(USPTO)

Henry Blair

(1804 - 1860)

American farmer and inventor who lived in a rural agricultural area, Glen Ross, Maryland, not far from the nation's capital. Although he was the second Black American to receive a patent, he was the first African American to be recorded as a colored man in the official records of the United States Patent Office.

Corn Planting Machine

from The Mechanics' Magazine (1836)

Notes and Notices

Corn and Planting Machine - A free man of colour, Henry Blair by name, has invented a machine called the corn-planter, which is now exhibiting in the capital of Washington. It is described as a very simple and ingenious machine, which, as moved by a horse, opens the furrow, drops (at proper intervals, and in an exact and suitable quantity,) the corn, covers it, and levels the earth, so as, in fact, to plant the corn as rapidly as a horse can draw a plough over the ground. The inventor thinks it will save the labour of eight men. He is about to make some alterations in it to adapt it to the planting of cotton. - New York Paper.

From: The Mechanics' Magazine, Museum, Register, Journal, and Gazette (6 Aug 1836) Vol XXV, No. 661, page 320, Publ. J. Cunningham, London. (source)

See also:

Henry Blair's Patent No. X8447 - Seed Planter - diagrams and full description of the invention.
Henry Blair's Patent No. 15 - Cotton Planter - full description of the invention.
14 October Today in Science History - event description for date of issue of corn planter patent.
31 August Today in Science History - event description for date of issue of cotton seed planter patent.
Black Inventors, Crafting Over 200 Years of Success, by Keith C. Holmes. - book recommendation.
Booklist for Black Inventors

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