Dear Readers,
These are just a few of the little know facts of Black History.
Frederick Jones (1892 - 1961)held over 60 patents with most of them pertaining to refrigeration. His portable air conditioner was used in World War II to preserve medicine and blood serum.
Thomas J. Martin patented a fire extinguisher in 1872.
Joseph Winters invented a fire escape ladder in 1878.
Lonnie G. Johnson (1949 - ), an engineer who performed spacecraft system design for NASA, invented the Super Soaker water gun - the number one selling toy in America in 1991.
John Love invented the pencil sharpener in 1897.
Henry Brown created what is now known as a "strongbox", a metal container to store money and important papers that could be locked with a key in 1886.
Joseph Lee (1849 - 1905) invented a bread-making machine that mixed the ingredients and kneaded the dough in 1895.
Henry Blair (1807 - 1860), the second African-American to receive a patent, invented a corn seed planter in 1834 and a cotton planter in 1836. Blair could not read or write and signed his patent with an X.
Source: http://www.biography.com/blackhistory/101-facts-inventions.jsp
