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Old February 2nd, 2012 #1
Jerry Abbott
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Default BOOK REVIEW: "Great Black Heroes: Five Notable Inventors"

Great Black Heroes: Five Notable Inventors
by Wade Hudson

Quote:
Originally Posted by publisher's description
Follows five inventors: Elijah "the real" McCoy, machinery oiling equipment; Madame C.J. Walker, hair products for black women; Granville Woods, electrical signal system for trains; Garrett Morgan, gas masks and traffic signals; and Jan Matzeliger, shoe last machinery.
Amazon.com: Great Black Heroes: Five Notable Inventors (level 4) (Hello Reader) (9780590480338): Wade Hudson, Ron Garrett: Books Amazon.com: Great Black Heroes: Five Notable Inventors (level 4) (Hello Reader) (9780590480338): Wade Hudson, Ron Garrett: Books

The achievements credited to the five persons in this book are exaggerated. With possibly one exception, their contributions were neither as important nor as foremost in priority as the author makes them seem to be.

Elijah McCoy.

Elijah McCoy probably did nothing more than create a counterfeit copy of an already invented lubricating mechanism. Earlier automatic oil-dispensing devices were invented by John Ramsbottom (1860) and by James Roscoe (1862), both of whom were white Englishmen. A hydrostatic lubricator was invented in 1871, a year before Elijah McCoy introduced his version. Rather than receiving credit for inventing something, McCoy might have violated someone else's patent rights.

Incidentally, the phrase "the real McCoy" wasn't minted as a way of distinguishing Elijah McCoy's machine lubricator from presumed imitators. As I've shown, if there was any imitating going on, then McCoy was the one doing it. Rather, the phrase "real McCoy" appeared in Scottish literature around 1856, which was many years before Elijah McCoy could have been its reference.

Madame C.J. Walker.

Born with the name Sarah Breedlove. Began a hair-care product business. Invented a shampoo that treated a scalp disease that could cause hair loss in women. Acquired a lot of money (for the time) from sales of this and various other nostrums, most of which were probably of about the same quality as could be purchased from many another vendor. Walker's rise to a degree of wealth is probably more the result of her persistence than that of any talent as an "inventor."

Granville Woods.

Granville Woods is falsely credited with an 1887 invention of the train telegraph. But the train telegraph was actually invented, 14 years earlier, by Lucius Phelps in 1873, which was adopted by the New Haven & Hartfort Railroad Company in January 1885 and which was praised in an article published in Scientific American for 21 February 1885. By the time Granville Woods chipped in HIS two cents' worth, Lucius Phelps already held 14 US patents on his own telegraph system. There is no evidence that any commercial railway telegraph based on Granville Woods' patents was ever built.

Granville Woods is also falsely credited with an 1884 invention of the steam engine boiler, which, being a necessary part of steam engines and being without any other significant purpose (excepting, perhaps, large moonshine stills) is exactly as old as the steam engine itself. The steam engine has a history, in the United States, going back to 1790, and from that year until 1873 there were several hundred variations and improvements to steam boilers recognized by the US Patent Office. One of these prior steam boiler patents were awarded in 1867 to George Herman Babcock and Stephen Wilcox.

Garrett Morgan.

Garrett Morgan is falsely credited with inventing the traffic signal light in 1923. However, the first known traffic signal appeared in London 55 years earlier, in 1868, the invention of the Englishman J.P. Knight. The earliest electric traffic lights include Lester Wire's version, which was used in Salt Lake City, Nevada, in 1912. Also: Jame's Hoge's light, which was used in 1914, in Cleveland, Ohio, by the American Traffic Signal Company. The first of our modern, 4-way, red-yellow-green traffic signal lights as invented by retired police officer William Potts and was used in Detroit, Michigan, in 1920.

Garrett Morgan's traffic light not only wasn't the first traffic light, it wasn't even among the first FIFTY patented traffic signals. Nor was it "automatic," as is sometimes falsely claimed. Furthermore, it was the light invented by William Potts, and not that of Garrett Morgan, which evolved into the familiar automatic traffic signal device that is commonly used today.

Garrett Morgan is also falsely credited with a 1914 invention of the gas mask. The fact, however, is that the gas mask was invented by Scottish chemist John Stenhouse in 1954, and it was improved by the physicist John Tyndall in the 1870s. Further improvements, which led to gas masks superior to that created by Garrett Morgan, were already achieved by the time World War 1 began.

Jan Matzeliger.

Jan Matzeliger is another of those "blacks" who had at least as many white ancestors as black ones. His father was a Dutch mechanical engineer who married a native of Dutch Guiana. He moved to Philadelphia in 1873, when he was 21 years old. He does appear to have invented the first machine able to attach soles to the upper parts of shoes, about 1885.

So Jan Matzeliger is the only case, out of the five given in this book, for which it may be said that there isn't a degree of exaggeration that could be considered historical fraud. However, the abilities of Jan Matzeliger most probably stem from the white part of his ancestry, rather than from anyone in his black mother's line.

Last edited by Jerry Abbott; February 2nd, 2012 at 04:25 PM.
 
Old February 2nd, 2012 #2
Steven L. Akins
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The earliest "gas mask" was first invented by the French pysician, Charles de L'Orme, in the 1619 as a means to protect him from contracting the Plague while treating patients:



The mask, which was made of leather, had a long beak, which was stuffed with cotton-wool and aromatic herbs, that served as a filter. It had glass lenses to protect the eyes:











These plague doctor masks were the early forerunners of the modern gas-masks used to protect soldiers from exposure to poisonous gases in warfare:







In the movie Restoration, the actor Robert Downey Jr., can be seen preparing one of these Plague Doctor masks at 2:45 and wearing it at 3:40 in the clip below:


Last edited by Steven L. Akins; February 2nd, 2012 at 04:51 PM.
 
Old February 2nd, 2012 #3
MikeTodd
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A truly believe that a nigger really did invent the traffic light just so the other niggers would have something to cross against.
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