Thomas Jennings’ invention for a method of dry-scouring clothes was groundbreaking in many ways. The predecessor to dry cleaning, the invention was born from necessity. A skilled tailor and successful businessman in New York City, Jennings experimented until he found a method of cleaning that did not harm clothes. He received his patent in 1821, one of the first known African American patent holders in U.S. history.
Although Jennings was a freedman, his wife and children were enslaved. He used the proceeds from his invention to purchase his family’s freedom, and became active in abolitionist and civil rights work. When his daughter Elizabeth was forcibly removed from a “whites only” streetcar, he helped organize a legal defense fund against segregation on public transportation in New York City. Elizabeth won her case in 1855, the same year Thomas helped found the pioneering Legal Rights Association. Jennings’ story represents just one example of innovation driving positive social change. #BlackHistoryMonth #InventingModernAmerica
Read more about Jennings: https://www.invent.org/inductees/thomas-jennings
U.S. Patent no. 3306x
Title: Dry Scouring
Patented March 3, 1821