Benjamin Bradley (inventor)

Benjamin Bradley was born a slave in Maryland, around 1830. At the time, it was against the law to teach a slave to read or write. Bradley was able to learn anyway, perhaps taught by his master's children. Young Bradley was also good at mathematics and showed a natural talent for making things.

As a teenager, Bradley was put to work in an office. At the age of 16, he built a working steam engine from pieces of scrap metal. Others were so impressed with Bradley's mechanical skills that he was given a job that made better use of his talents. His new job was as an assistant in the science department at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. There, Bradley set up and helped conduct experiments. Professors at the Naval Academy were impressed with Bradley. They said he was smart and a quick learner, and did not make mistakes when he prepared experiments in the laboratory. Bradley was paid for his work, but because he was a slave, the money went to his master. The master allowed Bradley to keep five dollars a month for himself.

Bradley had not forgotten his work with steam engines. He saved the money he earned, and sold his original model engine to a student at the Academy. Bradley then used his savings to develop and build an engine large enough to run the first steam-powered warship.

Because he was a slave, Benjamin Bradley was not allowed to get a patent for the engine he developed. He was, however, able to sell the engine and keep the money. He used that money to buy his freedom. He lived the rest of his life as a free person.

Patent Information

Benjamin Bradley's name appears in few books, perhaps because he was not able to get a patent for his work. Just as there was disagreement over the issue of , there was also disagreement over whether a slave should be allowed to hold a patent. Some people said anyone who came up with an original idea should be allowed to patent it. It should not matter whether that person was free or a slave. Others said that, because he, a slave, was his or her master's property, anything that a slave produced, including ideas, belonged to the master as well.

In 1857, however, a slave owner named Oscar Stewart applied for a patent on something one of his slaves had invented. Stewart argued that he owned all the results of his slave's labor, whether that work had been manual. Despite the laws, the Patent Office agreed. The patent was granted, giving Stewart credit for the invention. The slave who actually came up with the idea (a cotton-processing device) is mentioned in the patent only as "Ned."

Because of the decision in the Stewart case, the patent law was changed to say that a slave could not hold a patent. When the Confederate States broke away from the United States in 1861, the Confederate government surprised many people by once again allowing slaves to hold patents. After the Civil War, however, the patent law was changed again, specifying that all people throughout the United States had the right to patent their own inventions.