In Reply to; ‘Whites Stole a Lot of Black Inventions’

 I interacted with a black writer defending the idea that blacks invented basketball and the idea was stolen, who then went on to explain that blacks often had their ideas stolen for patentable items too…

Seems rather racist X. I respect your point of view though. I don’t have the time to consider the history of adverse racial interaction or investigate the expropriation of ideas. My daily agenda is fairly full these days. Too little time to write and more time to work lol. My areas of focus as an undergrad were in philosophy and history so I am interested in the material, yet in areas that I have some knowledge of there wasn’t too much early ‘theft’ of ideas that I am aware of where people beside the inventor received credit.

A lot of American inventors were, to start with, of European ancestry with a very strong scientific background and little contact with Africans. European-Americans had more technical structure enabling more inventive synthesis and a historical continuity of technical education. There was a lot of natural segregation of the races. That is most blacks imported as slaves were brought to the south that was primarily agrarian rather than industrial. They were usually illiterate arrivals as well. They were not included in the education systems and corporate developments that supported science until the 20th century generally, so far as I know. When the slaves were liberated they moved for a while in large numbers to the north. Yet in the west where I grew up the population was 95% white. That of course has changed much over the decades. Maine for example, before the civil war, was .2% black. Maine was part of Massachusetts in that era.

I am not sure that considering things statistically is an especially productive way to validate points regarding the theft of ideas. It probably needs to be examined individually rather than statistically. There are plainly people that will steal anything they can, including patentable material, and that experience transcends racial lines. I wouldn’t doubt for a minute that if ante-bellum southerners saw a slave inventing anything that they would take it for their own. I haven’t researched the topic much, yet I would guess that the old south had far fewer patents than the northern states. I looked that up with AI“Per Capita Rates: During the 1850s, the South’s patent rate was less than half of the North’s on a per capita basis. By 1850–1860, while the national average was 91.5 patents per million people, the Southern rate had fallen to roughly 15.5 patents per million.”

I know as well about the post-civil war south’s history of conscript labor- forced labor made by charging blacks falsely with petty crimes by country sheriffs so they would be forced to work as prisoners hired out to business. Prisoner labor replaced a lot of the slave labor that was lost when the north won the war. That situation continued until as late as the 1930s I believe. That was a good reason for blacks to migrate north.

Today people hiring for corporations that often own whatever an inventor creates working for them because of a contract, will hire anyone with ability. Culture and exposure to ideas is foundational for being an inventor. Einstein’s father, for example, built electrical generators in Germany when that sort of thing was fairly new. He was thus exposed early to technology and very strong electro-magnetic fields and examining the idea of gravity as some kind of field could easily grow in his brilliant, educated mind. Cultural continuity enables education levels to be higher compared to those without a history of education. The principle applies across many if not most fields. Would Bobby Bonds have been as good of a player if his father wasn’t a major leaguer of quality? People with parents that are jugglers probably find it easy to be jugglers themselves at an early age, and chess grandmasters often or usually were exposed to a culture of chess from an early age. Paul Morphy for example- a player Robert James Fischer thought was great, watched his father and uncle play chess games at home from the earliest age.

I wrote this to clarify that racism etc can occur on an individual basis- it does not require institutional racism to exist. I also reply to a point that Thomas Edison tried to steal the telegraph from a black inventor- and cited some historical order of invention provided by Gemini.

Racism, sexism, agism requires only one individual to make one remark or action upon someone else on that basis. Institutional racism is different- that does generally require power. Acton’s comment ‘power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ can be reflected in many fields. The history of whites being liberated themselves from oppression by other whites is comparable in time of history to that of blacks in the U.S.A. In Russia serfs were only freed about 1867 for example. Revolutions in Europe against royalty began to occur only after 1642, and rather slowly over centuries. In Nigeria today black muslims are killing Christian blacks- there is no intra-racial security from oppression either. On your point about Granville Woods- that is interesting, yet nothing was stolen apparently. The courts twice decided in Woods favor regarding the invention of the synchronius telepgraph- so the system in that case worked as it should. It isn’t surprising that Edison would sue Woods though- that is competition. It costs some companies millions each year to defend patents against rival claims. Ai provided some history about the inventors of the telegraph… Gemini- “Yes, many people invented telegraph systems long before Granville Woods (late 1800s), with Samuel Morse patenting his electric recording telegraph in 1837 and Claude Chappe creating an optical telegraph in 1794, though Woods made significant advancements, particularly with the induction telegraph for railways, facing patent battles with Thomas Edison.

Key Precursors to Granville Woods:

Samuel Morse (1830s-1840s): Developed the electric telegraph that used electromagnetism to send signals (dots and dashes) over wires, a system that became the standard.

Alfred Vail (1830s): Morse’s assistant, he helped develop the recording register and Morse Code, notes the Library of Congress.

Claude Chappe (1794): Invented the first practical optical telegraph (using visual signals) in France, demonstrating communication over distance before electric systems.

Thomas Edison (1870s): Invented a telegraph that could send multiple messages (quadruplex telegraph) over one wire, notes Wikipedia.

It was Lewis Latimer- a black inventor- that added the carbon filament to Edison’s light bulb- Latimer received credit and patents for his work. Gemini said; “did latimer get credit for his work or a patent

Yes, 

Lewis Latimer received significant professional credit during his lifetime and secured multiple patents for his work on the light bulb.

Patents

Latimer held several patents related to the light bulb, most notably for the carbon filament, which made electric light practical and long-lasting:

• Electric Lamp (1881): Patent No. 247,097, shared with Joseph Nichols, for an improved method of attaching carbon filaments to conducting wires.
• Process of Manufacturing Carbons (1882): Patent No. 252,386, for his most famous innovation—a more durable carbon filament that reduced breakages during production.
• Supporter for Electric Lamps (1882): Patent No. 255,212. 

Professional Credit During His Lifetime

While Thomas Edison received the public spotlight as the “inventor” of the bulb, Latimer was highly respected in the industry:

Global Recognition: He personally supervised the installation of electric lighting systems in major cities, including New York, London, and Montreal. 

Inner Circle: In 1884, he was hired by Thomas Edison and became a key member of the Edison Pioneers in 1918—an elite group of 28 charter members who had worked closely with Edison.

Authoritative Author: He wrote the first engineering handbook on lighting, Incandescent Electric Lighting: A Practical Description of the Edison System (1890), which became a foundational text for the industry.

Expert Witness: He served as a crucial patent investigator and expert witness for the Edison Electric Light Company, successfully defending Edison’s patents in court.”