginia in 1866 just after the end of the American Civil War (1861–1865).

Alfred L. Cralle

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Alice H. Parker- Inventor - The Mother of Modern Heating. (1895 – 1920?) Alice H. Parker was a Black inventor in the early 20th century, best known for patenting a central heating system that uses natural gas.

Alice H. Parker

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Anna M. Mangin was an African-American inventor and women's rights campaigner. She invented a kitchen tool she called a pastry fork in 1891.

Anna M. Mangin

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Benjamin Banneker was a largely self-educated mathematician, astronomer, compiler of almanacs and writer. Banneker was a free black man who owned a farm near Baltimore, Banneker was largely self-educated in astronomy and mathematics.

Benjamin Banneker

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Garrett Morgan was an inventor and businessman from Cleveland who is best known for inventing a device called the Morgan safety hood which is now called a gas mask.

Black Inventors List

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Charles "Chuck" Harrison was an African American industrial engineer, designer who oversaw the 1958 redesign of the View-Master, the 3D viewer that had spent its first couple of decades principally positioned as a device for grown-ups to look at photos of vacation destinations. Harrison’s slicker, svelter, more colorful version—and a bevy of reels based on TV shows and cartoons—pivoted the gadget to the kid audience.

Charles "Chuck" Harrison

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Charles Frederick Page, was a Black man who was born into slavery and taught himself how to read and write. But more impressively according to Local Historian Michael Wynne, Page patented the first airship.

Charles Frederick Page

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Charles S. L. Baker did not invent the steam radiator, he modified the ones being sold at the time in order to find a less expensive way to heat homes and businesses. The radiators that were in use were created by, a Prussian- Franz San Galliborn inventor.

Charles S. L. Baker

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Mr.Frank Calvin Mann, Hidden Genius The Black Engineer Behind Howard Hughes He’s been ignored and cast aside much like new home hunters touring a property covered in wallpaper. Scholars have left him out of the history books and Hollywood couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge his existence either.

Frank Calvin Mann

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On this day in 1949 Frederick Jones invented the air conditioner. Patent No. 2475841. Frederick McKinley Jones (May 17, 1893 – February 21, 1961), was an African-American inventor, entrepreneur, winner of the National Medal of Technology, and inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Frederick Jones

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Henry Edwin Baker Jr. (September 1, 1857 – April 27, 1928) was the third African American to enter the United States Naval Academy. He later served as an assistant patent examiner in the United States Patent Office, where he would chronicle the history of African American inventors.

Henry Edwin Baker Jr.

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Dr. Herbert Smitherman the inventor of the most popular Proctor and Gamble’s Products. Crest Toothpaste, Folgers Coffee, Bounce Fabric Softener and Safeguard Soap were all created by an African-American Man?

Herbert Smitherman

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Whether you're an avid PlayStation fan, a 2000s-era Nintendo Wii kid, or any of the millions of other at-home consoles, you should lend your thanks to one man: Gerald "Jerry" Lawson, the mind behind the first home video gaming system, an eight-way digital joystick, and a pause menu, with interchangeable game cartridges.

Jerry Lawson

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Joseph N. Jackson's early efforts led to the creation precursor of the V-Chip, which is used to block inappropriate content for children. He also created the Programmable Television Controller, and other innovative devices for the television industry.

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The Banjo's Roots, Reconsidered "My father was born with this instrument," Laemouahuma Daniel Jatta says. "This is part of our history." Jatta, 55, is from Gambia, a member of the Jola people. He's holding an akonting: a three-stringed instrument with a long neck and a body made from a calabash gourd with a goat skin stretched over it.

Laemouahuma Daniel Jatta

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Lloyd Noel Ferguson was an African American chemist, inventor, author and educator. Ferguson is the author of seven chemistry textbooks and more than 50 research papers. His research included work on organic chemistry, the relation between structure and function in biochemistry, chemotherapy treatments for cancer, and the chemical basis for the human sense of taste.

Lloyd Noel Ferguson

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Lyda D. Newman was an inventor, as well as a Black women’s rights activist. She applied for and was granted a patent for her modified hairbrush design at age 14, the youngest Black woman to have done so at the time.

Lyda D. Newman

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Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner was the woman who invented the sanitary pad, which was first a sanitary belt, a precursor to the adhesive maxi pads. Jane Crow’s White American racial discrimination prevented its adoption for thirty years.

Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner

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Sarah Marshall Boone (Boon) was an American inventor who on April 26, 1892, obtained United States patent number 473,563] for her improvements to the ironing board. Boone's ironing board was designed to improve the quality of ironing sleeves and the bodies of women's garments.

Sarah Marshall Boone (Boon)

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North Carolina, 1839, An enslaved Black man named Stephen discovered the process which created the “bright leaf” yellow variety of tobacco. Stephen was enslaved on the farm of slaver Abisha Slade near the Virginia border in Caswell County, North Carolina. He worked as a blacksmith on the Slade farm.

Stephen, an enslaved Black man

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Antoine, an enslaved man, successfully created what would become the country’s first commercially viable pecan varietal.

THE ENSLAVED PECAN PIONEER

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Thomas L. Jennings was awarded a patent on March 3, 1821 (US Patent 3306x) for his discovery of a process called dry-scouring which was the forerunner of today's modern dry-cleaning.

Thomas L. Jennings

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Winser E. Alexander received patent number 3,541,333 for his System for Enhancing Fine Detail in Thermal Photographs. His invention provides a device and thermal enhancement method that detects, discriminates, and more effectively displays differences in infrared radiation, thus resulting in increased resolution and an increase in the effective dynamic range of the infrared observation system.

Windser E. Alexander

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