Our partners and attorneys are highly qualified and highly experienced to advise you in all areas of Intellectual Property law. We advise start-ups, SMEs, and multinational corporations and ensure that your inventions, brands and designs are expertly protected.
All of the Partners & People of AA Thornton are joining forces with Venner Shipley
Black History Month is celebrated in the UK each October. It provides a chance for everyone to share, celebrate and better understand the achievements of black people both within the UK and around the world. Each year, a different theme is announced to focus attention on a particular issue, and this year’s theme is “Reclaiming Narratives”.
When reviewing the materials provided on the Black History Month website, I noticed that one of the suggested areas of focus for this year’s theme related to a topic of professional interest and relevance to me as a patent attorney, namely:
Innovators and Inventors: Reclaiming Black Contributions to Science and Technology Showcase Black scientists, engineers, and inventors whose groundbreaking work has reclaimed their place in the history of innovation.
Reflecting on this, I realised I did not know of any famous black inventors. Yet, I knew that there must be numerous black people who had contributed inventions and innovations that we all benefit from. Having conducted some research and with the help of Joy James’ excellent book “101 Black Inventors and their Inventions”, I prepared this article intending to celebrate and showcase the achievements of the following people whose varied inventions have had an impact on different areas of our day to day lives including healthcare, beauty, electronics, the home, hospitality and safety.
Charles Richard Drew was a surgeon and medical researcher who investigated problems relating to blood transfusions. When he started working in this area, blood transfusions were effectively only possible with fresh blood, meaning that they could only be used to treat a limited number of patients in a limited number of environments. Charles developed a method and container for separating plasma from blood (see US 2301710A), which could then be dried and stored then rehydrated when needed. This allowed for the creation of blood banks and Charles is known as the “father of blood banking”.
Otis Frank Boykin was granted 26 patents relating to various electronic devices that were used in a wide range of applications but he is best known for inventing a control unit for pacemakers (see US 2972726A). A pacemaker regulates the heartbeats of people with heart problems using electrical impulses. Otis’ mother had sadly died from heart failure when Otis was only one year old so contributing to the creation of the first successful implantable pacemaker helped Otis save the lives of people with similar health conditions to those of his mother.
Bessie Virginia Blount was a physical therapist who invented one of the most commonly used medical devices: the disposable kidney-shaped emesis (or vomit) bowl. The disposable bowl is made from a mix of flour, water and newspaper moulded into a shape that patients and medical professionals can use easily whilst avoiding spills. The benefits of having disposable emesis bowls are that they reduce the risk of cross-contamination associated with reusable metal bowls and save hospital workers’ time. Due to a lack of interest from the US Veterans’ Association, Bessie sold the rights to this invention to a company in Belgium.
Christina Mae Thomas Jenkins was a cosmetologist who revolutionised the hair industry. She was the first to develop a hair weaving method, which allowed extensions to be added onto cornrows to create versatile hairstyles. She named this the “HairWeev” technique and was granted a patent in 1952 (see US 2621663A). She promoted her invention through her salon in Ohio and taught her technique at hair shows in Europe. This technique continues to be used across the globe today.
James Edward Maceo West has contributed to inventions resulting in more than 200 patents including one he developed with Gerhard Wessler for a device still widely used today: the electret microphone (see US 3118022A). This invention enabled the manufacturing of high-performance microphones that were compact, inexpensive and reliable. That led to microphones (according to the invention) being used in a wide range of applications, including telephones, music recording equipment, baby monitors, hearing aids, video recorders and dictaphones. Furthermore, the principles of this invention are still applied to the majority of microphones made today.
Walter Lincoln Hawkins helped ensure the expansion of the telephone network by inventing an improved cable coating. Prior to his invention, telephone cables had been coated with lead-based material or polyethylene. The lead-based material was long lasting but toxic, whilst the polyethylene was non-toxic but became brittle in sunlight, so it was not suited to many applications. Walter in collaboration with Vincent Lanza, invented a polymer composition that is long lasting and non-toxic (see US 2967847A, and it is still used to coat telephone cables today.
Alice Parker lived in a home that relied on a single fireplace to heat her home, which was both ineffective and dangerous (since leaving a fire burning overnight to keep a house warm was a fire hazard). To solve this problem, Alice invented a ducted heating system that used natural gas instead of wood or coal (see US 1325905A). Alice’s invention differed from previous heating systems in that only one centrally located heat source provided heat to multiple linked rooms, which allowed different rooms to be heated to different temperatures. This led to modern central heating systems with thermostats such as those used to heat modern homes and offices.
Alfred Cralle worked a range of jobs including one in a hotel where he noted the difficulty experienced by those serving ice cream to customers. Alfred came up with an ingenious solution: an ice cream scoop with a built-in scraper (see US 576395A). The scraper separates the ice cream to be served from the scoop, which enables one-handed operation. Alfred’s invention resulted in a faster and more hygienic serving of ice cream, and variations of his scoop are still used today.
Thomas Jennings was a tailor whose customers asked for advice on the best way to clean their clothes. Not all fabrics or designs are suited to washing with water and yet all garments may get stained and need cleaning. After experimenting with different solvents, Thomas developed a method that he called “dry scouring”, which forms the basis of dry cleaning methods used today. Sadly Thomas’ patent was destroyed in a fire in 1836 with approximately 10,000 other patents that were being stored by the US Patent and Trade Office in a hotel.
Miriam Elizabeth Benjamin invented a system that allowed guests at hotels to attract the attention of servers without needing to call out loud or make other loud noises. Her gong and signal chair invention provided hotel guests with a call button that when pressed would sound a gong for attention to alert a server that someone needed their assistance and light a small light on the rear of the chair so the server could determine who needed assistance (see US 386289A). A modified version of this system is still used in aeroplanes today.
Garrett Augustus Morgan was inspired to invent a smoke hood after seeing the difficulties firefighters experienced due to smoke inhalation. His smoke hood filtered out smoke and replaced it with fresher air drawn up from a tube hanging near floor level (see US 1090936A). Garrett bravely demonstrated the effectiveness of his invention when, following a gas explosion in a tunnel, he rescued two people from inside the tunnel and recovered the bodies of others whilst wearing his smoke hood.
Alexander Miles noticed that manually operated elevator doors posed a significant risk since those riding the elevator were not prevented from falling down the elevator shaft. Alexander developed a solution to this by inventing elevator doors that opened and closed automatically when an elevator arrived or departed from any floor of a building (see US 371207A). The standard operation of modern elevator doors has not changed since this invention was made over 130 years ago.
Dr Marianne Privett is a Partner and UK Chartered and European Patent Attorney in the Chemistry, Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals patent department of AA Thornton. She leads our internal Diversity & Inclusion committee and is co-lead of IP Ability, a community that focusses on disability inclusion within the IP professions in the UK. Marianne’s efforts in diversity were recognised in WIPR’s inaugural ‘Diversity Champions’ list in 2021.
Marianne and colleagues offer free consultations to inventors who would like advice on how to protect their first invention. If you are an inventor and you would like to learn more about how to protect an invention, you can contact Marianne at mlp@aathornton.com.
With thanks to Ida Iversen for editorial assistance.
Category: Latest Insights | Author: Marianne Privett | Published: | Read more
