May 23, 2009


First negro to receive U.S. patent for his invention, “dry-scouring”

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Thomas Jennings, a tailor of New York city, has become the world’s first Negro to be granted a U.S. patent on his revolutionary dress cleaning method, which he calls “dry-scouring”. Jennings is a free man, born in the United States, and an American citizen.

1820

This is what happened next.

posted by Lucy Foley in clothes, design, economics, fashion, history, news, nineteenth century (sorry cindy)™, politics, race, science, society, technology 

comments

2 Responses to “First negro to receive U.S. patent for his invention, “dry-scouring””

  1. F.J. on February 8th, 2010 at 2:26 pm

    doing research on this

  2. Lucy on February 8th, 2010 at 7:19 pm

    Cool. I found there was very little information on Jennings online, and the story has potential to be quite extraordinary, I think. Do keep us posted about what you find, or a link to where your research can be read.

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