l form by the shipbuilding interests of Maine, especially at
Bath.

It is of common knowledge that in the South, prior to the War of the
Rebellion, the burden of her industries, mechanical as well as
agricultural, fell upon the colored population. They formed the great
majority of her mechanics and skilled artisans as well as of her
ordinary laborers, and from this class of workmen came a great variety
of the ordinary mechanical appliances, the invention of which grew
directly out of the problems presented by their daily employment.

There has been a somewhat persistent rumor that a slave either invented
the cotton gin or gave to Eli Whitney, who obtained a patent for it,
valuable suggestions to aid in the completion of that invention. I have
not been able to find any substantial proof to sustain that rumor. Mr.
Daniel Murray, of the Library of Congress, contributed a very informing
article on that subject to the _Voice of the Negro_, in 1905, but Mr.
Murray did not reach conclusions favorable to the contention on behalf
of the colored man.

It is said that the zigzag fence, so commonly used by farmers and
others, was originally introduced into this country by African slaves.

We come now to consider the list of more modern inventions, those
inventions from which the element of uncertainty is wholly eliminated,
and which are represented in the patent records of our government.

In this verified list of nearly 800 patents granted by our government to
the inventors of our race we find that they have applied their inventive
talent to the whole range of inventive subjects; that in agricultural
implements, in wood and metal-working machines, in land conveyances on
road and track, in seagoing vessels, in chemical compounds, in
electricity through all its wide range of uses, in aeronautics, in new
designs of house furniture and bric-a-brac, in mechanical toys and
amusement devices, the colored inventor has achieved such success as
should present to the race a distinctly hope-inspiring spectacle.

Of course it is not possible, in this particular presentation of the
subject, to dwell much at length upon the merits of any considerable
number of individual cases. This feature will be brought out more fully
in the larger publication on this subject which the writer now has in
course of preparation. But there are several conspicuous examples of
success in this line of endeavor that should be fully emphasized in any
treatment o