Slater earned degrees in political science and speech communications in 1977. He received academic and athletic scholarships to Eastern Michigan University. Slater’s family was not wealthy – he often speaks about picking cotton and peaches to help support his family throughout his childhood.ĭespite his family’s economic struggles, he excelled academically and was a gifted athlete. He grew up in Marianna, Arkansas where he attended segregated schools, until the 11 th grade, when he attended the newly integrated Lee High School. Rodney Earl Slater was born on February 23, 1955, the oldest of five children. , it was basically a precursor to the modern day stop light. This “clear, caution, danger” signal mechanism used a light-based technology with red, amber and green signals on rail lines between New York City and Washington, D. T hree years later, he received a second patent for a “Safety System for Operating Railroads,” which controlled the movement of trains by signaling the condition of the track ahead. This device made operations safer and replaced having to manually operate signals. The Dammond Circuit signaling system would automatically send alerts concerning the approach of nearby trains. In 1903, w hile working for Central Railroad, Dammond designed and received a patent for a new type of signaling system. He then became a professor of mathematics and later moved to Detroit to work as a bridge engineer with Central Railroad. ĭammond is celebrated for being the first African American graduate of the Western University of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pittsburgh ,) where he studied civil engineering and graduated with honors in 1893. He was the fifth of eight children, born in 1873. William Hunter Dammond was a native of Pittsburgh’s Lower Hill District. Beard’s invention helped to make the coupling process safe and efficient, saving countless lives and limbs.īeard was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Ohio in 2006. The Jenny coupler, instead, joined cars automatically, using interlocking pieces that attached when the cars bumped together. Beard, himself had lost a leg in a car coupling accident. His experience of working on the railroad had taught him that coupling two railroad cars together was extremely dangerous, a worker would have to brace himself between the two cars and then drop a pin at exactly the right moment. In 1897, Beard patented an improvement to railroad car couplers commonly called the Jenny Coupler. Following his departure from the plantation, he began pursuing an engineering career and received two patents for innovat ive plow technology. He remained on the plantation as a sharecropper until 1872. Beard was born on a plantation in Woodland, Alabama in 1849 and was emancipated by the age of 15. He was largely self-taught and known for his skills in carpentry, ironwork, business, and railroading. Some of his other well-known inventions include ironing boards and lawn sprinklers.Īndrew Jackson Beard was a Black American entrepreneur and inventor during the 19th century. McCoy is believed to have developed and patented more than 60 devices. Customers, seeking to purchase the “real thing” would often ask retailers for “the real McCoy” referring to McCoy’s device and not the imitators. The success of McCoy’s invention led to imitation- devices flooding the market. McCoy’s invention of the automatic lubricator allowed trains to travel for longer periods of time without stopping. This meant that during long trips, a train would have to make frequent stops to shut down the engine to lubricate it properly. Prior to this invention, lubrication was done manually while an engine was idle. This device works by spreading oil evenly and frequently over an engine while it is in operation. While working with the Michigan Central Railroad, McCoy patented his first big invention in 1872 – the automatic lubricator, which is still in use today on various types of machinery. McCoy later accepted a job as a fire man with the Michigan Central Railroad where he was responsible for oiling steam engine parts. Despite his qualifications, America’s racial barriers prevented McCoy from acquiring a mechanical engineering position in the United States. He was fortunate enough to travel to Scotland at the age of 15 and participate in a mechanical engineering apprenticeship. From a young age, McCoy showed a strong interest in engineering. His family later returned to the United States and settled in Michigan (which was a “free” state with no legalized slavery) to begin a new life. Elijah McCoy was born in Canada in 1844 to parents who escaped enslavement from Kentucky via the underground railroad.
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