Dr. James West
I found out today at a speech given by Dr. James West (inventor of the foil-electret transducers for sound recording and voice communication) that Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion ALSO invented the wrench. Somehow, someway, this invention became known as the "Monkey wrench"...I wonder why.
Jack Johnson
Anyway, I thought it was interesting that the first black heavyweight champ is also an inventor. And I thought it was quite interesting that his invention was coined the "monkey" wrench. Now I feel like I can't use that term again. Very interesting. It just goes to show that a lot of facts and history is covered up. We have to seek out the knowledge ourselves.
2 comments:
I am so glad I got an opportunity to chat with Dr. West when he was looking at coming to JHU. Sometime last year PBS ran a documentary on Jack Johnson that was incredibly interesting. You might want to check it out. Chances are they're re-running it this month.
And I concur... that's probably the last time I use the term "monkey" wrench.
The "monkey" wrench was invented by Charles Moncky in 1858. He deliberately allowed it to be called a monkey wrench as a marketing gimmick playing off his name.
The wrench that Jack Johnson patented never went into widespread production. It is of a different design than the monkey wrench.
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