Bessie Blount was born in Hickory, Virginia in 1914. She was a physical therapist who worked with soldiers injured in W.W.II. Her war service inspired her to patent a device, in 1951, that allowed amputees to feed themselves. The electrical device allowed a tube to deliver one mouthful of food at a time to a patient in a wheelchair or in a bed whenever he or she bit down on the tube. She later invented a portable receptacle support that was a simpler and smaller version of the same, designed to be worn around a patients neck. She was unable to successfully market her valuable inventions and found no support from United States Veterans Administration, so she gave the patent rights to the French government in 1952. The French government put the device to good use helping to make life better for many war vets. Bessie Blounts patent was filed under her married name of Bessie Blount Griffin. Her famous quote, A Black woman can invent something for the benefit of human kind. #Salute #History
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 18:28:06 +0000
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