Black Inventions That Changed The Way We Live

Black inventors changed the way we live and made many overlooked inventions that have made going about our day-to-day a lot easier. From the Refrigerated Truck by Frederick McKinley Jones in 1940, to the Automatic Elevator Doors by Alexander Miles in 1887, African Americans have made major contributions to America and the advancement of civilization in the world.

This Black innovator changed the way we live with the Improved Street Sweeper Truck/Brush Mechanism (1896) and Ticket/Paper Punch(1893).

Before Charles B. Brooks made improvements to the street sweeper, trash was manually picked up or swept. His 1896 patent 558,719 on March 17 included a self-propelled front brush to collect debris that was swept up and carried along a belt and dumped it into a receptacle. The Brooks Street Sweeper included adjustable front brushes with a scraper, making the truck extremely efficient with snow and ice.

The improvement made to the original Ticket/Paper Punch was a built-in receptacle on one of the jaws, to collect the round pieces of paper. His patent 507,672 was issued on October 31, 1893 and was redesigned to resemble scissors.

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