ell nigh covered the whole range of patentable subjects.

A study of the list will disclose the fact that the Negro inventor has
very often, like his white brother, caught the spirit of invention,
and not being contented with a single success, has frequently been led
to exert his energies along many different lines of inventions.

Elijah McCoy, of Detroit, Mich., heads the list with twenty-eight
patents, relating particularly to lubricating appliances for engines
both stationary and locomotive, but covering also a large variety of
other subjects. The next is Granville T. Woods, of Cincinnati, whose
inventions are confined almost exclusively to electricity, and cover a
very wide range of devices for the utilitarian application of this
wonderful force. Mr. W. B. Purvis, of Philadelphia, comes next with
sixteen patents relating especially to paper bag machinery, but
including a few other subjects as well. Mr. F. J. Ferrell, of New
York, has ten patents on valves adapted for a variety of uses. Then
comes ex-Congressman Geo. W. Murray of South Carolina, with eight
patents on agricultural implements. Mr. Henry Creamer has seven
patents on steam traps, and more than a dozen among the number have
patented as many as five different inventions.

Time and space will not admit of any extended notice of many
individual patentees, but mention should be made of a few of them.

Granville T. Woods is called the "Black Edison" because of his
persistent and successful investigations into the mystery of
electricity. Among his inventions may be found valuable improvements
in telegraphy, important telephone instruments, a system for
telegraphing from moving trains, an electric railway, a phonograph,
and an automatic cut-off for an electric circuit. One of his telephone
inventions was sold to the American Bell Telephone Company, who is
said to have paid Mr. Woods handsomely for his patent. Mr. Ferrell's
inventions of valves laid the foundation for a large and highly
successful manufacturing and commercial enterprise which he now
conducts in the city of New York.

Mr. Elijah McCoy succeeded in placing his lubricators on many of the
steam car and steamboat engines in the northwest and also on some of
the ocean steamers, and from these he receives a valuable annual
royalty.

Mr. Matzeliger, of Massachusetts, is credited with being the pioneer
in the art of attaching soles to shoes by machinery; and Mr. Joseph
Lee, of Boston, is said to ha