Black History, Inventions, Science
During his tenure at the Cities Service Oil Co. in the late ’60s, Ernest J. Jamieson patented four inventions on the improvement of current gasoline compositions. One invention improved hydrocarbon fuel compositions for use in internal combustion engines by adding a detergent that prevents icing and corrosion.
Another invention improved a hydrocarbon fuel composition by adding a X hydrocarbylacid phosphate salt that reduced icing in the carburetor and improved water tolerance, thus reducing rust and hydrocarbon content in the exhaust.
Black History, Education, Firsts, Science
Theodore S. Wright
Theodore S. Wright (1797-1847) was an African-American abolitionist and minister who was active in New York City, where he led the First Colored Presbyterian Church as its second pastor. He was the first African American to attend Princeton Theological Seminary (and any United States theological seminary), from which he graduated in 1829. In 1833 he was a founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and served on its executive committee until 1840.
Theodore Sedgwick Wright was born about 1797 to free parents. He is believed to have moved into New York City with his family, where he attended the African Free School.[1] With the aid of Governor DeWitt Clinton and Arthur Tappan of the New York Manumission Society, and men from Princeton Theological Seminary, Wright was aided in his studies at the graduate seminary. In 1829 he was the first African American to graduate from there, and the first to complete theological studies at a seminary in the United States.
Before 1833, Wright was called as the second minister of New York’s First Colored Presbyterian Church and served there the rest of his life. (It was later known as Shiloh Presbyterian Church and is now St. James Presbyterian Church in Harlem.) He followed the founder, Samuel Cornish. (more…)
Science
Earning his Ph.D. in 1918, he became the second African American to hold a doctorate in Physics, and in 1919 co- authored a signal work that opened an entirely new field of research – the study of molecular structure through the use of infra-red spectroscopy
Science
Elmer Samuel Imes (October 12, 1883 – September 11, 1941) was an internationally renowned American physicist who made important contributions in quantum, demonstrating for the first time that Quantum Theory could be applied to the rotational energy states of molecules, as well as the vibration and electronic levels. Imes’s work provided an early verification of Quantum Theory, and his spectroscopy instrumentation inventions, which include one of the earliest applications of high resolution infrared spectroscopy, led to development of the field of study of molecular structure through infrared spectroscopy.
He was the second African American to earn a Ph.D. in physics and the first in the 20th century. He was among the first known African-American scientists to make important contributions to modern physics; others’ prior work was unrecorded or uncredited. While working in industry, he gained four patents for instruments to be used for measuring magnetic and electric properties. As an academic, he developed and chaired the department of physics at Fisk University, serving from 1930 to 1941.
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, he was the child of college-educated parents. His father’s family were people of color who had been free since before the American Revolution. His mother’s family, former slaves, had moved to Oberlin, Ohio, after the American Civil War. Both his parents graduated from Oberlin College.
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Science
1914 – 1995
Initially planning to enter medical school, Henry McBay decided instead to study chemistry, earning a B.S. degree in 1934 from Wiley University, a master’s degree from Atlanta University in 1936, and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1945. McBay was long a professor of chemistry at Morehouse College in Atlanta, serving from 1960 to 1981 as Chair of the department.
McBay’s research with acetyl peroxide?with which many other scientists refused to work because of its volatile nature?led to the synthesis of a hormone used in the treatment of prostate cancer. Also influential in the classroom, 45 of McBay’s students earned a Ph.D. in chemistry.
Science
1888 – 1958
A 1912 recipient of a civil engineering degree from Iowa State University, Archibald ?Archie? Alexander joined the Marsh Engineering Company where he designed the Tidal Basin bridge in Washington, D.C. After studying bridge design in London, he and George Higbee formed a general contracting business that focused on bridge design. Alexander’s designs include Washington, D.C.’s Whitehurst Freeway, the heating plant and power station at the University of Iowa, and an airfield in Tuskegee, Alabama. Alexander went on to become the first Republican territorial governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
