Alexander Miles

Shout out to Alexander Miles—barber, real estate developer and inventor.

Prior to your innovative design and patent, elevator doors could only be opened and closed manually by either an operator or a passenger, which made the comprehensive functionality of the machine more hazardous to its occupants. After your daughter nearly lost her life after falling down a shaft opening, your process commenced.

Today’s modern elevator is a derivative of your brainchild. Using a series of levers and rollers, a flexible belt, and drums, you configured the elevator cage so that the shaft could distinguish the appropriate times to open and close. You successfully mechanically devised a more viable option for people to transport themselves from one vertical level to another.

After later moving from Duluth, Minnesota to Chicago, Illinois, and creating an insurance company purely for the purposes of lowering inflated prices and eliminating other discriminatory practices against Blacks, you were widely considered the “wealthiest colored man in the Northwest.” You were a prosperous inventor and entrepreneur who amassed tremendous wealth during your lifetime; and you were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2007, 120 years after receiving your patent for your creation of the elevator.

#BlackHistoryMonth™ #BHM

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