Macdonald-Kelce Library Blog

Black History Month Exhibit - Black Inventors

By Teresa Brown, Circulation Manager and Exhibit Curator

The next time you are driving around and get lost, and your GPS leads you to your destination, you can thank Gladys West.

Ms. West was a mathematician with the U.S. Naval Proving Ground where she invented an accurate model of the Earth, which was then used as the foundation for the creation of the Global Positioning System which is commonly referred to as GPS.

Ms. West is among the hundreds of Black American inventors who have created many of the products we use every day. Yet, few of these men and women are widely known.

At Macdonald-Kelce Library we are celebrating the ingenuity and excellence of these inventors, scientists, and mathematicians and others with a display highlighting their inventions:

• Garrett A. Morgan first created the “safety hood” to help firefighters navigate smokey buildings, later modifying it to carry its own air supply— making it the world’s first effective gas masks. He also had the good sense to add a third light to the traffic signal at a time when traffic signals only indicated “stop” or “go” — an addition that further reduced automobile accidents.
• Though he was born enslaved during the Civil War, George Washington Carver was responsible for creating over 300 products using the peanut, including peanut butter, dyes, plastics, and gasoline.
• After becoming the very first African American and the first woman to graduate with a master's degree from the University of Hawaii, Alice Ball went on to invent the first successful treatment for Hansen’s disease (more commonly known as leprosy) in 1916.
• After graduating from college at the age of 18, Katherine Johnson began working in aeronautics, and following the formation of NASA, she performed the calculations that sent astronauts into orbit and eventually to the moon in 1969.
• In 1987, Mae Jemison became the first African American woman to be admitted into NASA’s astronaut training program, and just over five years later in 1992, she flew into space aboard the Endeavour, becoming the first African American woman in space.
• Did you ever enjoy water gun fights as a kid? Well, Lonnie Johnson is the man that gave us the most famous water gun — the Super Soaker. Lonnie was not a toymaker; he was actually an aerospace engineer for NASA and has more than 40 patents.
• Inventor and engineer Lewis Latimer’s greatest inventions was the carbon filament, a vital component of the light bulb. His inventions did not stop there; working with Alexander Graham Bell, Latimer helped draft the patent for Bell’s design of the telephone. He also designed an improved railroad car bathroom and an early air conditioning unit. So, the next time you are escaping a hot day inside your cool house, give a shout out to Lewis Latimer.