Also You do know that Patents can be researched right?

On Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 2:47:35 PM UTC-7, Patriot Games wrote:
> Black Invention Myths
> Perhaps you've heard the claims: Were it not for the genius and energy
> of African-American inventors, we might find ourselves in a world
> without traffic lights, peanut butter, blood banks, light bulb
> filaments, and a vast number of other things we now take for granted
> but could hardly imagine life without.
> Such beliefs usually originate in books or articles about black
> history. Since many of the authors have little interest in the history
> of technology outside of advertising black contributions to it, their
> stories tend to be fraught with misunderstandings, wishful thinking,
> or fanciful embellishments with no historical basis. The lack of
> historical perspective leads to extravagant overestimations of
> originality and importance: sometimes a slightly modified version of a
> pre-existing piece of technology is mistaken for the first invention
> of its type; sometimes a patent or innovation with little or no
> lasting value is portrayed as a major advance, even if there's no real
> evidence it was ever used.
> Unfortunately, some of the errors and exaggerations have acquired an
> illusion of credibility by repetition in mainstream outlets,
> especially during Black History Month (see examples for the traffic
> light and ironing board). When myths go unchallenged for too long,
> they begin to eclipse the truth. Thus I decided to put some records
> straight. Although this page does not cover every dubious invention
> claim floating around out there, it should at least serve as a warning
> never to take any such claim for granted.
> Each item below is listed with its supposed black originator beneath
> it along with the year it was supposedly invented, followed by
> something about the real origin of the invention or at least an
> earlier instance of it.
> http://www33.brinkster.com/iiiii/inventions/
> Printing Press
> W.A. Lavalette invented "the advanced printing press" in 1878? No!
> Movable-type printing first appeared in East Asia. In Europe, around
> 1455, Johann Gutenberg adapted the screw press used in other trades
> such as winemaking and combined it with type-metal alloy characters
> and oil-based printing ink. Major advances after Gutenberg include the
> cylinder printing press (c. 1811) by Frederick Koenig and Andreas
> Bauer, the rotary press (1846) by Richard M. Hoe, and the web press
> (1865) by William Bullock. Major advances do not include Lavalette's
> patent, which was only one of 3,268 printing patents granted in the US
> by the year 1888 (Butterworth, Growth of Industrial Art). Improvements
> After Gutenberg