020324 Way Black History Fact - The Inventor of the Doorknob - Osbourn Dorsey

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Our Way Black History Fact is dedicated to 16-year-old former slave Osbourn Dorsey who invented the doorknob and the doorstop.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Right now, it's time for the Way Black History Fact.
And today's Way Black History Fact is sponsored by Underground
Beach Club from the Streets to the Beach for the
latest in beachwhere visit Underround Beach Club dot com. And uh,
we're talking about the inventor of the doorknob and the doorstop.
So this comes from black facts dot com. In December
of eighteen seventy eight, sixteen year old Osborne Dorsey invented

(00:23):
the doorknob and the doorstop to change the culture of
people using unorthodox means of keeping their doors closed. The
patent number which was issued to Osborne was two ten
seven sixty four. He was said to be residing in Washington,
d C. His innovation was described as an extraordinary and
useful upgrade in door holding devices. Details of when Dorsey

(00:45):
was born remain scanty, but historians who have been researching
into his early life say he may have been born
around September nineteenth, eighteen sixty two. His mother was Christina Dorsey,
and he had two siblings, Mary and Levi. This is
captured in the Washington, d C. Slave Emancipation Records of
April eighteen sixty two, where Dorsey is listed as Osborne Dorsey,

(01:05):
son of the above named Christina, aged about eight months
or ordinary sized, dark complexion. He was born a slave,
but freed when he was about around eight months old.
According to his history, gees imagine that a baby in
a baby bed as a slave, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
His sister Mary was about six years older.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Than him and was also described as ordinary sized, while
Levi was four years old and.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Described as huge in stature.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Little is known about his life but once sorry, but
one fact is documented. He had a patent for his
innovation in eighteen sorry his invention in eighteen seventy eight.
Records of Dorsey's father are also unknown, but what is
known is that the former owner of the Dorseys, Mary Peter,
asked for compensation after they were freed. Historians suggest that

(01:54):
the Dorseys probably were the only slaves did Marry Peter had.
They were a new actually the property of the family
with the last name Washington. Married Peter purchased the Dorseys
in April of eighteen sixty one, before Dorsey was born.
Mary Peter demanded one thousand, three hundred and fifty dollars
in compensation for the freedom of her four slaves. Details

(02:15):
from the eighteen eighty census indicate that when Dorsey was
eighteen years old, he worked as a butcher and resided
with his parents, siblings, and brother in law, Isaac Williams.
Before Dorsey invented the doorknob, people relied on some type
of latch to close their doors, with others using leather
straps as handles. Invention wasn't readily embraced. It took many

(02:36):
years for people to accept fixing the knobs on their
doors when they realized the knobs offered them better safety
and ease when opening their doors compared to the latch
or leather straps. The description Dorsey submitted to the Patent
Office is akin to what we now refer to as
a doorknob. It had a rod which is horizontally stationed
between the doorknob and the doorframe. So one of the

(02:59):
things that we like to do for our way Black
history fact is give some insight into how we got here.
Often enough we're able to highlight some ebony excellence, as
we like to call it. And every so often we
will cover a black inventor. And I think that this

(03:21):
one is super duper timely, just because think about today,
you're going to touch ten door knobs or door not
ten times, and you have a black man to think that.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
The language of the time is so interesting. Mary Peter
purchased is such an interesting sentence to read. But that
was the norm once upon a time. She purchased this
family to work for her without pay into perpetuity.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Wow. Yeah, And you know, it just goes to show
that in the right environment i e. Not slavery, a
mind will become what it's supposed to be, a middle blow.