Compiled and Designed by Sharon Clark

Elijah McCoy ( ) Elijah McCoy was born on May 2, 1843 to runaway slaves George and Emillia McCoy. Both George and Emillia escaped by way of the Underground Railroad. He had the opportunity to attend public school until he was 15 years of age. After which he was sent to boarding school in Edin-burgh, Scotland to study mechanical engineering. McCoy always showed great interest in mechanical devices and tools. After the Civil War ended, McCoy returned to the US and went to work for the Michigan Central Railroad as a train fireman/oilman. His job was to stoke the broiler and lubricate the steam cylinders and sliding parts of the train. Because hot, high pressure steam corroded most metals, a thin layer of lubrication had to be applied to seal and protect the steam cylinders and pistons. For this reason McCoy invented a self- regulating lubricator in 1872 that used -

used steam pressure in the cylinders to open the valves. His device was so successful that within 10 years buyers of steam trains and engines would ask when buying lubrication systems if they were the “Real McCoy.” Over the course of his life, McCoy was granted more than fifty-two patents. In 1916, he patented the graphite lubricator, which he determined to be his greatest invention. In 1920, he established the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company. Soon afterwards he was involved in a traffic accident and his health deteriorated. He spent all his money trying to perfect his inventions. He was broke and alone in 1928 when he was admitted to Eliose Infirmary where he died a year later. McCoy Lubricator 1872

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Granville T. Woods( ) Granville T. Woods was born in Columbus, Ohio on April 23, He attended school until he was 10 years of age, at which time he went to work in a machine shop. He gained much mechanical knowledge while working on jobs including the Missouri railroad and a Springfield rolling mill. He also received mechanical engineering training at an Eastern College. He worked as an engineer onboard the Ironsides but was not able to advance on any of his jobs so he started his own company, Woods’ Railway Telegraph Company, to market his telegraph and other inventions. He had more than 60 patents registered that dealt with railroad telegraphs, electrical breaks and electrical railway systems. His most remarkable invention was the induction telegraph which was a system for communicating to and from moving trains.

Granville had to defend lawsuits against his patents, which he did successfully. Two of those lawsuits came from Thomas Edison and another by an inventor named Phelps. Edison tried to buy Granville’s Company and hire Granville to work for him; however, Granville rejected his offer. Edison then offered to make Granville a partner in his various companies. This was also rejected by Granville. Included in Granville’s inventions are a device that coupled the function of the telephone and telegraph which was purchased by Alexander Graham Bell, an air-brake system which was purchased by George Westinghouse, a power system known as “the third rail” which was a conductor of electricity set parallel to the subway’s tracks, and the thermostatically controlled egg incubator. He also sold devices to giants such as General Electric and American Engineering. By the time of his death on January 30, 1910, he had come to be known as the Black Thomas Edison. Train-to-Station Communication System 1887

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George Washington Carver( ) George Washington Carver was born a slave in the spring of 1864 in Diamond Grove Missouri. He was once abducted by slave raiders and ransomed for a race horse. Because of his frailties, he was not suited for work in the fields; however, he possessed great interest in plants and had an eagerness to learn more about them. His master sent him to Neosho, Missouri to get an early education, and he graduated from Minneapolis High School. He was accepted into Highland University and offered a scholarship. When he arrived at the college and University saw that he was black, he withdrew the acceptance and the scholarship. In 1887 Carver was accepted into Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa where later his art would be included in the World’s Columbian Exposition Art

Exhibit. Carver’s interest, however, was in science so he transferred to Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa University). He was so distinguished at graduation that was offered a position as a faculty member. He was the first African-American accorded such honor. He co-authored a series of papers on the prevention and cure of fungus diseases affecting cherry plants in He received his master’s degree in agriculture in 1896 and the next year he discovered two funguses which were later named after him. Then came the turning point in his life – Booker T. Washington asked him to teach at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute where he was appointed director of agriculture. He began to instruct nearby farmers on how to rotate their crops to promote a better quality soil. He instructed them to plant peanuts which could be harvested easily and fed to livestock. Crop Rotation Method; more than 300 uses for the peanut.

This gave the farmers a much better yield with the quality of their cotton and tobacco, but the peanuts were too many and began to rot in warehouses. Carver began to experiment with the peanuts and would come to produce more than 300 products that could be developed using peanuts. Some of those products included ink, facial cream, shampoo, and soap. He went on to experiment with ways that the sweet potato could develop more than 115 products, many of which were used by the US Army during WWI. George Washington Carver met Henry Ford and helped him devise a way to used goldenrod to create synthetic rubber. Carver received many honors, but he held only three patents. He never patented most of his inventions siting, “God gave them to me, how can I sell them to someone else?”

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Madam C. J. Walker ( ) She was born on a Louisiana cotton plantation in 1867 as Sarah Breedlove. This was two years after the abolition of slavery. Her parents were sharecroppers, and she became an orphan at the age of seven. When she grew up and had a daughter of her own, she was determined to provide an easier life for her daughter. She took in laundry but always searched for a better way to earn a living. Walker developed Vegetable Shampoo, Wonderful Hair Grower, Vanishing Cream, and other beauty products for African-American women. She credited this to God whom she testifies answered her prayer in a dream when a big black man appeared to her and told her what to mix up for her hair. She became the first self-made woman millionaire, helping to shape the Harlem Renaissance. She never turned

her back on her race. She funded scholarships for African-American students, helped support young writers, made generous donations to Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute and Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association, and lobbied politicians for civil rights. She led a group of women to Washington, D.C., to protest President Wilson’s segregation of the military.

Madam C.J. Walker Video Clip Click inside the box to view the video clip.