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Tue, 12.06.1932

A Black Man Patents The Automotive Gearshift

blueprint (copy)

On this date in 1932, Richard B. Spikes received a patent for an automatic car gear shift. Major companies welcomed his inventions.  Its patent #1889,814.

By the time he created the automatic safety brake in 1962, Spikes was losing his vision. To complete the device, he first created a drafting machine for blind designers. The machine would soon be used in almost every school bus nationwide.

Reference:

USPO.gov

Global Black Inventor.com

Created Equal: The Lives and Ideas of Black American Innovators
By James Michael Brodie
Copyright 1993, by Bill Adler Books, Inc.
William Morrow and Co. Inc., New York
ISBN 0-688-11536-5

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