BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRICAN AMERICAN " ALEXANDER MILES " WAS AN INVENTOR WHO WAS BEST KNOWN FOR BEING AWARDED A PATENT FOR AUTOMATICALLY OPENING AND CLOSING ELEVATOR DOOR DESIGN IN 1887 : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK GENIUS "

              BLACK  SOCIAL HISTORY                                                                                                                  

                           Alexander Miles

Alexander Miles (May 18, 1838 - May 7, 1918) was an African-American inventor who was best known for being awarded a patent for an automatically opening and closing elevator door design in 1887. He was awarded the patent, U.S. Patent 371,207, on October 11, 1887.

Alexander Miles was born in Ohio , probably in Pickaway County near the town of Circleville,^[1] in 1838^[2] the son of Michael and Mary (Pompey) Miles.^[3] Miles may have resided in the nearby town of Chillicothe, Ohio,^[4] but subsequently moved to Waukesha, Wisconsin where he earned a living as a barber.^[5] After a move to Winona, Minnesota, he met and married Mrs. Candace J. (Shedd) Dunlap, of La Porte, Indiana,^[6] a widow with two children who was four years his senior and a native of New York.^[7] Together they had a daughter, born in 1876, named Grace. Shortly after her birth, the family relocated to Duluth, Minnesota.^[8]

The family moved to Chicago, Illinois by 1889, where Miles was listed in the city directories as a laborer ^[9] However, by 1900, he listed himself as an insurance agent.^[10] Around 1903, they moved again, to Seattle, Washington where he worked in a hotel as a barber.^[11]