Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “Black inventors”
Elijah McCoy revolutionized the industrial age with a self-regulating invention that birthed automation — yet history nearly erased him. His 1872 lubrication system enabled the continuous, autonomous machines that underpin modern robotics. This InnerKwest investigation uncovers how McCoy’s genius powered the modern world while the nation overlooked the architect behind it.
Granville Tailer Woods moved through the Gilded Age like current through copper—restless, purposeful, and always looking for a cleaner path. Between 1884 and 1910 he secured more than fifty U.S. patents spanning railroad communications, electric traction, and lighting controls. Much of what made early mass transit safer and more scalable traces back to his bench: induction-based “railway telegraphy,” smarter current …
