New African

APRIL 2000
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BLACK INVENTORS AND SCIENTISTS

COVER STORY

So black people can't invent?
Has a black person ever invented anything? Well, the answer must be no -
that is, if you believe conventional wisdom. But the facts tell a different
story. A black man, in fact, invented the very traffic lights that the world
cannot do without. And more... Baffour Ankomah reports.
A Ghanaian secondary school teacher visiting London recently would not
believe that a black man invented the traffic lights. "What?," he asked in
utter incredulity. "How can a black man invent the traffic lights?"

Well, you can imagine the sort of education this secondary school teacher
has imparted, or is imparting, to his students, not out of malice but sheer
ignorance. Which speaks volumes about the kind of education Africans
receive. All said, this Ghanaian secondary school teacher genuinely believes
that black people "cannot or do not" (his words) invent things, they buy
other people's inventions. Well, there is something here for him.

A new textbook, Black Scientists and Inventors Book One, published in London
recently by BIS Publications dismantles the notion that black people are not
inventors.

Co-authored by Ava Henry and Michael Williams (both directors of the
London-based BIS Enterprises Ltd), the book is designed for use by children
aged 7-16. "It is our hope that parents and teachers will help the children
on this journey of knowledge and discovery," say the authors.

The issue of black inventions, like slavery and reparations, is now top of
the topics in the Black Diaspora. Black people are finding it increasingly
difficult to understand why, even in the Internet era of openness and
liberalism, black inventors and scientists are still denied their due
recognition. And this is despite the fact that there are records showing
that right from ancient times, a number of key inventions that the world now
takes for granted were made by black people.

The old era
Writing about African inventions and discoveries, Count C. Volney, the
renowned French historical researcher, wrote: "A people now forgotten,
discovered, while others were yet barbarians, the elements of the arts and
science. A race of men, now rejected from society for their sable skin and
frizzled hair, founded on the study of the laws of nature those civil and
religious systems which still govern the universe."

To which Dr John Henrik Clarke, the African-American historical researcher
adds: "First, the distortions must be admitted. The hard fact is that most
of what we now call world history is only the history of the first and
second rise of Europe. The Europeans are not yet willing to acknowledge that
the world did not wait in darkness for them to bring the light. The history
of Africa was already old when Europe was born."

Dr Clarke is supported by the German scholar and explorer, Leo Frobenius,
who wrote in his principal work, Und Afrika Sprach, published in 1910: "In
that portion of the globe, the stalwart Anglo-Saxon [Henry Morton] Stanley
gave the name of 'dark' and 'darkest'... [But] before the foreign invasion,
Africans did not dwell in small clusters but in towns with 20,000 or 30,000
inhabitants, whose highways were shaded by avenues of splendid palms,
planted at regular intervals and laid out in an orderly manner."

Frobenius' exposé was even bettered by Thomas Hodgkins, the British
historian, who wrote later:

"When people talk, as they still sometimes do, about Africa South of the
Sahara as a 'continent without history', what they really mean is that
Africa is a continent about whose history we Europeans are still deplorably
ignorant... One must admit, we are all to some extent still victims of a
colonial mentality: we find it hard to realise that Africans possessed their
own indigenous civilisations for many centuries before we Europeans,
beginning with the Portuguese at the end of the 15th century, conceived the
idea of trying to sell them ours."

Most historians now accept that the ancient African empires of Ghana, Mali
and Songhay were highly civilised empires that developed scientific
societies. In his 1864 work, A History of the Intellectual Development of
Europe, J. W. Draper wrote freely about the vastly superior social and
artistic development of the Moors [blacks] who "might well have looked with
supercilious contempt on the dwellings of the rulers of Germany, France and
England, which were scarcely better than stables - chimney-less, windowless
and with a hole in the roof for the smoke to escape like the wigwams of
certain Indians."

Recently the British TV, Channel 4 anchorman, Jon Snow, who made his name as
a journalist in Africa in the 70s, was amazed to find in a library in
Timbuktu (Mali), stacks of books dating back "more than 500 years" (his own
words on camera). "We [meaning Europeans] like to think we brought books to
Africa, but here in my hands is evidence showing the contrary. They gave us
the books", Snow said as he leafed through one of the ancient books.

Records show that the very first university in Europe, Salamanka in Spain,
was founded after the fashion of the University of Sankore in Timbuktu whose
professors were all Africans.

Ancient Egypt
Right from Ancient Egypt, which was essentially a black empire whose great
glory has now been mischievously attributed to Arabians, black people have
led the way in the sciences.

Sir J. G. Wilkinson admitted in his book, The Ancient Egyptians, published
in 1854: "That the [ancient] Egyptians possessed considerable knowledge of
chemistry and the use of metallic oxides, is evident from the nature of the
colours applied to their glass and porcelain; and they were even acquainted
with the influence of acids upon colour, being able, in the process of
dyeing or staining cloth, to bring out certain changes in the hues, by the
same means adopted in our own cotton works."

In his 1907 book, Ancient Egypt the Light of the World, Gerald Massy freely
admitted that Imhotep, the black multi-genius, was the real "father of
medicine", not the Greek physician Hippocrates now commonly regarded as the
father of medicine.

Imhotep was an Ancient Egyptian who lived about 2300 BC. Records show that
both Greece and Rome had their knowledge of medicine from him. He was
worshipped in Rome as the "Prince of Peace in the form of a black man". He
was also the foremost architect of his time, and served as prime minister to
Ancient Egypt's King Zoser. The saying, "Eat, drink and be merry for
tomorrow we die" has now been traced to Imhotep. Hippocrates, the so-called
"father of medicine" lived 2,000 years after Imhotep. Yet, the Hippocratic
Oath taken by doctors in the modern era to observe a code of medical ethics
is derived from that of Hippocrates, not Imhotep.

This denial or mis-attribution of black people's inventions and discoveries
is the reason people like the Ghanaian secondary school teacher can say
black people cannot or do not invent. Yet the inventions of paper,
shoe-making, alcoholic beverages, cosmetics, libraries, architecture, and
many more, were all made by black people long before the rise of Europe.

Arthur Weigall, in his book, Personalities of Antiquity, published in 1928
admits that Akhnaton, the black monarch of Ancient Egypt, was the first
person to preach the belief in one God who was all-powerful, all loving.

"In the early years of his reign," Weigall wrote, "while he was still a boy,
[Akhnaton] promulgated a doctrine which was in its outward aspect a worship
of the invisible and formless Power, named the Aton. It was made apparent to
mankind in the life-giving energy of sunlight, but which, in its inner
meaning, was simply a belief in one God, all-powerful, all-loving, the
tender father of every living creature, by whom all things had their being,
and to whom cruelty, hatred, warfare and the like were utterly abhorrent."

Weigall is supported by J. A. Rogers in his own book, World's Great Men of
Colour. About Akhnaton, Rogers wrote: "Living centuries before King David,
he wrote psalms as beautiful as those of the Judean monarch. Thirteen
hundred years before Christ, Akhnaton preached and lived a gospel of perfect
love, brotherhood and truth. Two thousand years before Mahomet, he taught
the doctrine of the One God. Three thousand years before Darwin, he sensed
the unity that runs through all living things."

At the time Akhnaton was preaching his belief in a one, almighty God, it was
heretic to believe in such a thing. Thus the modern belief in an almighty
God, so beloved by both Christians and Muslims, in truth, is a carry-over of
Akhnaton's work whose origins go much further back than the Judean or
Christian eras.

More black inventions
In the Roman era, a now forgotten black man, Tiro (born circa 103 BC) was
the first to invent shorthand writing. Various historians have recorded Tiro
as having become secretary to the Roman knight, Marcus Tullius Cicero.

In the book, Shorthand (Heffey Collection, New York Public Library), Tiro is
recorded to have "first followed with his own peculiar method of signs, the
words of the human voice with a stroke for every sound. He also published a
collection of his letters, the fragments have been preserved to us [by]
various authors; but it is not so much these that have rendered his name
imperishable in the history of Roman literature, as the invention of the
Roman shorthand writing, the inception of which, as before remarked, we may
date back at most to the year 63 BC."

Cicero loved to dictate his letters to Tiro who wrote them down in
shorthand. Now how many centuries is that, from 63 BC to 1837 AD, when the
Englishman, Sir Isaac Pitman, "invented" his (Pitman) shorthand.

Writing about Mathematics in his book, The Ancient History, Charles Rollin
said:

"Mathematics holds the first place among the sciences, because they alone
are founded upon infallible demonstrations. And this undoubtedly gave them
their name. For Mathesis in Greek signified science. The [ancient] Egyptians
are said to have invented it on account of the inundations of the Nile. For
that river carrying away the landmarks every year, and lessening some
estates to enlarge others, the Egyptians were obliged to measure their
country often, and for that purpose to contrive a method and art, which was
the origin and beginning of geometry. It passed from Egypt to Greece, and
Thales of Miletus is believed to have carried it thither at his return from
his travels."

For the avoidance of doubt, Sir J. G. Wilkinson adds in his book, The
Ancient Egyptians: "I have also known that Herodotus and others ascribe the
origin of geometry to the Egyptians, but the period when it commenced is
uncertain. Anticledes pretends that Meoris was the first to lay down the
elements of that science, which he says was perfected by Pythagoras; but the
latter observation is merely the result of the vanity of the Greeks, which
claimed for their countrymen (as in the case of Thales and other instances)
the credit of enlightening a people on the very subject which they had
visited Egypt for the purpose of studying."

Now where is the Ghanaian secondary school teacher; he would like to know
that the Great Thinker, Esop, who lived in the 6th century BC, was black. J.
A. Rogers records in World's Great Men of Colour:

"According to Planudes the Great, a monk in the 14th century, to whom we are
indebted for Esop's life and fables in its present form, [Esop was]
'flat-nosed, with lips thick and pendulous and a black skin from which he
contracted his name (Esop, being the same with Ethiop)'. The influence of
Esop on Western thought and morals is profound. Plato, Socrates,
Aristophanes, Shakespeare, La Fontaine and other great thinkers found
inspiration in his words of wisdom. Socrates spent his last days putting
[Esop's] fables into verse."

The modern era
Without doubt, the most visible black invention of the modern era by miles
is the traffic lights. Garret A. Morgan, an African-American (born in
Kentucky, USA, on 4 March 1877) invented the automatic traffic signalling
system in 1923, and later sold the rights to the General Electric
Corporation (GEC) for $40,000.
Morgan, the 7th of his parent's 11 children, had only an elementary school
education, but he was smart. His working life started as a sewing machine
technician. He soon invented a belt fastener for sewing machines. He sold
the invention in 1901 for less than $50.

Morgan went on to invent the first gas mask in 1912 and was given a patent
for it by the US government. He subsequently set up a company to manufacture
the mask. Business was good initially, especially during World War I, but
when his customers discovered that he was black, the orders started to dry
up. Morgan tried to circumvent the downturn in business by inventing a cream
which he used to straighten his hair, in order to pass as an Indian from the
Walpole Reservation in Canada. He died in 1963, aged 86.

Another of the great black inventors was Elijah McCoy (he of the real McCoy
fame). He was born on 2 May 1843 in Colchester, Ontario, Canada. His parents
escaped slavery from America's South and went to live in Canada with their
12 children.

Young Elijah was great on mechanical devices. After schooling in Edinburgh
(Scotland), he went back to Canada but could not find a job. He ended up in
the US where he got a job as a railway labourer in Detroit, Michigan. He was
put in charge of oiling machinery. McCoy was intrigued when the machines
ground to a halt because they needed oiling, and started investigating.

This led to his setting up a manufacturing company in 1870 to work on a
solution to stop machinery from grinding to a halt. In 1872, he invented the
"drip cup" for oiling factory machinery. He followed it up by inventing the
"lubricator cup", a new device for steam engines which allowed them to
remain in constant use.

When he died in 1929 he had over 50 patents to his name, including an iron
table and lawn sprinkler. His device for the steam engines, says the black
magazine, Ebony, "paved the way for the industrial revolution of the 20th
century".

The popular phrase, "the real McCoy" was coined when other inventors tried
to copy McCoy's inventions. But as they tried to sell the replicas, the
prospective buyers realising that the replicas were not as good as McCoy's,
would often ask: "Is this the real McCoy?"

Back home in Africa, the Ghanaian scientist, Dr Raphael E. Armattoe
(1913-1953), who was runner-up for the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1948,
found the cure for the water-borne guinea-worm disease with his Abochi drug
in the 1940s. He also carried out extensive research into different species
of African herbs and roots for medicinal use.

America's black inventors
In America alone, thousands of black inventors and scientists have
contributed hugely to national, if not global, life, without being
acknowledged or celebrated.
Here is a sample - a small sample - of black inventors in America in the
modern era:


In medicine, Charles R. Drew became a pioneer in the development of the
blood bank. In 1940, his work with blood plasma and storage opened the way
for the development of the blood bank in the US.

In 1935, Dr William Hinton, published the first medical textbook written by
an African-American, based on his research into syphilis.

The physicist, Lloyd Quarterman, played a major role in the US scientific
team that developed the first nuclear reactor in the 1930s and thus brought
the world the atomic age.

Another physicist Robert E. Shurney developed the wire mesh tires for the
buggy used in the Apollo 15 moon landing in 1972.

George Washington Carver, an agricultural genius, developed new farming
methods that saved the economy of the US South in the 1920s. In 1927 he made
vast improvements to the process of making paints and stains. He also
researched widely into soil and plant diseases, and developed 325 different
products from groundnut - ranging from printing ink, face power, milk
substitute, soap, cheese etc.

Jan Ernst Matzeliger (1852-1889) invented the "Lasting Machine" that greatly
impacted on the shoemaking industry of the world. He was given a patent for
his invention by the US government in March 1883. He later sold the rights
to the Consolidated Hand Method Lasting Machine Co. By the time he died in
1889, he had 37 more patents to his name. America honoured him in 1992 by
printing a special postage stamp with his portrait embossed on it.

Dr Ernest E. Just (1883-1941): His study into egg fertilisation and cellular
research just before World War I was hailed as a first. He gave the world
the insight into how the building blocks of the human body - the cells -
work.

Granville T. Woods (1856-1910) began his career as an inventor by improving
steam boiler furnaces in 1884. He went on to invent a new telephone
transmitter that revolutionised the quality and distance that sound could
travel. The Bell Telephone Company bought the patent from Woods whose most
memorable work was the improvement he brought to the railways. First, he
invented the "railway telegraphy system" used to send messages from train to
train. He bettered it in 1888 by inventing the "overhead electric system" to
power trains. He followed it up by inventing "the third rail" used today to
power trains that do not use the overhead electric system.

Richard Spikes developed the automatic gear shift for cars in 1932.

George Carruthers, an astro-physicist of the US space agency, NASA,
developed the Far Ultraviolet Camera used on the Apollo 16 mission which
gave the world the groundbreaking view of the moon in the 1970s. His
combination telescope and camera is still used in shuttle missions.

Fredrick M. Jones invented the automatic refrigeration system for long
distance trucks in 1949 and revolutionised the eating habits of America, and
by extension the world. "He secured over 60 patents, including a silent
movie projector to accommodate talking films and box office equipment that
delivers tickets and change," according to Ebony magazine.

James West, an acoustical engineer, jointly invented the foil-electric
microphone with Gerhard M. Sessler in the mid-60s. Commercial production of
their invention started in 1968. The knock-on effect was a revolution in the
telecoms and broadcasting industries.

In 1986, Dr Patricia E. Bath, an ophthalmologist, invented the Laserphoto
Probe, a laser device that has had great impact on cataract surgery since
then.

Dr Shirley Jackson, another African-American woman of renown, who once
chaired the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is a great theoretical
physicist.

In 1989 Dr Philip Emeagwali, a Nigerian emigré in the US performed the
world's fastest computer computation - a staggering 3.1 billion calculations
per second. His feat has since changed the way global warming and weather
conditions are predicted, and has also helped solve one of America's 20
Grand Challenges - understanding how oil flows underground.

Dr Daniel Hale Williams became the first in 1893 to perform an operation on
the human heart.

Mark Dean, an electrical engineer with IBM, along with his colleague Dennis
Moeller, developed the "ISA systems bus", an interface that enables multiple
devices, like modem and printer, to be connected to personal computers".

The chemist, Percy L. Julian, "one of the greatest scientists of the 20th
century", according to Ebony magazine, led the way to the developments of
treatments for Alzheimer's disease and glaucoma when his experiments broke
new grounds in 1933. "His research into the synthesis of physostigmine, a
drug to treat glaucoma, improved memory in Alzheimer's patients and served
as an antidote to nerve gas," according to Ebony.

In 1980, the Ghanaian emigré in the US, Dotsevi Y. Sogah, a chemist, along
with his colleagues Owen Webster and William B. Farnham, developed a new
method of synthesising polymers and petroleum compounds used in making
plastic paints and synthetic fibers.

Benjamin Banniker was the first notable African-American inventor. He made
the first clock in America, and dabbled in astrology. Later he became
assistant to the Frenchman LaFlan who was planning the city of Washington.
When LaFlan left in a huff with all his papers because he was unhappy with
the Americans, Banniker remembered the plans, and as Dr John Henrik Clarke
puts it so nicely, "Benjamin Banniker is responsible for the designing of
the city of Washington, one of the few American cities designed with streets
wide enough for 10 cars to pass at the same time."

Lewis Latimer was one of the greatest talents of the 19th century. A
draftsman of great repute, this African-American did the drawings for the
world's first telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell. Later, Latimer
improved upon Thomas Edison's light bulb which, until Latimer came in, had a
lifespan of only 20 mintues. Latimer created the carbon filament that vastly
increased the lifespan of the incandescent light bulb, and in 1882 invented
a machine to manufacture the carbon filaments.


The above is by no means an exhaustive list. There are thousands more black
inventors and inventions all over the world that cannot be mentioned in this
article. Yet if you asked our Ghanaian secondary school teacher: Who
invented the "Hot Comb", the "Wonderful Hair Grower", and the "Ecocharger",
he might well say: "Not a black person".

Yet Madam C. J. Walker (1867-1919), America's first woman millionaire, who
invented the Hot Comb, the Wonderful Hair Grower, the Vegetable Shampoo and
Glossine, was black. Her parents were ex-African slaves.

And the inventor of the Ecocharger, Ron Headley, was black. He moved to
England in 1952 from Jamaica at the age of 13.

The Ecocharger is described in the book, Black Scientists and Inventors, as
"a cleaner diesel engine emission system [that] improves the performance of
diesel cars because it reduces smoke emission, fuel consumption and allows
cars to run for 150,000 miles without major maintenance. Ron's innovation
succeeds where others fail. It works on the fuel before combustion, so there
is no need for a catalytic converter to clean up the exhaust afterwards.
This allows us all to breathe cleaner air."

Black Scientists and Inventors (£5.99)
is published by BIS Publications UK.
Tel (0208) 808 1464 0r 365 9515.
Fax: 0208 808 8545.
Email: [log in to unmask]



Copyright © IC Publications Limited 2000.

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