Sammons, Walter H.
1890-1973 · Contribution: 1920
Improved heated hair-straightening ('hot') comb, pre-heated before use to smooth coarse or curly hair more safely

Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Impact on the world
First African American to patent a hot comb; the heated straightening comb became a staple of 20th-century hair care.
Life & background
African-American inventor from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (b. June 1890, d. 1973).
Sources
- U.S. patent record; African American Registry
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