People

The first black surgeon to do open
heart surgery was Dr. Daniel Hale Williams. In 1893, he saved a man who
was knifed by opening his chest and sewing together the wound, which
was only a fraction of an inch from his heart. He was one of the first
to do this. He accomplished this without any modern medical devices,
such as x-rays.



Thomas
Crapper developed the flush toilet. In 1884, he simulated the materials
a toilet would normally handle, to create "a super-flush which had
completely cleared away: 10 apples, 1 flat sponge, 3 air vessels,
Plumbers Smudge coated over the pan, 4 pieces of paper adhering closely
to the soiled surface." A fantastic feat of flushing!