African American Patent Holders: T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

Illustrations from the original patents

Included in this photo gallery are the drawings and text from original patents. These are copies of the originals submitted by the inventor to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Also included in this photo gallery where possible, are the photos of individual inventors and their inventions.

Gerald L Thomas recieved U.S. patent #6,597,281 for a "Pager Belt Buckle Device" on July 22, 2003.

Inventor Gerald L Thomas, was born in Savannah Georgia, grew up in Maryland, and now resides in Chicago. He came up with his idea for his buckle after working in the fashion retail business for many years. Clients coming in to try on and purchase clothing were often wearing a clip-on device on their belts, pagers or cellphones that would fall to the floor or get missplaced.

Thomas thought it would be cool and more fashionable, to have these devices as a wearable technology. Thomas states, "I'm a Buckle Designer, who just wanted to get this product to market, that can be any number of wireless accessories, housed as fashion.

A pager belt buckle device for conveniently combining a belt buckle with a pager unit. The pager belt buckle device includes a belt buckle member having an upper elongate support portion and a lower elongate support portion being spaced apart and further having a housing portion integrally attached to the upper and lower elongate support portions and being disposed therebetween and being recessed along a longitudinal back side of the elongate support portions thus forming a belt receiving slot between the upper and lower elongate support portions; and also includes pin-like support members being removably connected to the upper and lower support portions and extending therebetween; and further includes a catch member hingedly mounted about a first of the pin-like support members; and further includes a pager assembly for receiving radio signals.

Biography of Valerie Thomas below image.

Valerie Thomas received a patent in 1980 for inventing an illusion transmitter. This futuristic invention extends the idea of television, with its images located flatly behind a screen, to having three dimensional projections appear as though they were right in your living room. Valerie L Thomas invented an illusion transmitter and received patent 4,229,761 on 10/21/1980

Joseph Ausbon Thompson invented a moist/dry lavatory and toilet tissue and received patent #3,921,802 on 11/25/1978

GM engineer, Dr Patrick Usoro invented a family of transmissions for General Motors.

Simon Vincent invented a woodworking machine and received patent #1,361,295 on 12/7/1920

Ulysses Walton invented improved dentures and received patent 2,314,674 on 3/23/1943.

James West invented a technique for the fabrication of foil electret and received patent #3,945,112 on 3/26/1976.

James West invented a technique for removing surface and volume charges from thin high polymer films and received patent #4,248,808 on 2/3/1981

James West invented noise reduction processing arrangement for microphone arrays and received patent #4,802,227 on 1/31/1989

John White invented an improved lemon squeezer and received patent #572,849 on 12/8/1896.

GM engineer, Dr Anthony B Will invented a vehicle steering system with a electronic power regulation unit and patented it on April 1, 2003.

Patent Abstract: A steering system for an automotive vehicle having two front wheels and two rear wheels is provided. The steering system includes a vehicle speed sensor; means for steering the front wheels at a desired steering angle; at least one steering angle sensor for sensing the steering angle of the front wheels; an axially displaceable rear rack, linked between the rear wheels, for steering the rear wheels at a determined steering angle; a centering resilient member, extending along the length of the rear rack, having a resiliency enabling the rear rack to return the rear wheels to a neutral steering angle position; a rear transmission mechanism connected to the rear rack; an actuator connected to the rear transmission mechanism for axially displacing the rear rack via the rear transmission mechanism against the resiliency of the centering resilient member; at least one steering angle sensor for sensing the steering angle of the rear wheels; an electronic control unit for determining a steering angle for the rear wheels from electric signals received from the vehicle speed sensor, each front wheels steering angle sensor, and each rear wheels steering angle sensor and for supplying an appropriate level of electric current to the actuator to thereby electrically empower the actuator to steer the rear wheels at the determined steering angle; and an electronic power regulation unit for selectively and electrically disabling the actuator according to electric signals received from the vehicle speed sensor, the level of the electric current supplied by the electronic control unit to the actuator, and a predetermined electric current limiting function.

Paul Williams invented improvements to helicopter design and received patent #3,065,933 on 11/27/1962

Paul Williams invented improvements to helicopter design and received patent #3,065,933 on 11/27/1962

Joseph Winters invented a fire escape ladder and received patent #203,517 on 5/7/1878.

Granville Woods invented an amusement apparatus and received patent #639,692 on 12/19/1899.

Kevin Woolfolk invented a squirrel cage having a cyclometer and method for monitoring the activity of an animal and received patent #5,649,503 on 7/22/1997.

James Young invented improved battery performance control and received patent #4,564,798 on 1/14/1986.