Immigrant Inventors: Their Pursuit in Shaping American Ingenuity

By Ghazi Rayan MD

Discover the Untold Stories of Immigrant Innovators: Their Struggles, Triumphs, and Pivotal Role in Shaping America's Technological Landscape. 

In the pages of 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
• Release date: May 10, 2024
• ISBN: 9798822947375

Ghazi Rayan MD

Ghazi Rayan, a first-generation immigrant American, is a distinguished clinical professor of orthopedic surgery and a renowned hand surgeon. He pioneered the first hand surgery fellowship in Oklahoma and served as the president of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand. With over 300 scientific presentations and 200 publications, including nine academic books, Ghazi has made significant contributions to medical literature. His nonfiction works include Trilogy of Perseverance and Friendship in the Golden Years, Immigrants who Founded and Fostered an Early Nation, and Immigrant Physicians: Their Contributions and Influence on American Medical History. Ghazi resides in Oklahoma City with his wife, enjoying his grandchildren, biking, reading, and writing.

Book preview

Introduction

Throughout history, inventions have been pivotal in shaping civilizations and advancing society. They have helped people live healthier, longer, and more manageable lives; provided novel technologies that simplified our tasks; improved communication and connectivity; and offered convenience and comfort—overall, making the world a better place for humanity to progress and thrive.

Contrary to the misconception that inventions usually happen by a sudden flash of genius, the process is far from simple; it is often arduous, painful, and lengthy. The Edisonian approach of trial and error through failures before discovery exemplifies the typical systematic process. One example of this method was the Wright brothers’ dogged and methodical stepwise problem-solving to reach their desired result—flight.

There are also myths about inventors being mostly men destined to become famous. Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and Nikola Tesla were inventors who are still household names. However, countless inventors in the last two centuries made brilliant advances, but fortune did not shine on them, and they were left in anonymity or forgotten over time, leaving only several of the most popular remembered. However, suppose we skin away the upper crust. Then, we will find a host of innovators who made significant discoveries with fascinating stories and contributions that have been lost to history. Many may also not know that female inventors since colonial times have made astounding discoveries, some of which we are reaping the benefits of today. For example, Beulah Henry invented the Double Chain Stitch Sewing Machine that allowed seamstresses to do larger loads with less time.

While the U.S. is not the only destination for immigrants, it has more immigrant inventors than most countries combined. These individuals carried to the shores of their adopted country an inflow of ideas and knowledge that fueled American innovation and made the U.S. the most innovative nation, creating an economy that is the world’s envy.

My curiosity about the influence of hyphenated Americans on the landscape of our society compelled me to research, discover, and write two books about immigrants—Immigrants Who Founded and Fostered an Early Nation (2021) and Immigrant Physicians: Their Contributions and Influence on American Medical History (2023).

The first book goes into extraordinary depth about structuring and restructuring the early republic’s financial, legal, military, and political framework. It brings into focus groups and individuals, along with their biographies, who were first-generation immigrants, all contributed to the Revolutionary War, framing the Constitution, helping the Union win the Civil War, and establishing and safeguarding early America’s military, judicial, and financial systems.

The second book seamlessly combines the history of medicine and the storytelling of many leading first-generation immigrant male and female physicians who made groundbreaking contributions and medical innovations that laid the foundation of modern American medicine. Medical history is visited across ancient civilizations, the colonial era, and the Revolutionary and Civil Wars through the early 20th century. It elaborates on anatomical science and the evolution of medicine, including its diseases, practices, specialties, and education. It also examines the deeply layered challenges of our American Healthcare system.

Several immigrant inventors of bygone eras are the topic of the following chapters; they will be showcased along with their narratives and the influence of their contributions.

So, why a book about inventions, inventors, immigrants, and immigrant inventors?

Inventions

Imagine a world without cars, airplanes, locomotives, electricity, phones, radios, televisions, computers, or print books. Imagine also a world without asbestos, herbicides, cigarettes, TV dinners, machine guns, and nuclear bombs. Inventions are a double-edged sword; they bring prosperity but can also have negative consequences. Their paradoxical nature is subject to how we use them. Examples include the Internet, which revolutionized information but also spreads misinformation, and narcotics that can be a life-saving medication or an addictive killer. Our need to invent and use our inventions reflect our human nature—we are a tool-making species, and we are usually kind, sometimes reckless, and, unfortunately, in a few cases, cruel.

Nature is a laboratory for innovators, and many revolutionary discoveries have been inspired by observing natural phenomena. Moreover, many inventions have been straddled on prior findings. The electric bread toaster of today used to be a gas toaster, which, without the discovery of fossil fuel extraction, would not have existed. Before the automobile, there was a bicycle; before that, the wheel was invented. Inventions drive progress; they are fundamental to human advancement and societal evolution. Inventions evolve by learning from the past, enhancing future progress for the benefit of humanity. They travel through time before making their profound influence on modern society.

Twelve thousand years ago, humans were nomadic hunters and gatherers, but this began to change when they settled around river valleys in an area known as the Fertile Crescent. In this region, the first farming emerged. The people of Mesopotamia developed irrigation techniques that improved farming and allowed the cultivation and domestication of crops, ushering in the first agricultural revolution. Advanced farming in Mesopotamia 6,000 years ago steered the emergence of complex societies and the first civilization.

The primitive wooden plow is believed to have been invented around 3000 BCE in Mesopotamia, and its use spread to ancient Egypt (Fig. 1) and the Indian subcontinent; it played a crucial role in the intensification of agriculture in these societies. In 1700, American farmers continued to rely on oxen and horses to power crude wooden plows to till and seed the soil. In 1797, American blacksmith Charles Newbold received the first patent for a cast-iron plow, which helped farmers plant and cultivate efficiently. Unfortunately, today, American farmers and ranchers make up only 1.3% of the employed population, approximately 2.6 million people, an insufficient number to feed the entire population. Agricultural innovations such as automation, smart irrigation, vertical farming, and drones are a few of many discoveries that have helped growers maximize productivity in the face of the workforce shortage.

Pg_4

Fig 1. An image from the burial chamber of Sennedjem c. 1200 BCE shows an ancient Egyptian farmer using a wooden plow driven by cattle to cultivate the land and grow food crops. The plow was instrumental in advancing ancient Egyptian agriculture.

In 1876, there was a six-month Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in which 200 buildings were constructed, 37 countries participated, and ten million visitors attended. Ordinary citizens and businesses promoted their inventions. Among the items on display were the telephone, telegraph, typewriter, mechanical calculator, sewing machines, stoves, lanterns, rifles, wagons, carriages, and agricultural equipment. Lady Liberty’s arm arrived from France, greeting the participants with the women’s pavilion filled with inventions and arts, especially domestic products.

It is hard to overlook the transformative power of inventions, such as the impact of Gutenberg’s printing press on spreading knowledge, the steam engine on the Industrial Revolution, and Eli Whitney’s cotton gin on America’s economy. The light bulb illuminated the world, the telephone enhanced communication, automobiles, and airplanes bridged vast travel distances, and computers and the Internet brought together global humanity.

Later in this book, we will see the domino effect and how one invention leads to another. Inventing the bicycle, for example, paved the way to the development of the automobile; the Wrights Brothers invented their first airplane from bicycle parts, and introducing the transistor led to the development of computers. Inventors stand on the shoulders of others before them, and future inventors will follow the same trend. History sometimes is too quick to credit an invention to one person and forgets, for various reasons, the effort of another preceding inventor with a similar contribution. Furthermore, first inventions are sometimes credited to the wrong person; the airplane and light bulb are just two examples.

Inventors

Every time we eat a hamburger, wear blue jeans, iron clothes, turn on a TV, talk on the phone, drive a car, or perform other daily activities, it is because an inventor has executed a novel idea that helped us accomplish these tasks. Inventors have left their marks on all of the technologies we use today. We have an inventor to thank every time we use a semiconductor gadget: a computer, radio, oven, toy, or washing machine. Reading this book in print or electronic format was possible because of the resolve of past inventors. Inventors offer new products or services that can enhance life experiences for the public and extend the boundaries of human knowledge. Those resourceful individuals, whether engineers, mathematicians, scientists, or unschooled imaginative people, made novel contributions that changed our world. Many inventors work with limited resources and do not receive monetary profits from their creations; only we benefit from them.

The simplest definition of an inventor is anyone who creates or devises a new process, appliance, machine, or article. In patent law, an inventor is a person or persons in the U.S. who contribute to the claims of a patentable invention. Joint inventors obtain a patentable invention for the creative work of more than one person. In a research study, Kerr et al. (2016) defined a modern inventor as anyone who filed for a patent and used data from the World Intellectual Property Organization. Many inventors in the past made inventions before patents were available in the U.S. or, for some reason, did not or could not obtain a patent.

Industrialists of the Industrial Revolution owned or managed manufacturing trades, and many did not seek patents to sell their products. Entrepreneurs are risk takers, but aggregate capital if the business succeeds. Industrialists and entrepreneurs generate wealth for themselves and their communities to fuel economic growth. On the other hand, inventors design and develop new appliances, devices, machines, matters, and processes and claim originality for their products by seeking and acquiring patents. Although inventors are often scientifically advantaged or resourceful, they are not necessarily wealthy and may need monetary backing to take their inventions to fruition.

Today, large companies invest millions of dollars in research and development to offer cutting-edge innovations that boost their products and services. Their researchers make discoveries, but the organization often owns the patents. Employers frequently control patents by requesting employees to sign an employment agreement assigning invention rights to the company.

Most inventors in the 17th and 18th centuries worked in isolation to develop revolutionary designs. In the 20th century, many inventions resulted from collaboration, teamwork, or sponsorship by industry or organizations. Inventors often draw inspiration from their environment, adapt existing ideas, build upon prior knowledge, combine prevailing technologies, or leverage their work on those of previous inventors.

Inventions rarely result from a single lightning bolt of inspiration by an inventor. The thought that a brilliant idea happened by a sudden eureka moment is often glamorized. The invention process is usually lengthy and incremental and involves investigation, experimentation, prototyping, refinement, and implementation. Inventors often do not follow a linear path or leap from conception to conclusion. Their path is often circuitous and complex, involving mistakes, obstacles, setbacks, failures, adjustments, and rehearsals. Inventors face many challenges, including securing funding, obtaining equipment, navigating the patent processes, marketing their inventions, commercializing their products, and dealing with competition.

Eleven countries adopted an Inventor’s Day to acknowledge inventors' contributions in recognition of their immeasurable domestic and global contributions. The U.S. Senate designated February 11th, the birth date of Thomas Edison, who held over 1,000 patents, as National Inventors' Day.

Immigrants

America is a land of immigration and immigrants. Since the colonies became the U.S.A, immigrants have profoundly and indelibly changed their new country's social and political landscape. They transacted cultural exchanges, brought new ideas and technologies, and created a unique national identity. They brought to America folklore, customs, cultures, cuisines, and religions that became American traditions.

Americans are citizens by birth or choice. The Statue of Liberty greeted 12 million immigrants passing through Ellis Island immigration station from the day it opened on January 1st, 1890, until it closed in 1954. They became naturalized citizens, pledging five responsibilities: 1. supporting and defending the Constitution, 2. respecting and obeying state and federal laws, 3. participating in the democratic process, 4. paying income tax, and 5. serving on a jury if needed. American-born citizens do not officially vow these duties. When immigrants joined the military, they also took the oath of enlistment, pledging to support and defend the U.S. Constitution. In 1987, the U.S. Congress formally recognized the first National Immigrants Day on October 28th.

The journey to America was difficult for many. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, unschooled working-class men crossing the treacherous Atlantic from four corners of the globe reached big cities to dig channels, build bridges, pave thoroughfares, lay railroads, and erect levees. In doing so, they founded American infrastructure. Before their ship anchored, they were frightened of being returned to their country of origin for not passing the physical examination at Ellis Island or their papers not being in order. At the gates of entry in the shadow of the statue, some immigrants faced hardships by officials while being scrutinized for diseases such as consumption. They then faced a new foreign world and new challenges, including finding jobs, adjusting and assimilating within the new culture, and lifting themselves out of poverty while facing xenophobia, nativist movements, and persecution. Asian immigrants arrived in America on the West Coast and faced similar challenges going through the processing center on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay.

Some American-born resented newcomers for many reasons: being poor, having different religions, not speaking English well, working hard, and accepting low wages. These immigrants were doing difficult and dangerous jobs that others were unwilling to do. They began living in tenements while building communities, and many became some of the most productive naturalized citizens.

The Russian-born immigrant and author Mary Antin (1881–1949) wrote an autobiography in 1912 titled The Promised Land, describing the hardship her family endured early upon arrival to America. She penned an account of her immigration in 1894 and her transformation of self from the Old to the New World and subsequent Americanization. Antin (Fig. 2) articulated her attempts to assimilate into the culture of the U.S. and persuade the public of the potential for immigrants to become worthy citizens. Her book became a best-seller, and its popularity gave Antin a public speaking platform that she used to promote acceptance of immigration to the U.S. The book was criticized by anti-immigration activists who considered her un-American. For her immigration rights activism, Antin was commemorated on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail.

Fig 2. Russian-born immigrant Mary Antin wrote the autobiography The Promised Land about the hardships she and her family endured while assimilating and Americanizing. She is commemorated on the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.

Another immigrant, Bianca De Carli, arrived on Ellis Island from Italy in 1913 as a young girl. She wrote about her experience and feelings upon arrival at Ellis Island. Before passing through the golden door, she and others had to be processed and undergo a tedious medical examination. She remembered how she felt as her ship reached New York City: We all trembled because of the strangeness and the confusion. . . . Some were weak from no movement and exercise, and some were sick because of the smells and the unfresh air. But somehow, this did not matter because we now knew it was almost over.

Before 1860, most old immigrants to the U.S., other than the enslaved Africans, came from Northern and Western Europe, leaving behind economic, political, and religious troubles. Many were English-speaking and assimilated easily into society. During the Civil War, immigrants arrived in the U.S. to help the war effort and fought mostly on the Union side. Between 1860 and 1900, new immigrants came from Asia and Eastern and Southern Europe. Among these were Greeks, Italians, Poles, Russians, and from the Ottoman Empire, especially the Levant. Many did not speak fluent English and had difficulty assimilating to their new country while trying to preserve their cultures and heritage. These newcomers were resented by native-born Americans and seen as outsiders who were taking away their jobs, prompting the nativist movement to call for restricting immigration.

Immigrant workers were essential for the industrialization of America, its economic growth, and the American society. Urbanization brought overcrowding. Large cities were struck with poverty, and people lived in squalid neighborhoods such as New York City (NYC). Danish immigrant social reformer and photographer Jacob Riis (1849–1914) himself experienced poverty and, upon arrival to NYC, worked as a carpenter and miner before becoming a journalist. He published How the Other Half Lives (1890) and told stories in black and white pictures, bringing attention to the dire living conditions of the poor and homeless in NYC. Some nationalistic critics questioned his right to interfere with the lives and choices of others.

Riis also wrote The Making of an American (1901), an autobiography that follows his struggles as an immigrant in the U.S. and his views on how immigrants can succeed in the land of opportunity. Theodore Roosevelt, the city’s police commissioner, asked his friend Riis to introduce a reform program that established playgrounds and parks in the city.

Immigrant Women

In 1607, the first immigrant women arrived in Jamestown, America's first permanent English settlement. The earliest enslaved African women came to the New World on the White Lion slave ship in 1619. Over the ensuing centuries, women continued to immigrate; while some became inventors, many toiled as workers in factories and mills, seamstresses in textile shops, and farmers in fields, whereas others performed domestic chores.

Women took a leading role in advocating for their rights. In November 1909, over 20,000 primarily Yiddish-speaking immigrant young women launched an eleven-week strike in New York's shirtwaist industry to contest poor working conditions. It was the largest general strike by women in American history. Two years after the strike, 146 garment workers, mostly immigrant women, died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire from severe burns, smoke inhalation, or jumping to their deaths. In response, immigrant women helped develop the immigrant rights movement and created a political voice advocating for work safety and social rights. They embodied the ideals of independence, responsibility, and resilience while establishing their American lives' social, political, and economic foundations.

Immigrant Inventors

The U.S. attracted many skilled immigrant workers who fueled American innovation with the knowledge they brought with them. Immigrants often have science and engineering degrees and attend American universities to receive higher degrees. The immigrant population in America has played a prominent role in enriching the innovation experience.

A research study in 2017, by Dan Kopf found that over a ten-year period, more than 190,000 inventors immigrated to the U.S. This number was greater than that for all immigrant inventors in most developed countries combined. According to the 2003 National Survey of College Graduates, immigrants obtain patents twice the rate of Native Americans. Steve Brachmann found that the U.S. is a destination for 57% of the world’s inventor community. Moreover, a bipartisan Partnership for a New Economy report found that in 2011, 76% of the patents earned by the top ten patenting American universities listed a foreign inventor. Inventors flock to the U.S. from other countries, giving it an economic advantage. Immigrant inventors bring to the U.S. shores an influx of knowledge that fuels American innovation, allowing the U.S. economy to reign supreme.

This book will showcase immigrant-American inventors' remarkable contributions to their new country’s welfare. It does not include immigrant industrialists of the nineteenth century who accumulated massive wealth, such as the Germans John Jacob Astor, Joseph Seligman, and Claus Spreckels. Immigrant inventors of bygone eras rather than from the late twentieth century will be featured.

The following episodes will highlight the history of inventions and their advancements. They shed light on many immigrant-American men and women, some of whom are not duly recognized by historians for their prominent inventions. They explore the captivating stories behind these individuals, narrate their trepidations and triumphs, and the impact of their discoveries on humankind.

The ensuing chapters will explore the lives of immigrants who faced hardship, overcame adversity, made profound innovations, and eventually left an indelible mark on America through their inventive spirit, infusion of fresh perspectives, and contribution to the dynamism of the American economy. Finally, the book probes into the evolution of electricity, electronics, and engineering. It delves into telephone and television technology, refrigeration and recreation, clothing, and cooking. It uncovers the transformative innovative power immigrants partook in to enhance the American way of life and prosperity.

In tracing the paths of many men and women who embarked on the transformative journey to America and left their marks, we will unearth a rich tapestry of narratives, resolve, and the indomitable spirit that embodies the immigrant experience.

CHAPTER 1

common

History of Inventions and Patents

Evolution of Inventions

Ancient human species lived on earth for nearly 2.5 million years without leaving written records, but they left behind artifacts that proved their skill and technological creativity. The primitive stone, made by pre-human species during the Stone Age, was the earliest invention recorded by Archeologists. Later, Homo erectus in Kenya modified this basic invention into a stone tool and used it as a pointed cutter to perforate hide. Homo sapiens, who appeared around 350,000 years ago, made clothing from animal hide and designed projectile weapons like harpoons. Using pigments, Neanderthal troglodytes made the oldest known cave paintings of red hand outlines dating back to 64,000 years. The earliest known figurative cave art painting of an animal was found in Indonesia and dated to 40,000 or 50,000 years ago. Today, more than 350 caves containing a variety of ancient inventive art forms have been discovered in Europe most notably in France and Spain.

The ancient world was more advanced than we believe. A few of today’s developments were not rooted in bygone civilizations. This fact begs the question of how much and what inventions were introduced by which civilizations?

The Mesopotamia region of Western Asia was in the heart of the Middle Eastern world and is the cradle of numerous civilizations. Communities, states, and empires, including the Sumerians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Akkadians, emerged from different areas of Mesopotamia. The earliest and most significant development in human history, the Neolithic Revolution of agriculture, emerged in the Mesopotamian region around 7000 BCE in the Fertile Crescent. The Sumerians built temples, raised ziggurats in every city (Fig. 3), and initiated the earliest written language. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, built along the banks of the Euphrates River, are one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Some Babylonian literature and literary works are still available on thousands of clay tablets.

The Epic of Gilgamesh (2100 BCE) is the oldest known literature written during the Akkadian rule in Mesopotamia; this is also where the Code of Hammurabi (1790 BCE) was written. Besides religion and philosophy, music, and games, Mesopotamia is where systems originated, such as the wheel, planting cereal crops, creating the cursive script, astronomy, mathematics, and medicine. The number zero emerged sometime after 300 BCE when the ancient Babylonians adopted the Sumerian counting system. Phoenicia was a civilization in the Eastern Mediterranean located in modern Lebanon. Besides many advances, including glass-making and purple dye, their main legacy is introducing the world’s oldest verified alphabet, which became a branch of the Northwest Semitic languages.

The Clovis Point is the earliest American invention, introduced by the Paleo-Indians of New Mexico, as a weapon for hunting animals, including the bison essential for the Native's survival. Five thousand years ago, Egyptians developed a technique for making paper from papyrus plants and used pens made of sharp stems to write hieroglyphics on the scrolls, some of which survive today. Egyptians also used eye makeup from kohl made by mixing soot with galena, a mineral with bluish, gray, or black shade.

Several inventions were credited to the Chinese; one of the earliest is silk, discovered probably 5,000 years ago. Chinese mastered silk weaving technology, and for centuries, travelers carried it to the West through what became known as the Silk Road. China introduced papermaking around 100 CE and spread it to central Asia and the world; also, through the Silk Road. A thousand years later, during the Song Dynasty, Bi Sheng invented movable type printing, which found its way to Europe. Around the same time, Chinese alchemists mixed sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter, inventing gunpowder that was used only as a firecracker, while Europeans later used the same invention in cannons and guns to dominate China in the mid-1800s. Several other inventions were credited to the Chinese, including the umbrella, mechanical clock, kite, and tea and alcohol production.

Fig 3A. Map