Invent-O-Rama
Originator
Roberta Brown, teacher, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Age/Grade Level or Audience
Kindergarten, elementary, and middle school science classes; scout troops; 4-H clubs.
Description
Display the names of African-American inventors alongside objects or drawings to illustrate their work.
Procedure
Arrange on a shelf or in a display case objects, drawings, or pictures cut from magazines representing the discoveries and designs of the following inventors, designers, and technologists:
- James S. Adams – airplane propeller
- George E. Alcorn – semiconductors
- Archie Alexander – Whitehurst Freeway, Washington, D.C.
- Virgie M. Ammons – fireplace damper tool
- Charles S. Bankhead – composition printing
- Benjamin Banneker – America's first clock
- James A. Bauer – coin changer
- Andrew J. Beard – automatic railcar coupler
- Charles R. Beckley – folding chair
- Alfred Benjamin – scouring pads
- Miriam E. Benjamin – signal chair
- J. W. Benton – oil derrick
- Henry Blair – corn and cotton planters
- Sarah Boone – folding ironing board
- Otis Boykin – stimulator for an artificial heart
- Henrietta Bradbury – torpedo discharger
- Phil Brooks – disposable syringe
- Marie Van Brittan Brown – home security system
- Robert F. Bundy – signal generator
- J. A. Burr – lawn mower
- George Washington Carver – crop rotation, recycling, paint, cosmetics and lotions, wood stain
- Albert J. Cassell – method of manufacturing silk
- W. Montague Cobb – color chart of the human heart
- Leander M. Coles – mortician's table
- Cap B. Collins – portable electric light
- David N. Crosthwait – vacuum heating system
- Joseph Hunter Dickinson – player piano
- Charles Richard Drew – blood bank
- James Forten – sail raising device
- Albert Y. Garner – flame retardant
- Sarah E. Goode – folding bed
- Meredith C. Gourdine – smoke control, electradyne paint spray gun
- W. S. Grant – curtain rod support
- Solomon Harper – thermostatic hair curlers
- M. C. Harvey – lantern
- Lincoln Hawkins – coatings for communication cable
- Edward Hawthorne – heart monitor, blood pressure control
- H. C. Haynes – improved razor strap
- William Hinton – test for syphilis
- Dorothy E. Hoover – aeronautical research
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- Harry C. Hopkins – hearing aid
- Thomas L. Jennings – dry-cleaning process
- John Arthur Johnson – monkey wrench
- Frederick M. Jones – truck refrigeration, starter generator, portable X-ray machine
- Leonard Julian – sugar cane planter
- Percy Lavon Julian – glaucoma treatment, synthetic cortisone
- Ernest Everett Just – studies of cell division
- Samuel L. Kountz – improved kidney transplants
- Robert Benjamin Lewis – oakum picker
- J. L. Love – pencil sharpener
- Elijah J. McCoy – automatic locomotive lubricator
- James Winfield Mitchell – method of purifying chemicals
- Garret Augustus Morgan – gas mask, four-way traffic signal
- Benjamin T. Montgomery – boat propellor
- George Olden – postage stamp
- W. B. Purvis – fountain pen, machine to make paper bags
- J. W. Reed – dough roller and kneader
- Norbert Rillieux – sugar refiner
- G. T. Sampson – folding clothes dryer
- Dewey S. C. Sanderson – urinalysis meter
- C. B. Scott – street sweeper
- J. H. Smith – lawn sprinkler
- P. D. Smith – mechanical potato digger
- Richard Spikes – automatic carwash, car directional signals, automatic transmission, beer keg
- J. A. Sweeting – cigarette roller
- Stewart and Johnson – metal bending machine
- Lewis Temple – improved whaling harpoon
- Charles H. Turner – method of studying the habits of insects
- Sarah Walker – hair straightener, face cream, hot comb
- Anthony Weston – improved threshing machine
- Daniel Hale Williams – first emergency open-heart surgery
- Ozzie S. Williams – radar search beacon
- J. R. Winter – fire escape ladder
- Granville T. Woods – railroad telegraph
- Louis Tompkins Wright – treatment for head and neck injuries
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Sources
Asante, Molefi K., Historical and Cultural Atlas of African Americans, Macmillan, 1991.
Haber, Louis, Black Pioneers of Science and Invention, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970, reprinted, 1992.
James, Portia P., The Real McCoy: African-American Invention and Innovation, 1619-1930, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.
Klein, Aaron E., and Cynthia L. Klein, The Better Mousetrap: A Miscellany of Gadgets, Labor-saving Devices, and Inventions that Intrigue, Beaufort Books, 1982.
Logan, Rayford W., and Michael R. Winston, eds., Dictionary of American Negro Biography, Norton, 1982.
Alternative Applications
Use inventors' names as subjects for individual written or oral reports or scientific studies of how mechanical devices work. Have students replicate the theory behind a particular device or treatment such as Charles Drew's blood bank, Otis Boykin's stimulator for an artificial heart, Louis Wright's neck brace, Garret Morgan's gas mask, or Percy Julian's glaucoma treatment as subjects for science fairs or computer drafting projects. Feature drawings and scientific explanations in a series of school, radio, television, or newspaper public address spots highlighting an inventor a day throughout Black History Month.
