Inventors often toil for their entire lifetimes creating devices which have beneficial effects on society for years - yet that inventor might gain recognition only after he or she has passed away. For others, even after they have gone, recognition is slow in coming despite their great contributions. Richard Spikes is such a person.
Little has been written about Richard Spikes in terms of his childhood, education and personal life. What is known is that he was an incredible inventor and the proof of this is in the incredibly diverse number of creations that have had a major impact on the lives of everyday citizens.
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Over the course
of his lifetime, Spikes developed the following inventions or innovations:
railroad
semaphore (1906)
automatic
car washer (1913)
automobile
directional signals (1913)
beer
keg tap (1910)
self-locking
rack for billiard cues (1910)
continuous
contact trolley pole (1919)
combination
milk bottle opener and cover (1926)
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Automatic
Gear Shift
Patent Drawing |
method
and apparatus for obtaining average samples and temperature of tank
liquids (1931)
automatic
gear shift (1932)
transmission
and shifting thereof (1933)
automatic
shoe shine chair (1939)
multiple
barrel machine gun (1940)
horizontally
swinging barber chair (1950)
automatic
safety brake (1962)
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Spikes inventions
were welcome to major companies. His beer keg tap was purchased by Milwaukee
Brewing Company and the automobile directional signals which were first
introduced in the Pierce Arrow, soon became standard in all automobiles.
For his innovative designs of transmission and gear-shifting devices,
Spikes received over $100,000.00 - an enormous sum for a Black man in
the 1930s.
By the time he
was creating the automatic safety brake in 1962, Spikes was losing his
vision. In order to complete the device, he first created a drafting
machine for blind designers - by the time his braking device was completed,
he was deemed legally blind. The device would soon be found in almost
every school bus in the nation.
Richard Spikes
died in 1962 but left behind a lifetime of achievement that few could
parallel.
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