Poulson's American Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia newspaper

Poulson's American Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia newspaper, with interesting articles) April 21, 1836 -- INVENTION BY A NEGRO - A patent given to 29 year-old Henry Blair of Maryland, a free colored man, for a Corn Planter machine now on exhibit at the Capitol - description of process - Blair thinks it will save the labor of eight men - he is adapting the machine for use with cotton. [NOTE: Henry Blair was the only inventor to be identified in the Patent Office records as "a colored man." Blair was born in Montgomery County, Maryland around 1807. He received a patent on October 14, 1834 for a seed planter and a patent in 1836 for a cotton planter. Henry Blair was the second black inventor to receive a patent the first was Thomas Jennings who received a patent in 1821 for a dry cleaning process. Henry Blair signed his patents with an "x" because he could not write. Henry Blair died in 1860.].