Garrett Augustus Morgan Sr.
(March 4, 1877 – July 27, 1963)

On November 20, 1923, the U.S. Patent Office grants Patent No.
1,475,074 to 46-year-old inventor and newspaperman Garrett
Morgan for his three-position traffic signal. Though Morgan’s
was not the first traffic signal (that one had been installed in
London in 1868), it was an important innovation nonetheless:

By having a third position besides just “Stop” and “Go,”
it regulated crossing vehicles more safely than earlier
signals had.

Morgan also invented a "safety hood smoke protection device"

  
Ed Donahue
    
    
    
   

José Montserrate Feliciano García is 78 years old today.

The Puerto Rican musician, singer and composer. He recorded
many international hits, including his rendition of the Doors‘
"Light My Fire" and his self-penned Christmas song "Feliz
Navidad".

Hymen L. Lipman (1817-1893)

(FOXNEWS) – Philadelphia inventor Hymen L. Lipman rushed
heroically to the aid of mistake-prone schoolchildren, artists
and draftsmen everywhere when he secured the patent for the
pencil with eraser on this day in history, March 30, 1858. 

"Be it known that I, Hymen L. Lipman, of Philadelphia, in the
county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have
invented a new and useful Lead-Pencil and Eraser;" the
visionary wrote in his patent application.

"I make a lead-pencil in the usual manner, reserving about
one-fourth of the length, in which I make a groove of suitable
size … and insert in this groove a piece of prepared India
rubber (or other erasive substance) secured to said pencil
by being glued at one edge."

The eraser, he noted in his application, "is particularly valuable 
for removing or erasing lines, figures, etc., and not subject to
be soiled or mislaid on the table or desk" — as if the purpose
of an eraser was unknown to mid-19th century consumers. 

On March 7, 1876, 29-year-old Alexander Graham Bell received
a patent for his revolutionary new invention: the telephone.

The German company Bayer patented aspirin on March 6,
1899. Now the most common drug in household medicine
cabinets, acetylsalicylic acid was originally made from a
chemical found in the bark of willow trees. In its primitive
form, the active ingredient, salicin, was used for centuries
in folk medicine, beginning in ancient Greece when
Hippocrates used it to relieve pain and fever. Known to
doctors since the mid-19th century, it was used sparingly
due to its unpleasant taste and tendency to damage the
stomach.

In 1897, Bayer employee Felix Hoffmann (above) found a
way to create a stable form of the drug that was easier and
more pleasant to take. (Some evidence shows that Hoffmann’s
work was really done by a Jewish chemist, Arthur Eichengrun,
whose contributions were covered up during the Nazi era.)

After obtaining the patent rights, Bayer began distributing
aspirin in powder form to physicians to give to their patients
one gram at a time. The brand name came from “a” for acetyl,
“spir” from the spirea plant (a source of salicin) and the suffix
“in,” commonly used for medications. It quickly became the
number-one drug worldwide.