Day 8 - Phillip Bell Downing - The Snail Mail Receptical

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Once upon a time, people had to send letters if they wanted to communicate long-distance by text. They had to write something down, address the envelope, get a stamp in the correct denomination, got to a mail receptacle and mail the letter.

For most of us, that box is right near our home, by the home, or possibly a slit in the door itself. Getting the mail or sending a letter for many people is as easy as walking twenty feet and popping your letter in the box.


These days, people don't even bother with the whole writing something down and mailing it for the most part. These days lots people do the whole thing digitally.

Even so, there is still a call for posting things.

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Back in the 17 and 1800s in America, mailing a letter meant going to the post office. This could entail a lengthy trip depending on where your closest post office might be.

Phillip Bell Downing was born in Providence, RI in 1857 into a world that put as much of a silver spoon in his mouth as it could.

Before the Civil War, abolitionists were championing the rights and well being of African Americans. They were fighting for their right to be given the same regard, education, and opportunities as the white members of society. There were other anti-slavery groups in the country and they were becoming more and more antagonistic towards the enslavers in the South.

The Republican Party was born out of the disgruntled Northerners, abolitionists, frustrated
Democrats and other groups who had issues with enslavement.

Republicans as a party were not advocating abolishing slavery in the South, just not letting it spread any further into the North.

Many of the members were vocal in their fight against inequity, and they made a difference. Four years After Phillip's birth, Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican ever elected to the office of president.

Lincoln's election so terrified the Southern Democrats that they seceded from the Union rather than allow an avowed member of the abolitionist party to destroy their livelihood and deprive them of their rightful property.

Because of the work of the abolitionists, some African Americans families in the North were educated, and wealthy. Some families even began generating generational wealth.

Phillip's grandfather, Thomas Downing, was the son of emancipated people in Virginia. He established and ran The Downing Oyster House in the financial district of Washington DC. It was one of the hottest tickets in town, and he did very well. (If you are curious about him, click the link above, what he did was pretty dang fascinating!)

Phillip's father, George T Downing was a successful business owner in his own right and an abolitionist. He was instrumental in founding the United Anti-Slavery Society of the City of New York in the mid-830s. (If you think Thomas Downing was pretty fascinating, he doesn't have anything on his son, George!)

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Phillip's mother was Serena L. de Grasse of the New York deGrasses. (No, I don't know if this is Neil deGrasse Tyson's family, but it would not be shocking. I have a thing for Dr. Tyson. Any excuse to put him in the blog.)




In other words, Phillip was one of six children born into an affluent, educated, politically active, well-respected family.

What did he do for a living? I have no idea, and I could not find any information about it! He might have just been in the family business. The one source I saw that had some kind of biography for him had so much information that was inconsistent with all of the other sources I checked, I discarded it completely!

In fact, all that remains for certain are the patents he filed. There were five of them.

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His most iconic invention is one that changed the actual landscape of America. In fact, I suppose one could say it changed the landscape of any country that has them.


That's right. in 1891 he patented the designs for the street letterbox.

This was a godsend to the public. You no longer had to find your way to a post office in order to mail your letters. You could just drop them in the nearest box on a street corner.


Back in the day when letter writing was an art...this was a big deal.

As I said, he patented five things. I didn't do too much research on his gizmo for the railroad. (Most of the inventors I have found from this era did something for the railroad!)  It was a switch that allowed an operator to direct the flow of electricity.

I saw one source that suggested that this little mechanism was later modified for use in electric switches like light switches in the home, but I don't have any other sources that suggest that and I am suspicious that the two things are related, but they might be. I just couldn't find any other sources for it.
Throwing it in here in case someone points out that I didn't give him enough credit.

Either way, he certainly is responsible for those iconic mailboxes.

Next time you are out and about and you need to go snail mail if you see one of these little receptacles you don't have to go to the post office.

Thank you, Phillip B. Downing!

Celebrate Black History!

Day 7 - Walter Lincoln Hawkins - Can You Hear Me Now?

Phones. We can't put ours down. We can't even put them down when we are driving.

Our phones do everything.

They find restaurants, maps, directions, settle arguments, define words, identify songs, play all of the music, talk to us, and thousands of other things.

Oh, and you can call people if you absolutely must.





That is today. It took a long time for us to get to this point.

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When Walter Lincoln Hawkins was born in 1911, telephones looked like this.

He was a curious kid from the start. He was one of those people who loved to take things apart. Oh yes, he most certainly did.

He would take one toy apart, put it back together and make a completely different toy. Yeah, it sounds like he broke it, but the sources I found made it sound like the second toy was sound.

He made little coil spring boats to sail in the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

When he was eleven, he and a friend tried to make a perpetual motion machine. It isn't possible to build one of these, but such things never bother eleven-year-olds.

I'm pretty sure I had no idea what a perpetual motion machine was when I was eleven.

Walter was orphaned at an early age and was raised by his sister.

He applied himself in school, and never stopped tinkering, taking things apart, and reworking them.

1926 REO

When he was at Dunbar High School in DC, he noticed that his physics teacher, Samuel Weatherless, drove a brand new REO car each year. That was a pretty snazzy auto for a teacher at a segregated high school to be driving. It turned out that Weatherless had been part of creating a mechanism in the self-starting engine that replaced hand cranks. The automobile company bought the patent, and part of the teacher's payment was that he got a new car every year.



It had never occurred to Walter that anybody would pay him to tinker with mechanical things. He knew what he was going to do!

As so often happens, his intention to tinker with mechanical things for a living took off in a completely different direction when he got a little older.

He graduated from Dunbar and went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institue. He graduated in 1932. The Great Depression was not a good time to find work, so he went back to school.

He went to Howard University and got a Master's Degree in Chemistry.

Still no work. More School!

He went to McGill University in Montreal, Canada and got a Doctorate in Chemistry.

Then...

Off to Columbia University to continue doing more research

Then?

He got a job!

in 1942 he made history as the first African American scientist at AT&T Bell Laboratories. His specialty? Polymers. Okay, okay, plastic.

Back in the 1940s, most of the country did not have reliable telephone service if they had any at all. Telephone wires were encased in lead. Yes, poisonous, heavy, and expensive.

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Not only that, there were some plastics available, but they corroded quickly. This made laying long-distance cable unreasonable. Rural areas and isolated areas could not get phone service. In fact, there were plenty of outlying communities near cities that couldn't get phone service.

Dr. Hawkins' work at AT&T revolutionized how we insulate wires. He brought the world the first lightweight, durable polymers that could coat telephone wires. This allowed our entire country and pretty much the rest of the world to provide phone lines to communities that had been inaccessible.

He also created systems to recycle polymers.

Today, all of our fiber optic cable that allows our devices to work everywhere are coated with the polymers Hawkins designed.

"Hawkins was named Head of Plastics Chemistry R&D at Bell Labs and later, Assistant Director of the Chemical Research Laboratory. In 1963, he became Bell Labs' Supervisor of Applied Research, and in 1972, he was promoted to department head. Among his numerous technical achievements at Bell Labs was his design of a lab test using spectroscopy to predict the durability of a plastic surface. He also contributed to the development of techniques for recycling and reusing plastics. He published three books, more than 50 scientific papers, and earned 18 U.S. and 129 foreign patents. He was also very active as a mentor of disadvantaged and minority youth; he became the first chairman of the American Chemical Society's Project SEED (Summer Educational Experience for the Economically Disadvantaged)."

He retired from Bell Labs in 1976.

He stayed in New York and mentored young scientists and engineers. From 1976 - 1983 he was the research director of the Plastics Institute of America. (Who knew that was a thing?)

He also taught at New York's Polytechnic Institute and consulted with chemical and pharmaceutical companies.

He was honored with:

 The National Medal of Technology

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The International Award from the Society of Plastics Engineers

The Percy L Julian Award

The Distinguished Alumni Award from Howard

In 1975 he was the first black engineer inducted into the National Academy of Engineering

Bell Lab's annual W. Lincoln Hawkins Mentoring Excellence Award is given in his honor

In 2010 he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Walter Hawkins died in 1992.

So, go on...text or talk. Dr. Walter Hawkins has those wires covered!

Day 6 - David Crosthwait Jr. - Just Right - The HVAC Man

If you have ever had to share a house with someone, there is a chance you've had this fight...

It is too cold!

It is too hot!

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Who touched the thermostat!

You can also have this problem if you go to a restaurant or a theatre.

Why is it so cold in here? I wish I'd brought a jacket.

Why is it so hot in here? I wish I'd worn short sleeves.

Yes, the temperature of a room or a building is a thing we deal with, but at least we have that option. It isn't like in the old days when it was always either boiling or freezing based on the outside temperature.

Modern-day airconditioning is a thing of beauty.

David Crosthwait Jr. made it even better.

Born in Nashville, TN in 1898, he grew up in Kansas City, MO. From an early age, the people around him noticed his keen interest in science. Both his teachers and his family encouraged him to do experiments on his own. Academically he was aces.

Purdue University offered him a full scholarship.

In 1913 he graduated at the top of his class with a Bachelors Degree in Science.
In 1920 he graduated from Purdue with a Masters in Engineering.

Armed with knowledge, he sallied forth into the world of heating and cooling.

Doubtless, in the 1920s people were still complaining about the temperature of buildings because most of them hadn't been built with central heating and cooling. There was plenty of new ground to break in this field, and David broke it with a vengeance.

He went to work as the Research Engineer, Director of Research Laboratories for C. A. Dunham Company which is now Marshall Engineered Products Co.

What did he invent?

Yeah, he designed the HVAC for Radio City

"David Crosthwait's expertise was on air ventilation, central air conditioning, and heat transfer systems. He created many different heating systems, refrigeration methods, temperature regulating devices, and vacuum pumps. For these inventions he holds thirty nine United States patents as well as eighty international patents. In the 1920s and 1930s Crosthwait invented a vacuum pump, a boiler and a thermostat control, all for more effective heating systems for larger buildings. Some of his greatest accomplishments were for creating the heating systems for the Rockefeller Center and New York’s Radio City Music Hall."

Crosthwait pioneered the foundational technology in this field.

He was passionate about his work. He contributed to engineering textbooks as well as writing a manual on heating and cooling with water with guides, standards, and codes for heating, ventilation, refrigeration, and air conditioning.

He retired from the business world in 1971.

Purdue asked him to teach a course on Steam Heating Theory and Controls Systems.
In 1975, Purdue awarded him an Honorary Doctorate.

He racked up other honors as well.

He was the first African American to be named a fellow of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers (1971)

He was fellow of the American Society for the Advancement of Science

David Crosthwait Jr.

He was a serving member of the American Chemical Society

He was also a serving member of the National Society of Professional Engineers

He died in 1975.

So, the next time you have that argument about the temperature of a hotel room - you have David Crosthwait Jr. to thank for the ability to alter it efficiently!

Day 5 -Dr. Freeman and Dr. Grant - Dentistry and Golf

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What are the odds?

Robert was born in 1846 in Washington DC to parents who were enslaved. After the Civil War,  his parents were released from bondage and chose the name Freeman, as did so many people. He became Robert Tanner Freeman.

When Robert was a child, a white dentist named Henry Bliss Noble took a liking to him. Robert began by running errands for him, but as he got older he took a liking to the actual work. Dr. Noble was pleased and apprenticed him Robert worked in Dr. Noble's office until he was a young adult.

Geroge Grant was born in 1847 in Oswego, NY. His parents had escaped enslavement. There is some disagreement amongst sources, about his early life. Some suggested he had a fight with his parents about the clothes he wore and he left home at fifteen, others say he left home at nineteen.

Either way, George started working for a white dentist in Oswego named Dr. Albert Smith. 

Back in DC, Dr. Noble was encouraging Robert Freeman to apply for dental school. Robert did so, and ran afoul of the whole - we don't accept black applicants - thing. Dr. Noble did not want his protege to give up. 

Harvard opened its dental school in 1867. It was the first dental school affiliated with a university and its medical school.

Freeman applied to Harvard and his original application was rejected. Luckily, Dr. Nathan Cooley Keep, who was the dean and founder of the new dental school, petitioned the school to change its policy of not admitting African Americans or other people of color. His petition was granted.

Freeman was offered a place at Harvard Dental School in 1867 at the age of twenty-one.

As for George Grant, he decided Oswego did not offer him what he was looking for and moved to Boston, MA. when he was nineteen. He found work as a dental assistant in Boston. Then, he applied to Harvard Dental School.

Grant was offered a place at Harvard Dental School in 1868 at the age of twenty-one.

Robert Freeman excelled at Harvard. He graduated with honors in 1869 and became the first trained accredited black dentist in America. He moved back to Washington DC and opened his own practice.

He mentored young men in his community and encouraged them to go into the medical fields. 

Dr. Freeman worked with anyone who needed dental care and reached out to marginalized communities and people who might not seek dental care for any reason.

George Grant worked hard at Harvard, and he too graduated with honors. He was the second trained and accredited African American dentist. 

Harvard Dental School

Some of the work Dr. Grant had done before coming to Harvard had been in labs making dental appliances. When he graduated, Harvard hired him to work in their mechanical dentistry program.

Dr. Grant turned out to be quite inventive when it came to making dental appliances. He developed inserts for patients with cleft palates. In his day, he was well-known and highly respected in medical circles.

He left Harvard and started his own practice.

Dr. Freeman's life was cut short. In 1873, four short years after earning his dental degree. He died of a waterborne illness.

Despite his short life, he had a profound effect on his community. In 1907 a group of black dentists banded together to create the Robert T. Freeman Dental Society. They are still in existence. Their mission is still to do outreach to populations that suffer from a lack of access to dental care. This includes the disabled, people of color, the elderly, and the impoverished. They also strive for excellence in dental care.

The Robert T. Freeman Society was the precursor to The National Dental Association.

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Dr. George Grant was a successful dentist. He founded and served as the president of the Havard Odontological Society. In 1881, he was elected president of the Harvard Dental Alumni Association.

Dr. Grant made a good life for himself. One of his favorite pastimes was golf. 

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, golfers were given a box of wet sand when they set off on the course. They would make a small mound of sand and put the ball on top of it.

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Dr. Grant designed a wooden tee for his balls. He even patented the thing in 1899.

He only had a few of them made. He handed them out to family and friends. He used them on the course he'd built beside his summer home. He never tried to have them manufactured en masse, and he didn't see a penny from his creation.

In 1910, Dr. Grant died of liver disease. 

He might have passed quietly into the past, except for his little patent. 

After years of designs based on Dr. Grant's work, an announcement was made:

In 1991, The United States Golf Association officially credited Dr. George Grant as the original inventor of the wooden golf Tee.

Two amazing dentists born to enslaved people a year apart, graduated Harvard dental school a year apart, were both very successful in their own rights and left us with enduring legacies of education, medical devices, professional organizations, and golf.

What are the odds?

Celebrate Black History!

Day 4 - Charles W Chappelle - A Man For His Age

The United States Aeronautical Reserve

Charles Ward Chappelle was born in Eatonton, GA in 1872 seven years after the end of the Civil War.

His father, Reverend George W Chappelle belonged to the African Methodist Episcopal Church. His mother, Anna Johnson Chappelle was a homemaker, Reverend's wife, and the bearer of eighteen children.

Perhaps it was the rough and tumble of growing up in the midst of this brood that gave Charles his drive to set himself apart.

He started working odd jobs by the age of ten. He worked in lumber yards, laying brick, and any other type of work a ten-year-old could find. Effective child labor laws would not go into effect until the 1930s, so there were plenty of things he could do to earn money and help his family.

The Knox Institue

The Chappelle family must have had some means because they sent young Charles to the Knox Institute for primary and secondary school. This was a private school for black children in Athens, Ga.

After he graduated from Knox, he attended Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Ga. This institution was established by the African Methodist Episcopal Church. I do wonder if he might not have gotten a break on tuition seeing as his father was a reverend in the church. Not that it matters, I just wondered.

Charles also took correspondence classes.

At the end of all of this education, he emerged into the world with training as an electrical engineer and architect. Which means his first job was teaching in White Plains, GA. Obviously.

Charles moved to Philadelphia and worked as the first head electrician of US Steel for a time.

Then -

He moved to Manhattan and worked as an architect and though several sources say he designed and erected some buildings, I have not been able to find out which ones, so I have to assume they weren't landmark type buildings.

Around this time, he started visiting Africa. He was interested in how our country might improve trade between the continents.

There is no telling what might have happened in Charles' life if the Wright Brothers had not managed to make the first plane in 1903. By 1908, powered flight was all the rage. A new age had arrived. The public wasn't sure they believed it, but the very idea was incredibly exciting.

The buzz and potential of powered flight intrigued Charles. He was as taken by the idea of airplanes as any other American. He became a member of the United States Aeronautical Reserve, and over the course of a year, built a full-sized plane by himself.

In 1911 he entered his craft in The First Industrial Aeroplane Show at the Grand Central Palace in New York City.

Grand Central Palace

The trade show was to get investors interested in building planes for domestic use.

Charles was a hit. He was the only black person to enter a craft, and his participation garnered national media attention.

His plane was also a hit. It was noted for its unique design and capabilities. It was built to safely fly long distances.



There are two bits of information to relate about this event.

1. Charles received a medal. Some sources say he was given it for being the only black person to exhibit. Some suggest he won some kind of award for the design of his craft.

2. His model was put on display at the United States Aeronautical Reserve Headquarters.

Later in 1911, the first African American plane manufacturing company was established, and Chappelle served as the vice president for a short time.

Then, because why not, he became an international businessman. In 1913 he established a trading company that was set up to bring goods from Africa to America. The African Union company invested in building infrastructure - particularly railroads - in Ghana to facilitate trade. He used his contacts in the US Steel industry and the contacts he'd made with organizations in his other pursuits to build a very successful business. He ran this company until 1924.

Charles apparently lived in Africa at times, and in other parts of the US over his years running his company before being bought out and returning to Philadelphia in the 1920s.

Eventually, he went back to Philadelphia and worked for the city in the department of lands and buildings.


He died in 1941.

Charles W. Chappelle was a remarkable man who altered the world just by walking through it and being himself.

Day 3: Henry Blair - Seed Man

In 1807....

Thomas Jefferson was president -

Aaron Burr was accused, indicted, and then acquitted of treason -

The Clermont, Robert Fulton's first American steamboat, left New York City for Albany, New York inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world - 

The Cotton Planter

America enacted the Embargo Act of 1807 because France and the UK were getting frisky with American citizens and goods on the high seas during the Napoleonic War -

Henry Blair was born in Glen Ross, MD.

As with many black inventors in the early 1800's, we know very little about his personal life. I suspect this is partly because he was illiterate and could leave no personal record.

What we do know is that he farmed his own land. He created two farm implements.

The Seed Planter was patented in 1834.

This resembled a wheelbarrow. The seed was in the container. As you pushed the contraption the seed would be released and then covered with soil.


The Cotton Planter was patented in 1836.
It was meant to be pulled by draft horses. Two shovel-like blades split the ground. The seeds were sown behind the shovels.

His devices were meant to make the back-breaking labor of farming a bit easier.


There is nothing in any source that I could find that suggested he was enslaved at any point in his life. He is always described as a free man who worked his own lands. 

I have seen some references that suggested he was a successful farmer, but I haven't been able to find enough information to substantiate this claim.

We know he was illiterate because he signed his patents with an "X".

He does have one special claim to fame.

He was the second African American in the United States to file and receive a patent.

A corn planter still in use

So, here is to Henry Blair! A man who was part of the legacy of farming in America...and Zambia! The corn planter in this picture is still in use in Zambia.

That is indeed a living legacy!

Celebrate Black History 

Day 2: Leonard C. Bailey - Money In The Bank

1825 was a pretty active year for America.

- Indianapolis became the capital of Indiana

- Nobody got a majority of the votes in the presidential election, so the House of Representatives voted to make John Quincy Adams the sixth President of the United States.

-The Erie Canal opened! This allowed goods to travel by water from Albany, NY to Lake Erie.



- Leonard C. Bailey was born!

When Leonard came into the world, there was no way to know how much of an effect he would have on America.

He was born into poverty in the North - the capital is to indicate that this is the Antebellum period or pre-civil war. His parents were free blacks.

Being a free black in the Northern United States meant that even though you could not participate in many areas of American life, you did have rights of movement, your free speech was not restricted, and you could earn money for yourself.

One of many barbers who offer free haircuts to kids who read to them.

Leonard was an enterprising young man. He became a Journeyman barber. Barbering has always been an acceptable and respected profession for African American men. They are still an essential part of communities today.





I could find no information about when Leonard decided that it was better to own the shop than cut the hair, but he did come to that determination.

This was a time in New York's history where abolitionists both black and white were united in advocating for better lives for free blacks. This air of solidarity sparked a surge of supported black businessmen, and an increase in opportunities for black men in New York's society.

By the time the Civil War broke out in 1861, Bailey owned and operated a string of barbershops in the District of Columbia.

As the Civil War raged in the South, he kept his business running. He became part of a burgeoning black upper-middle class by the time the war ended in 1865.

In 1868, the fourteenth amendment was ratified. For the first time in American history, African Americans were granted citizenship and given the right to more fully participate in the American experiment.

A year later, this led to a historic event: Leonard served on the very first integrated jury in America.

The First Unsegregated Jury

In 1869, six black men and six white men sat in the jury box together and listened to the tragic, and scandalous tale of Millie Gaines.

Millie, a black woman, was having a love affair with a white man named James Ingle. He'd gotten her with child, and then refused to support her.

Well, she was not having it. She entreated him to do the right thing.

He started seeing another woman, and that was one step too far for Millie. She procured a pistol and an ax. After he returned from his date, she went into his rooms and attempted to shoot him. The pistol jammed. So, she took the ax and brought it down on his head a few times. That did the trick. She then took herself off to the police station and turned herself in.

The result of the trial? They acquitted her because she was clearly suffering from momentary insanity.

They deliberated for less than five minutes.

Gentlemen were never to use a woman so, and if they did what on earth could they expect? Leonard came to national attention for the first time when the trial was widely covered in the news.

A wealthy man who was respected by everyone who'd served on the first integrated jury is not a bad legacy.

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He was in no way finished.

He was also an inventor.

A number of his inventions were adopted readily by the United States government



In 1883, Leonard invented a truss and bandage system that was designed to help patients with lower body hernias.

This was the first of his massively successful inventing endeavors. The United States Army medical board was a big fan of this invention and adopted it as a treatment.

He made a great deal of money.




In 1884, something happened that made him quite nervous. Grover Cleveland was elected. It was the first time a Democrat had been in power since the 1850s.

The Republican party was the party of emancipation, and they fought for the rights of African Americans. Fearful that the new Democrats would erode the newly acquired and hard-fought rights of blacks, he joined with other wealthy black businessmen to advocate for the rights of the black community. His voice had weight, and he used it to defend the black community.

In the meantime, he kept inventing things. Perhaps he got annoyed by standing in line at the post office. I have no idea if he did or not, but he invented a rapid mail-stamping machine and a transfer system for the railroads. (Lots of people invented things for the railroad!)

By the late 1800s, the fervor of the abolitionists who'd helped build up the fortunes of African Americans in DC during the days before the Civil War had fizzled. Eager black entrepreneurs, black families who wanted to buy houses or invest in education, black-owned businesses that needed improvements or investments discovered that the banks were uninterested in working with them.

Mr. Bailey stepped up once more. In 1888, he collaborated with seven other wealthy black businessmen to found the Capitol Savings Bank in DC. It was the first black-owned bank in America. He served as the president for a while, then the head treasurer, and eventually director of its finance board.


Five years after the bank was founded, America went through a financial crisis. it was called the panic of 1893. Banks were failing all over the country. In the midst of financial destruction in many quarters, the Capitol Bank stayed strong and solvent.

Leonard used his own fortune to procure a loan from another bank to float the bank through a perilous moment, and it honored every single one of its obligations during the panic.

Capitol Savings closed its doors in 1902, but it left a legacy of homes, businesses, and hope in its wake.








In 1899, Leonard invented another massively successful item: the folding bed.



The United States Army really liked this one.


Bailey made another pile of money.






He kept giving back his whole life.


He served as the director of the Manassas Industrial School for Colored Youth in Virginia.

He was a board member of the Berean Baptist Church of DC.

He was also a Freemason.

Leonard Bailey died at the age of 93 of a sudden illness. He is buried in National Harmony Memorial Park.

He was a man who spent his life in service to others and left a legacy of wealth-building to the future.