Celebrating Brilliant Black Inventors for National Inventor’s Day and Black History Month!

It’s National Inventor Day!  And since of course it’s also Black History Month, we thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to highlight and celebrate the incredible Black Inventors of the automotive industry!  Here are some fun facts about the technology and vehicles we use everyday that you may not have known!

• Did you know that Charles Richard Patterson aka CR Patterson owned and operated the first African American founded car company? That’s right!  Born into slavery, he eventually made his way to Ohio and trained as a blacksmith.  Later, he partnered with JP Lowe and created a carriage building business, and in the 1900s he became sole proprietor of CR Patterson and Sons, manufacturing 28 different models, including the Patterson-Greenfield Automobile.
  
• Did you know that the traffic light was invented by Garrett Augustus Morgan?  After noticing that manually operated traffic lights were inefficient and prone to human error, he decided to take matters into his own hands.  After noticing the abrupt change from STOP to GO was causing an issue, he decided to add a warning light between the two signals to allow drivers time to slow up.  We know this as the yellow “slow down” signal on modern day traffic lights! He patented a T-shaped metal pole with 3 light settings, and sold the rights to GE for $40,000.
  
• Richard B Spikes was responsible for inventing not one but two wonderful features of vehicles we use every day!  First, he created the directional signal on vehicles while working for Pierce Arrow in 1913.  Later, in 1932, he patented an updated gear shift transmission, on which today’s automatic transmissions are modeled, and he received an unprecedented $100,000 for the invention!

Learn even more from this wonderful video:

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