Ned (surname not recorded)
dates unknown (active 1857) · Contribution: 1857
Industrial & Mechanical
Invented an effective double cotton scraper in 1857 that allowed a single pass to plow and scrape both sides of a cotton row, a labor-saving mechanical improvement that became the central case establishing that enslaved inventors were legally barred from holding U.S. patents
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Quick facts
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- Industrial & Mechanical
Impact on the world
Ned's cotton scraper, and the government's refusal to let him or anyone patent it, laid bare how the patent system was built to deny enslaved inventors ownership of their own ingenuity.
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Sources
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U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (official statement)
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