1 00:00:01,800 --> 00:00:07,720 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey Brainstuff, Lauren 2 00:00:07,760 --> 00:00:12,000 Speaker 1: voc Obam Here. It should go without saying that Black 3 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:16,520 Speaker 1: Americans have been responsible for countless cultural and technological inventions, 4 00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:20,840 Speaker 1: but our history books haven't always featured them. So today, 5 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:26,120 Speaker 1: let's talk about a few. In eighteen eighty five, Sarah 6 00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:29,240 Speaker 1: Good became the first black woman to receive a US patent. 7 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:32,519 Speaker 1: A Good was born into slavery in eighteen fifty, and 8 00:00:32,680 --> 00:00:35,320 Speaker 1: after the Civil War, she moved to Chicago and opened 9 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:38,199 Speaker 1: a furniture store. It was there that she came up 10 00:00:38,240 --> 00:00:40,600 Speaker 1: with an idea that would bring more urban residents with 11 00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:45,320 Speaker 1: limited space into her shop. She invented a folding cabinet bed. 12 00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:48,400 Speaker 1: By day, the piece of furniture could be used as 13 00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:50,840 Speaker 1: a desk, but at night it could be folded out 14 00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:54,200 Speaker 1: into a bed. A Good received her patent thirty years 15 00:00:54,240 --> 00:00:56,760 Speaker 1: before the Murphy bed, a hideaway bed that folds into 16 00:00:56,800 --> 00:01:01,800 Speaker 1: a wall. A. Next up, let's talk about another ingenious 17 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:06,080 Speaker 1: everyday device, the protective mailbox. When you drop a letter 18 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:09,000 Speaker 1: in a public mailbox, you expected to reach its destination 19 00:01:09,160 --> 00:01:13,679 Speaker 1: safely and in relatively good condition. But before eighteen ninety one, 20 00:01:13,880 --> 00:01:16,880 Speaker 1: people using the US mail couldn't make those kind of assumptions. 21 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:20,959 Speaker 1: Public mailboxes were semi open, which made it easy for 22 00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:24,039 Speaker 1: thieves to steal mail and for elements like rain and 23 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:28,480 Speaker 1: snow to damaged letters. But Philip P. Downing changed that 24 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:31,520 Speaker 1: with a mailbox design that featured an outer door and 25 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:34,600 Speaker 1: an inner safety door. OH. When the outer door was open, 26 00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:37,600 Speaker 1: safety door remained closed so that the mail was safe 27 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:40,560 Speaker 1: from thieves and inclement weather. OH. When the outer door 28 00:01:40,600 --> 00:01:42,920 Speaker 1: was closed, the safety door would open so that the 29 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:45,480 Speaker 1: deposited mail would join the other letters in the box. 30 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:49,360 Speaker 1: This safety device allowed mailboxes to be set up everywhere 31 00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:53,800 Speaker 1: near people's homes. Born into a middle class family in 32 00:01:53,800 --> 00:01:56,880 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty seven, Downing had a long career as a 33 00:01:56,880 --> 00:02:00,200 Speaker 1: clerk with the custom House in Boston. He also save 34 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:03,440 Speaker 1: patterns for a device to quickly moistened envelopes and one 35 00:02:03,480 --> 00:02:08,600 Speaker 1: for operating street railway switches. On the subject of railways, 36 00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:12,920 Speaker 1: let's talk about the multiplex telegraph. This was a device 37 00:02:12,960 --> 00:02:15,840 Speaker 1: and the time before radios, that made it possible for 38 00:02:15,960 --> 00:02:20,240 Speaker 1: railway workers to communicate among moving trains. This was a 39 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:24,280 Speaker 1: game changer because, okay, imagine trying to land an airplane 40 00:02:24,280 --> 00:02:27,440 Speaker 1: at a busy airport, air traffic controllers on the ground 41 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:32,400 Speaker 1: can communicate with pilots to prevent collisions. In eighteen eighty seven, 42 00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:36,920 Speaker 1: one Granville T. Woods invented the multiplex telegraph to allow 43 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:41,000 Speaker 1: train dispatchers to do the same thing. It allowed dispatchers 44 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:44,680 Speaker 1: and engineers at various stations to communicate with moving trains 45 00:02:44,919 --> 00:02:49,120 Speaker 1: via telegraph. Conductors could also communicate with their counterparts on 46 00:02:49,160 --> 00:02:53,120 Speaker 1: other trains. Prior to eighteen eighty seven, train collisions were 47 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:56,440 Speaker 1: a huge problem, but Woods device helped make train travel 48 00:02:56,680 --> 00:03:01,799 Speaker 1: much safer. Woods was sued by Thomas Edison, who claimed 49 00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:04,720 Speaker 1: that he was the inventor of the multiplex telegraph, but 50 00:03:04,919 --> 00:03:09,440 Speaker 1: Woods won that lawsuit. Eventually, Edison asked him to work 51 00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:13,520 Speaker 1: at his Edison Electric Light Company, but Woods declined, preferring 52 00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:16,800 Speaker 1: to remain independent and went on to receive other patents 53 00:03:16,840 --> 00:03:21,960 Speaker 1: for his train and communications work. Speaking of Edison, he 54 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:24,840 Speaker 1: often gets the credit for inventing the light bulb, but 55 00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:28,800 Speaker 1: in reality, dozens of inventors were working to perfect commercial 56 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:32,679 Speaker 1: lighting at the time. One of those inventors was Lewis Latimer. 57 00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:36,160 Speaker 1: Latimer was hired as an office assistant at a law 58 00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:39,560 Speaker 1: firm that specialized in patents in eighteen sixty eight. A 59 00:03:39,720 --> 00:03:42,920 Speaker 1: while there, he taught himself mechanical drawing and was promoted 60 00:03:42,920 --> 00:03:46,000 Speaker 1: to draftsmen. In his time at the firm, he worked 61 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:48,560 Speaker 1: with Alexander Graham Bell on the plans for the telephone. 62 00:03:49,360 --> 00:03:52,360 Speaker 1: Latimer then began his foray into the world of light. 63 00:03:53,560 --> 00:03:55,560 Speaker 1: Edison was working on a light bulb model with the 64 00:03:55,640 --> 00:03:58,960 Speaker 1: paper filament, the filament being the thin fiber that the 65 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:02,440 Speaker 1: electric current heat to produce light in an incandescent bulb. 66 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:06,720 Speaker 1: In Edison's experiments, the paper would burn down in fifteen 67 00:04:06,760 --> 00:04:10,720 Speaker 1: minutes or so, rendering the bulb unrealistic for practical use. 68 00:04:11,840 --> 00:04:14,760 Speaker 1: It was Latimer who created a light bulb model that 69 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:18,280 Speaker 1: used a carbon filament, which lasted longer and made light 70 00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:22,200 Speaker 1: bulb production cheaper. Because of Latimer's innovation, more people could 71 00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:27,120 Speaker 1: afford to light their homes. But let's talk about a 72 00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:32,360 Speaker 1: medical inventor. In nineteen thirty eight, Charles Richard Drew went 73 00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:36,080 Speaker 1: to Columbia University to earn a Doctor of Medical Science degree. 74 00:04:36,640 --> 00:04:39,880 Speaker 1: A while there, he became interested in researching the preservation 75 00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:43,680 Speaker 1: of blood. Drew discovered a method of separating red blood 76 00:04:43,720 --> 00:04:47,000 Speaker 1: cells from plasma, and then storing the two components separately. 77 00:04:47,839 --> 00:04:50,600 Speaker 1: This new process allowed blood to be stored for more 78 00:04:50,640 --> 00:04:53,080 Speaker 1: than a week, which was the maximum at that time. 79 00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:56,800 Speaker 1: The ability to store blood, or as Drew called it, 80 00:04:56,920 --> 00:05:00,120 Speaker 1: banking the blood for longer periods of time, meant that 81 00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:04,479 Speaker 1: more people could receive transfusions. Drew documented these findings in 82 00:05:04,520 --> 00:05:08,159 Speaker 1: a paper that led to the first blood bank. After 83 00:05:08,200 --> 00:05:11,760 Speaker 1: completing his studies, Drew began working with the military. A first, 84 00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:14,919 Speaker 1: he supervised blood preservation and delivery in World War Two, 85 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:18,160 Speaker 1: and then was appointed director of the first American Red 86 00:05:18,160 --> 00:05:21,039 Speaker 1: Cross Blood Bank, a blood bank for the US Army 87 00:05:21,080 --> 00:05:25,480 Speaker 1: and Navy that served as the model for blood banks today. However, 88 00:05:25,760 --> 00:05:29,240 Speaker 1: Drew resigned his position because the armed forces insisted on 89 00:05:29,320 --> 00:05:32,839 Speaker 1: separating blood by race and providing white soldiers with blood 90 00:05:32,880 --> 00:05:37,440 Speaker 1: donated from white people. Drew knew that race made no 91 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:41,040 Speaker 1: difference in blood composition, and he felt that this unnecessary 92 00:05:41,040 --> 00:05:45,760 Speaker 1: segregation would cost too many lives. Drew returned to private 93 00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:49,320 Speaker 1: life as a surgeon and medical professor at Howard University. 94 00:05:50,839 --> 00:05:54,920 Speaker 1: Our final inventor today is Garrett Morgan. A. While working 95 00:05:54,920 --> 00:05:57,039 Speaker 1: as a handyman at the turn of the twentieth century, 96 00:05:57,279 --> 00:05:59,720 Speaker 1: he taught himself how sewing machines worked, so that he 97 00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:02,440 Speaker 1: could open up his own shop, selling new machines and 98 00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:06,520 Speaker 1: repairing broken ones. While trying to find a fluid that 99 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:09,920 Speaker 1: would polish needles, Morgan happened upon a formula that would 100 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:15,080 Speaker 1: straighten human hair. His first invention useful, but he would 101 00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:18,080 Speaker 1: go on to save countless lives with his next two inventions. 102 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:21,919 Speaker 1: Troubled by how many firefighters were killed by smoke on 103 00:06:21,960 --> 00:06:25,200 Speaker 1: the job, Morgan developed what he called the safety hood. 104 00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:29,599 Speaker 1: This hood, which went over the head, featured tubes connected 105 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:32,960 Speaker 1: to wet sponges that filtered out smoke and provided cleaner 106 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:36,960 Speaker 1: air to the wearer. This primitive gas mask became a 107 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:40,320 Speaker 1: sensation in nineteen sixteen when Morgan ran to the scene 108 00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:42,920 Speaker 1: of a tunnel explosion and used his invention to help 109 00:06:42,960 --> 00:06:47,120 Speaker 1: save the lives of trapped workers. Later, in nineteen twenty three, 110 00:06:47,240 --> 00:06:51,080 Speaker 1: as automobiles were becoming more common, Morgan noticed the collisions 111 00:06:51,080 --> 00:06:54,080 Speaker 1: were all too common on chaotic streets, and so he 112 00:06:54,120 --> 00:07:02,200 Speaker 1: developed an early prototype, the three position traffic signal. Today's 113 00:07:02,200 --> 00:07:04,880 Speaker 1: episode is based on the article Top ten Inventions by 114 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:08,280 Speaker 1: African Americans on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by Molly Edmunds. 115 00:07:08,640 --> 00:07:11,760 Speaker 1: The Brainstuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks 116 00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:14,440 Speaker 1: dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more 117 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:18,120 Speaker 1: podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 118 00:07:18,200 --> 00:07:21,360 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.