Honoring Black History Month in Medicine and Science

This information is taken from the Tom Joyner Morning Show

– Little Known Black History Facts

Otis Boykin – invented more than 25 electronic devices used in

computers and guided missiles. His most noteworthy invention was an

electronic mechanism created in 1955, as a regulating unit for the first

heart pacemaker. The actual pacemaker was first invented by Paul Boli.

Boykin’s device uses electrical impulses to maintain a steady heartbeat.

Born in 1920, Otis Boykin was raised in Dallas, Texas by his parents Walter

Benjamin and Sarah Boykin. He graduated from Fisk University in 1941 and

got his first official job with Majestic Radio and TV Corporation in Chicago.

Three years later, he moved to P.J. Nielsen Research Labs in Oak Park,

Illinois to work as a research engineer. In 1949, while attending the Illinois

Institute of Technology, he founded his own company, Boykin-Fruth. In

1964, Boykin also worked as a consultant for several European and

American firms, in his long career, Boykin also invented a type of resistor

(an electric circuit element) commonly in use today in radios, computers

and television sets. Boykin also invented a chemical air filter and a burglar-

proof cash register. For these, and the electronic regulator for the

pacemaker, Boykin was rewarded with a Cultural Science Achievement

Award by The Old Pros Unlimited Club. He belonged to several science

based organizations, including the Chicago Physics Club.

Benjamin S. Carson, Sr. M.D – is a pioneer in brain surgical techniques.

However, he is best known for leading the first surgical team that

successfully separated a pair if Siamese twins, who were born, joined at the

head. Born in 1951, Carson came from a poor family in Detroit. As a child,

he has a difficult time in school. Undeterred, the budding young

neurosurgeon studied hard in high school and won a scholarship to Yale

University, where he received his bachelor’s degree. He went on to study

at the University of Michigan’s Medical School and became the first black

person accepted into the residency program at Johns Hopkins Hospital in

Baltimore. After spending one in Australia, Carson was promoted to

Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins in 1984. At 31, he was

the youngest doctor to hole such a position. In 1984, Carson performed a

very complex surgical feat when he separated seven month old Siamese

twins, born joined at the back of the head. The surgery was successful,

after a tense and arduous 22-hour operation. Carson has been the

recipient of numerous awards for his pioneering role and development of

brain surgery techniques. Some honors include the Johnson Publication

Company’s Black Achievement Award, the Candle Award for Science and

Technology from Morehouse College and an Honorary Doctor of Science

Degree from North Carolina A&T University.

Frederick McKinley Jones is best remembered for devising a method to

refrigerate trucks carrying perishable food, an idea expanded to include air

coolers for ships, planes, and trains. As a result of the method called pre-

fabricated refrigerator construction, meat, fruit, vegetables, and butter

could be transported long distance. Jones was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in

1893 and orphaned at the age of nine. He went to work as a self-taught

auto mechanic. He later mastered electronics and built a radio station

transmitter. His interest in how to combine sound with film in the early

days of movies led to a job with company manufacturing motion picture

equipment. Jones’ first patent was for a machine to dispense tickets in

movie theaters. During the 1930’s, his innovative designs for air-cooling

units for food transported to market by trucks led to formation of a

successful new business. By 1949, the U.S. Thermo Control Company, as it

was called, had profits of $3 million a year. Jones was subsequently

awarded more than 60 patents, 40 for refrigeration equipment alone. In

the 1950’s, he served as a consultant on refrigeration problems to both the

United States Defense Department and the Bureau of Standards. His

portable refrigeration systems were used throughout World War II,

primarily to keep medicine and blood at the right temperature on

battlefields and in military hospitals.

Patricia E. Bath, M.D. is the inventor of the cataract Laserphacprobe,

which is the medical instrument to remove cataracts from the eye. In 1975,

Dr. Bath was the first black female surgeon appointed to UCLA and is

credited, along with other Howard University students, for founding the

Student Medical Association and was its first president. Together with

associates and colleagues, Dr. Bath founded the American Institute for the

Prevention of Blindness, and with limited funding provided free vision

screening services to underserved communities.

Dr. bath holds several other firsts: first African American woman surgeon at

Drew Medical School; first woman Program Director (Chief) of a

postgraduate training at Drew; first woman chair of Opthalmology in the

history of the United States, from 1983-1986, Drew-UCLA Residency

Programs; first woman faculty ophthalmologist of ULCA Dept. of

Opthalmology, Jules Stein Eye Institute with her appointment in 1975; first

woman elected to Honorary Medical Staff of UCLA Medical Center upon her

retirement in 1993; elected to Hunter College Hall of Fame in 1988 and

elected as Howard University Pioneer in Academic Medicine in 1993.

As the first African American female physician/inventor, Dr. Bath, in the

early part of her career, devoted herself to the prevention of blindness the

world over. Her intense interest, experience and research on cataracts

culminated in 1985-1986 with her invention of a new device and method to

remove cataracts, called the “Laserphacoprobe”. With this intervention,

Dr. Patricia E. Bath was able to restore the sight of several individuals who

had been blind for over 30 years.

Dr. Bath has four patents on this laser cataract surgery device covering the

United States, Canada, Japan and Europe.

George Washington Carver – is best known for his invention of peanut

butter and peanut oil, however, Carver created over 300 invention s from

the peanut, sweet potato and pecan.

Born into slavery near Diamond Grove, Missouri in 1864, Carver went on to

finish high school. He applied and was accepted to a college in Iowa.

However, when the president discovered that Carver was an African

American, he did not admit him. To support his early years of education,

Carver opened a laundry and later moved to Winterset, Iowa and also

worked as first cook in a large hotel.

Carver later went on to attend Simpson College in Iowa, then Iowa State

College, obtaining Bachelors and Master Degrees pursing his agricultural

work. At Tuskegee Institute, he performed productive agricultural research

in nutrition, chemistry, genetics, plant pathology, soil fertilization and the

use of waste products. Carver not only revealed medical properties in

weeds, but created over 300 products from the peanut, 100 from the pecan

and 118 products from the sweet potato.

George Washington Carver received only three patents for his work with

the peanut. These three patents were for Cosmetics, Paint and Stains

Process, and the Process of Producing Paint. Carver’s other inventions

were as follow: Adhesives, Insulating, Board, Shoe Polish Axle Grease,

Linoleum, Shaving Cream, Bleach, Mayonnaise, Sugar, Synthetic Rubber,

Synthetic Marble, Metal Polish, Paper Dyes, Wood Filler, Wood Stains,

Imitation Oysters, Ink.

Additionally, his inventions included Breakfast Food No. 5 with extra

protein for diabetic people from skins of the peanut, and over 30 different

dyes from black to orange/yellow.

George Washington Carver was one of the greatest chemists of all time,

whose products and processes not only revolutionized the economy of the

South but created countless new industries and laid the foundation for new

fields in science.

Ann Moore and her husband worked as Peace Corps volunteers in the

early 1960’s. As a pediatric nurse in Africa, Ann saw lots of mothers and

babies every day and noticed the contentment of babies as they spent long

hours snuggled up happily in fabric harnesses against their mothers’ backs.

Two months after her return to the United States, Ann gave birth to a baby

girl and wanted he same closeness with her child. She developed a fabric

pouch to carry her daughter snugly on her back. With her daughter and her

new invention, she accompanied Martin Luther King on his famous march

from Selma to Montgomery.

Working with her mother, an experience seamstress, she improved the

design, calling it the “Snugli”. People who saw Ann Moore walking with her

baby began to order the Snugli, and by 1972 orders for 300 Snuglis per

month were pouring in. After receiving the highest ranking reviews by

Consumer Reports and the Wall Street Journal sales hit the $6 million mark.

The business remained a family operation until 1985 when Gerico bought

the patent.

Ann Moore also invented the “Airlift”, a padded, portable and adjustable

oxygen carrier. This backpack gives greater freedom to people who need a

steady supply of oxygen. She also designed a shoulder/hand bag and

carrier to fit on the back of a wheelchair or walker.