AFRICAN-AMERICAN INVENTORS
Granville T. Woods was known as "the black Thomas Edison" for his many inventions. Example: his 1889 automatic cutoff switch, an ancestor of the circuit breaker. In honor of Black History Month, the website of home improvement retailer Lowe’s paid tribute to Woods and other African Americans who invented or helped develop items found in its stores. Some of them, with the year of patent:
Lewis Howard Latimer: carbon filament for light bulbs 1881
Sarah Boone: curved ironing board for sleeves 1892
T. J. Marshall: fire extinguisher, 1872
George T. Sampson: clothes dryer 1892
John
...