It is with great honour that I present to you some of history’s greatest innovators. You will probably never learn about them in school, but it’s up to you to also take responsible for your own education. Here is a taster of what you can learn for yourself…

 

Lewis Latimer, Inventor of the Improved Light Bulb

In 1880, Latimer was hired as the assistant manager and draftsman for U.S. Electric Lighting Company owned by Hiram Maxim. Maxim was the chief rival to Thomas Edison, inventor of the electric light bulb. Maxim greatly desired to improve on Edison’s light bulb and focused on its main weakness – their short life span. Latimer set out to make a longer lasting bulb, devising a way of encasing the filament within a cardboard envelope, which prevented the carbon from breaking and thereby provided a much longer life to the bulb, making them less expensive and more efficient. This enabled electric lighting to be installed within homes and throughout streets.Latimer’s abilities in electric lighting became well known and soon he was sought after to continue to improve on incandescent lighting as well as arc lighting. He helped to install the first electric plants in Philadelphia, New York City and Montreal and oversaw the installation of lighting in railroad stations, government building and major thoroughfares in Canada, New England and London.

Dr. Patricia Bath, Inventor of a Laser Surgical Device

Patricia’s father Rupert was the first Black motorman for the New York City subway system, so a ‘can do’ attitude had been instilled with her from an early age. In 1964, Bath graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hunter College in New York. She then enrolled in medical school at Howard University in Washington, DC. While in medical school, she took part in a summer program focused on paediatrics research. The program, allowed her to travel abroad for the first time and gain experience internationally, and in 1968 she graduated with honors from Howards. In 1968, Patricia returned to New York interning at Harlem Hospital and accepted a fellowship in ophthalmology at Columbia University a year later. In the Harlem Eye Clinic Bath noticed that many of the patients suffered blindness while few at the Columbia Eye Clinic did. After further research she concluded in a well-received report that Blacks were twice as likely to suffer from blindness as the general population, and Blacks were eight times more likely to suffer blindness as a result of glaucoma than whites. Bath believed that the main explanation for this disparity was the lack of access to ophthalmic care for Blacks and other poor people, which led her to promoting the concept of Community Ophthalmology through outreach programs including sending volunteers out into the community to provide vision, cataracts and glaucoma screening. Whilst living in Los Angeles, Bath received her first patent, becoming the first African American female doctor to patent a medical invention, which removed cataract lenses transforming eye surgery by using a laser device, making the procedure more accurate.

William Purvis, Inventor of the Fountain Pen 
On January 7, 1890, Purvis received a patent for the fountain pen. The pen eliminated the need for an inkbottle by storing ink within a reservoir. Purvis said, “the object of my invention is to provide a simple, durable, and inexpensive construction of a fountain pen adapted to general use and which may be carried in the pocket.” As a result his creation has made office work cleaner and less expensive for businesses all over the world. In addition to his fountain pen, Purvis successfully patented a number of other inventions between 1884 and 1897 including bag machines, a bag fastener, a hand stamp, an electric railway device, an electric railway switch a magnetic car balancing device and the edge cutter found on aluminium foil, cling wrap and wax paper boxes.

Otis Boykin, Inventor of Resistors for Pacemakers

Boykin sought and received a patent for a wire precision resistor on June 16, 1959. This resistor allowed a specific amount of current to flow through for a specific purpose and would be used in radios and televisions. Two years later, he created another resistor which could withstand extreme changes in temperature and withstand various levels of pressure and physical trauma without impairing its effectiveness. He received orders from consumer electronics manufacturers, the United States military and electronics behemoth IBM. Boykin also created other important products including a chemical air filter and a burglarproof cash register. His most famous invention was a control unit for the pacemaker, which used electrical impulses to stimulate the heart and create a steady heartbeat. In a tragic irony, Boykin died in 1982 as a result of heart failure, he was refused a blood transfusion.

George Crum, Inventor of the Potato Chip

In 1853 George became the head chef at the Cary Moon’s Lake House in Lake Saratoga, New York. One evening, he set out  preparing the evening dinner for the guests intending to make French fries. A guest complained that they were too thick, so George prepared another batch and sliced the potatoes extremely thin. After deep frying them in oil he found them very thin and crisp and added salt to them.The guests loved them so George began preparing the potatoes this way, oblivious that his new creation would soon become known as potato chips. In 1860 George decided to open his own restaurant on Malta Avenue in Saratoga Lake. He featured potato chips as appetizers on each table. The restaurant was very successful and operated for 30 years, closing in 1890. Unfortunately, he never patented the potato chip, nor sought to market them outside of his restaurant. A few years after he retired, potato chips were mass marketed by others and eventually became a six billion dollar a year industry. George died in 1904 at the age of 92 and left behind the legacy of creating the greatest snack food of all time.

(Cover & feature images via tumblr)