Here is your monthly dose of my Canadian engineering news created for licensed and aspiring engineers, geoscientists and technicians in Canada. Stay informed and impress your colleagues with your newfound knowledge.
Thanks for reading and have a great month!
Gavin Simone, P.Eng., PMP, LEED AP
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To celebrate Black History Month, what engineering contribution, from someone of African diaspora, do you most enjoy?
Elijah McCoy! Canadian born expat who was unable to find engineering work in the US due to racial barriers, so he worked labour instead. While he worked labour he invented an oil cup that was designed so well that people would reject copy-cats and ask for “the real McCoy”.
I would have to say Otis Boyken! As my background is in Electrical Engineering, Otis interest was primarily with resistors and held 26 patents for over 26 electronic devices. His most significant invention was a variable resistor that are used for artificial heart peacemaker. Innovations in even the smallest devices can go such a long way!
Elijah J. McCoy (May 2, 1844 – October 10, 1929), he was a Canadian born engineer of African American origin. He invented the lubrication of steam engines.
William Peyton Hubbard (842-1935), Born in Toronto, the son of American slaves who escaped their plantation in Virginia and came to Canada via the underground railroad. Hubbard invented and patented a commercial baker’s oven – the Hubbard Portable.
Otis Boykin of Illinois invented a special control device that could withstand large temperature and pressure changes. I am most interested in this as I work in the defense industry in Alberta.
In 1917, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology gave its first civil engineering degree to an African-American, Robert R. Taylor.
This can’t be attributed to a single individual, but I’m sure I share this with a lot of people. The work the Egyptians did with the pyramids and other landmarks amazes me and is still a marvel to this day. These were monumental projects that incorporated a tremendous level of complexity and sophistication in their construction. I plan on visiting and seeing them first hand one day.
For me, it is Marie Van Brittan Brown (October 30, 1999 – February 2, 2021) who pioneered the invention of CCTV in 1966.
Mary Jackson (April 9, 1921 – February 11, 2005) for all her contributions as a mathematician in the early days of NASA’s Apollo space programs. Her work, both as an engineer, and an advocate for women and African-Americans in STEM is inspiring especially as someone working in the aerospace industry.
Her contributions and the many challenges she faced are chronicled in the book Hidden Figures and it’s movie adaption (highly recommend it!).
Walter Braithwaite who created the first computer aided design program for Boeing. CAD is an essential part of engineering design today.
The Three-Light Traffic Light, Invented by Garrett Morgan in 1923
Color IBM PC Monitor and Gigahertz Chip, Co-Invented by Mark Dean c. 1980 and 1999
Automatic Elevator Doors, Invented by Alexander Miles in 1887
Granville Tailer Woods – His main contribution to the field of communications entailed the invention of the “Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph” (railway induction telegraph). His invention of the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph was designed “for the purpose of averting accidents by keeping each train informed of the whereabouts of the one immediately ahead or following it, in communication with stations from moving trains; and in promoting general social and commercial intercourse.”
Philip Emeagwali – 1989 Gordon Bell Prize winner in computing.
Ursula Burns – the first African American CEO of a Fortune 500 company – Xerox
Railway telegraph by Granville Tailor Woods-Brilliant idea to use the railway track as a telegraph line for trains!