The Colored Inventor | Page 5

wood and metal-working machines, in land
conveyances on road and track, in seagoing vessels, in chemical
compounds, in electricity through all its wide range of uses, in
aeronautics, in new designs of house furniture and bric-à-brac, in
mechanical toys and amusement devices, the colored inventor has
achieved such success as should present to the race a distinctly
hope-inspiring spectacle.
Of course it is not possible, in this particular presentation of the subject,
to dwell much at length upon the merits of any considerable number of
individual cases. This feature will be brought out more fully in the
larger publication on this subject which the writer now has in course of
preparation. But there are several conspicuous examples of success in
this line of endeavor that should be fully emphasized in any treatment
of this subject. I like to tell of what has been done by Granville T.
Woods and his brother Lyates, of New York; by Elijah McCoy, of
Detroit; by Joseph Hunter Dickinson, of New Jersey; by William B.
Purvis, of Philadelphia; Ferrell and Creamer, of New York; by
Douglass, of Ohio; Murray, of South Carolina; Matzeliger, of Lynn;
Beard, of Alabama; Richey, of the District of Columbia; and a host of
others that I could mention.
Foremost among these men in the number and variety of his inventions,
as well as in the commercial value involved, stands the name of
Granville T. Woods. Six years ago Mr. Woods sent me a list of his
inventions patented up to that time, and there were then about thirty of
them, since which time he has added nearly as many more, including
those which he perfected jointly with his brother Lyates. His inventions
relate principally to electrical subjects, such as telegraphic and

telephonic instruments, electric railways and general systems of
electrical control, and include several patents on means for transmitting
telegraphic messages between moving trains.
The records of the Patent Office show that for valuable consideration
several of Mr. Woods' patents have been assigned to the foremost
electrical corporations of the world, such as the General Electric
Company, of New York, and the American Bell Telephone Company,
of Boston. These records also show that he followed other lines of
thought in the exercise of his inventive faculty, one of his other
inventions being an incubator, another a complicated and ingenious
amusement device, another a steam-boiler furnace, and also a
mechanical brake.
Mr. Woods is, perhaps, the best known of all the inventors whose
achievements redound to the credit of our race; and in his passing away
he has left us the rich legacy of a life successfully devoted to the cause
of progress.
[Illustration: ELIJAH McCOY.]
In the prolific yield of his inventive genius, Elijah McCoy, of Detroit,
stands next to Granville T. Woods.
So far as is ascertainable from the office records Mr. McCoy obtained
his first patent in July, 1872, and the last patent was granted to him in
July, 1912. During the intervening forty years he continued to invent
one thing after another, completing a record of nearly forty patents on
as many separate and distinct inventions. His inventions, like those of
Woods', cover a wide range of subjects, but relate particularly to the
scheme of lubricating machinery. He is regarded as the pioneer in the
art of steadily supplying oil to machinery in intermittent drops from a
cup so as to avoid the necessity for stopping the machine to oil it. His
lubricating cup was in use for years on stationary and locomotive
machinery in the West, including the great railway locomotives, the
boiler engines of the steamers on the Great Lakes, on transatlantic
steamships, and in many of our leading factories. McCoy's lubricating
cups were famous thirty years ago as a necessary equipment in all

up-to-date machinery, and it would be rather interesting to know how
many of the thousands of machinists who used them daily had any idea
then that they were the invention of a colored man.
Another inventor whose patents occupy a conspicuous place in the
records of the Patent Office, and whose achievements in that line stand
recorded as a credit to the colored man, is Mr. William B. Purvis, of
Philadelphia. His inventions also cover a variety of subjects, but are
directed mainly along a single line of experiment and improvement. He
began, in 1882, the invention of machines for making paper bags, and
his improvements in this line of machinery are covered by a dozen
patents; and a half dozen other patents granted Mr. Purvis include three
patents on electric railways, one on a fountain pen, another on a
magnetic car-balancing device, and still another for a cutter for roll
holders.
Another very interesting instance of an inventor whose genius for
creating new things is constantly active, producing results that express
themselves