In honor of Black History Month, here are few profiles of contributors to history of African descent:

Elijah McCoy

(1843-1929)- invented a device that lubricated train machinery automatically while it was still in operation.  Before his invention all trains had to be stopped from time to time so they could be oiled by hand.  His invention was used around the world and resulted in the train industry saving millions of dollars.  Others tried to copy his invention, but many people did not except them and created a phrase that is used in the American language today.  They said they wanted “The Real McCoy.”

Silicon Valley Engineering Council

Roy L. Clay

Clay helped launch Hewlett-Packard’s computer division in the late 1960s and is known to some as the godfather of black Silicon Valley for helping break down barriers for African Americans in technology. His recruitment and development of talent has helped usher in the next generation of black technology innovators.

John Henry Thompson

Computer Programming and Software Inventions

Even in high school, John Henry Thompson was interested in computer programming languages. He taught himself several programming languages such as FORTRAN, PLI, COBOL and JCL while working in a New York research facility. Thompson’s goal was to absorb as much knowledge as possible so he could invent his own computer language.
After graduating from High School, he attended MIT where he obtained a degree in Computer Science and a minor in Visual Arts. By combining these two seemingly disparate disciplines, Thompson wanted to bridge the gap between art and technology. Four years later as a chief scientist at Macromedia™, he was able to make progress towards this goal. He developed a number of products, many of them based on his most famous invention, Lingo programming: a scripting language that helps render visuals in computer programs. Thompson used Lingo in one of his better-known computer inventions, Macromedia™ Director. Macromedia™ Director is able to incorporate different graphic formats (such as BMP, AVI, JPEG, QuickTime, PNG, RealVideo and vector graphics) to create multi-media content and applications, thus combining computer programming language with visual art.

Lingo is now used with many programs that have interactive simulations with graphics, animation, sound, and video. Along with Macromedia™ Director, Thompson has helped develop MediaMaker, Actions, VideoWorks Accelerator, and Video Works II. Lingo has also been used to create flash and shockwave programs that now are prevalent in video games, web design, animation, and graphics.

Thanks to Tanisha and Bryan Jones and their daughter Sinai for compiling these profiles from the following sources:

1) The Encyclopedia of African-American Heritage, by Susan Altman
2) The Roots website, theroots.com
3) Famous Black Inventors website, black-inventor.com

In honor of Black History Month, here are few profiles of contributors to history of African descent:

Percy L. Julian

One of the most important scientists of the 20th century, Julian was one of the first to harness the power of plants using the process of synthesis. Synthesis was critical to the medical industry because it allowed scientists to create chemicals that were rare in nature. The chemist’s work led to the birth control pill and improvements in the production of cortisone. In 2007 PBS’s NOVA made a documentary on his life called Forgotten Genius

Valerie Thomas

Inventor of the Illusion Transmitter

Did you ever think of what it might be like if your television could project the on-screen image directly into your living room as a 3-Dimensional image? Maybe not, but if it happens, you’ll have African-American inventor Valerie Thomas to thank for it.
From 1964 to 1995, Thomas worked in a variety of capacities for NASA where she developed real-time computer data systems, conducted large-scale experiments and managed various operations, projects and facilities. While managing a project for NASA’s image processing systems, Thomas’ team spearheaded the development of “Landsat,” the first satellite to send images from space.

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