The Black Tech Report

Day 16 O.S. (Ozzie) Williams – 28 days of Black History in Technology

February 16th, 2011 Comments Off

Ozzie Williams

Mr. Williams was born September 2, 1921, he blazed a path of first, being that he had a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Aeronautical Engineering he was hired by Republic Aviation, Inc. during World War II. No less this was at a time when African American were still not encouraged to become engineers.

Within four years working at Republic Aviation he was promoted to Senior Aerodynamicist. Later Williams joined Greer Hydraulics, Inc. he was the group project engineer. This team that he lead helped develop the first airborne radar beacon, this was useful for locating crashed aircraft.

Thought this mans efforts we are assured that no matter what happens in the sky if something goest wrong, we should be able to find it, because someone cared enough to think about those who were lost in Aircraft accidents.

TBTR

Day 15 Walter Sammons – 28 days of Black History in Technology

February 15th, 2011 2 Comments

While I’m on a roll of people that are not really high lighted in Tech, I wanted to give light to an individual that could be considered the savor for a lot of African Americans. Walter Sammons of Philadelphia filed for a patent April 9, 1920.

Walter Sammons - Improved Comb Patent The patent (1,362,823)was for an improved comb that straightend hair, his invention is now known as the “Hot Comb”

BTW my sister is gonna kill me for saying this, but I remember her and mom over the stove on many a Saturday using Mr.Sammons invention, lol

Hot Comb – PDF

TBTR

Day 14 Sarah E. Goode – 28 days of Black History in Technology

February 14th, 2011 2 Comments

While Ms. Goode’s invention has nothing to do with technology, I thought she needed mention here because I know alot of us didn’t know this. Ms. Sarah E Goode is the first African American Woman to file a patent.

Goode applied for and was awarded a patent on July 14, 1885. (Patent #322,177, for a cabinet bed). Her invention was a something that was needed because of space in the small homes of america.

While her invention took a piece of furniture and converted it to a full bed, like a Transformer it was not popularized until years later. Thirty years later in 1916 the Murphy bed was created. It was concealed behind a closet door or wall, rather than inside a piece of furniture, such as the cabinet bed.

Today it is known as a “folding bed” or the “hide away bed”.

Cabinet Bed – PDF

TBTR

Day 13 Kenneth J. Dunkley – 28 days of Black History in Technology

February 13th, 2011 5 Comments

Mr. Dunkley created Three Dimensional Viewing Glasses (3-DVG). His invention displays 3-D effects from regular 2-D photos without any type of lenses, mirrors or optical elements. As I did some research for this African American’s Invention, I had to dig deep. He didn’t invent 3D. In fact this patent was not submitted till April 18, 1986 Patent #4,810,057

Dunkley didn’t create 3D but he did create 3D Viewing Glasses which allowed you to look at a picture and the 2D image would appear to be in 3D. I can’t seem to find a really good picture of a demo. I attached a copy of the PDF that shows the device.

Dunkley discovered that blocking two points in a person’s peripheral vision will cause an ordinary picture to appear 3-Dimensional.

A true to life working sample is what we are looking for, let us know if you run across a sample.

3-DVG image of the actual patent application – PDF LInk

TBTR

Day 12 John Standard – 28 days of Black History in Technology

February 12th, 2011 Comments Off

Amazing inventions usually call for people to take another look at that idea and improve upon it. As in the case of Thomas Elkins (Day 2) help with refrigeration system, John Standard another African American looked at Elkin’s system and decided to improve upon it.

On June 14, 1891 a US patent #455,891 was created that took Elkin’s design to another level. While this patent improved on the design of a refrigerator, it again was not the true creation of the refrigerator.