9781422283271

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ike every other group of people, black people have been inventing ways to make life easier, safer, and generally better for a very long time. Just within the last century-and-a-half, black inventors created devices that made it possible for ordinary middle-class people to buy affordable shoes (Jan Matzeliger, who devised an automatic shoe-lasting machine); more efficient to manufacture electric light bulbs

(Lewis Latimer, an associate and some- times rival of Thomas Edison); easier to defend ourselves (Andre Reboucas, who conceived the idea of the underwater torpedo); and more safely feed our fam- ilies (Lloyd Hall, who transformed the food-preservation industry). In more re- cent decades, black inventors have revo- lutionized the computer industry (Mark Dean), helped NASA bring satellite im- ages back from space (Valerie Thomas), and had a hand in the development of Silicon Valley (Roy Clay). The list is end- less: There are very few areas in which black inventors have not made a mark.

The creativity of inventors created this chip, now used in other inventions.

Before the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, however, it was sometimes unusual forAfrican-Amer- ican inventors to get credit for their work. Slaves were total- ly prohibited from filing for a patent, so their unscrupulous owners profited instead, and even free blacks who were

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Black Achievement in Science: Inventors