This is the third week of our May biweekly series that focuses on black men who changed the world with their inventions.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN. – MAY 1949: Frederick McKinley Jones, 55, chief engineer for Thermo Control Company of Minneapolis, photographed May 3, 1949 by Minneapolis Tribune photographer Sharee Marcus. Jones, an inventor with 61 patents, including several for early refrigerated trucks, also invented a movie theater ticket dispenser and portable X-ray machine.
Frederick McKinley Jones
Frederick Jones was one of the most prolific black inventors. He was an inventor, entrepreneur, engineer, winner of the National Medal of Technology, and an inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He was born on 17 May 1893 in Covington, Kentucky, USA. His father, an Irish man, John Jones, was a railroad worker who tried to raise him independently. Father Ryan, a Catholic priest, took Jones in when he was eight and two years later, his father died.
At the age of 11, when Jones was in sixth grade, he left school in Cincinnati, Ohio. There, he took on menial jobs and by the time he was 14, he had become a garage foreman.
Jones majorly educated himself by reading voraciously, studying and willing to start afresh always.
In 1912, he moved to Minnesota and worked as a mechanic on a farm owned by James J. Hill, who also owned the Great Northern Railroad. As a result of how close he was to the railroad, he began learning about steam locomotive engines and electricity.
At the age of 20, he received his engineering licence, which he later upgraded to the highest grade. Later on, he built a transmitter for the town’s first radio station. He also created a device that combined sound with motion pictures. This attracted the attention of Joseph A. Numero, who employed him to work for his firm.
He invented over 60 products and was awarded 61 patents in his lifetime. His most famous invention was the development of the first transportation freezer.
He died on 21 February 1961.
George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver was born into slavery just before slavery ended in Diamond Grove, Missouri. He knew neither of his parents but was raised by Moses and Susan Carver, who owned his mother.
He was a sickly child, and so he spent his days assisting Susan with housework. He learnt at a tender age how to cook, mend, do laundry, and embroider. He also assisted Susan on the farm, and he developed an interest in gardening. He was an avid reader.
When he turned 11, he moved to Neosho for studies. There he lived with Mariah and Andrew Watkins in exchange for helping with household tasks such as laundry.
Mariah Watkins impacted George Washington Carver in many ways. For over a decade, he shuttled and survived on the skills he got from his younger age.
He later pursued higher education at Simpson College, where he studied grammar, arithmetic, etymology, voice, and piano. His teacher encouraged him to study Botany and enrol at Iowa State, the agricultural college in Ames. He decided then to be a trained agriculturist.
He taught and conducted research for many years at Tuskegee University. As an agriculturist, he invented hundreds of products using peanuts, soybeans and sweet potatoes.
He died in 1915, and soon after, his childhood home was made a national monument, the first time such an honour had been bestowed on an African American.
