The Colored Inventor
A RECORD OF FIFTY YEARS
By HENRY E. BAKER. Assistant Examiner United States Patent Office
The year 1913 marks the close of the first fifty years since AbrahamLincoln issued that famous edict known as the emancipation proclamation,by which physical freedom was vouchsafed to the slaves and thedescendants of slaves in this country. And it would seem entirely fitand proper that those who were either directly or indirectly benefitedby that proclamation should pause long enough at this period in theirnational life to review the past, recount the progress made, and see, ifpossible, what of the future is disclosed in the past.
That the colored people in the United States have made substantialprogress in the general spread of intelligence among them, and inelevating the tone of their moral life; in the acquisition of property;in the development and support of business enterprises, and in theprofessional activities, is a matter of quite common assent by those whohave been at all observant on the subject. This fact is amply shown tobe true by the many universities, colleges and schools organized,supported and manned by the race, by their attractive homes and culturedhome life, found now in all parts of our country; by the increasingnumbers of those of the race who are successfully engaging inprofessional life, and by the gradual advance the race is making towardbusiness efficiency in many varied lines of business activity.
It is not so apparent, however, to the general public that along theline of inventions also the colored race has made surprising andsubstantial progress; and that it has followed, even if "afar off," thefootsteps of the more favored race. And it is highly important,therefore, that we should make note of what the race has achieved alongthis line to the end that proper credit may be accorded it as havingmade some contribution to our national progress.
Standing foremost in the list of things that have actually done most topromote our national progress in all material ways is the item ofinventions. Without inventions we should have had no agriculturalimplements with which to till the fertile fields of our vast continent;no mining machinery for recovering the rich treasure that for centurieslay hidden beneath our surface; no steamcar or steamboat fortransporting the products of field and mine; no machinery for convertingthose products into other forms of commercial needs; no telegraph ortelephone for the speedy transmission of messages, no means fordiscovering and controlling the various utilitarian applications ofelectricity; no one of those delicate instruments which enable theskilful surgeon of to-day to transform and renew the human body, andoften to make life itself stand erect, as it were, in the very presenceof death. Without inventions we could have none of those numerousinstruments which to-day in the hands of the scientist enable himaccurately to forecast the weather, to anticipate and provide againststorms on land and at sea, to detect seismic disturbances and warnagainst the dangers incident to their repetition; and no wirelesstelegraphy with its manifold blessings to humanity.
HENRY E. BAKERAll these great achie