Jones, Martha
unknown · Contribution: 1868
Inventor
Combined corn husking and shelling machine
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Quick facts
- Born
- Unknown
- Active since
- 1868
- Category
- Agriculture & Food
- Best known for
- Corn husker-sheller patent (1868)Possible first Black woman patenteeFarm labor-saving device
Impact on the world
Jones may have been the first Black woman to hold a U.S. patent, claiming a place in the record decades before others commonly credited. Her machine eased one of farming's most tedious chores.
An alternative history
What Would the World Look Like Without It?
One contribution. Many possible consequences. No single-person origin story.
Imagine this selected contribution absent, not the person or the entire field. The areas below are reflection prompts related to this discipline, not verified chains of direct dependency.
Sources
- Source lookupFind
U.S. Department of Commerce (Inventors Eye)
Exact source links open the cited record. Source lookups help locate legacy references whose original records did not include a direct URL.
1 more sources and references are available to members.
Related visionaries
Blair, Henry
1807-1860
Seed planter and cotton planter
Burr, John Albert
1848-1926
Improved rotary-blade lawn mower
Murray, George Washington
1853-1926
Agricultural machinery: furrow opener, stalk-knocker-cultivator, fertilizer distributor, mechanical cotton chopper
Smith, Lucille Bishop
1892-1985
Created the first commercially sold boxed hot roll mix, a foundational product in the convenience food industry