Post by Emmanuel Yeboah, MS, CQA

Meet Alexander Miles an African American Inventor - Black History Month - Alexander Miles (May 18, 1838 – May 7, 1918) was an African American inventor and businessman, best known for being awarded a patent for automatically opening and closing elevator doors. He was awarded U.S. Patent 371,207 on October 11, 1887. After a move to Winona, Minnesota, he met and married Mrs. Candace J. (Shedd) Dunlap, of La Porte, Indiana, a widow with two children, who was four years his senior and a native of New York. Together they had a daughter, born in 1876, named Grace. It is believed by some that Alexander got the idea for his elevator door mechanism after Grace accidentally fell down a shaft, almost ending her life. Shortly after her birth, the family relocated to Duluth, Minnesota. Here, Alexander became the first Black member of the Duluth Chamber of Commerce and operated a barber shop out of the St. Louis Hotel. In his time, doors of the elevators had to be closed manually, often by dedicated operators. If the shaft was not closed, people could fall through it leading to some horrific accidents. Miles improved on this mechanism by designing a flexible belt attachment to the elevator cage, and drums positioned to indicate if the elevator has reached a floor. The belt allowed for automatic opening and closing when the elevator reached the drums on the respective floors, by means of levers and rollers. Miles was granted a patent for this mechanism in 1887, thus greatly improving the safety and efficiency of elevators. Miles died in 1918, and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2007. #safetyproducts #peoplehelpingpeople #hoteles #commerces #manibidigital