Five Facts They Never Taught Us

A gift from Imani Oliver

Five Facts They Never Taught Us

Before noon today you probably used five Black inventions without knowing it. Here are the five people behind them, and two puzzles so their names get found.

  1. Alice Parker 1919

    The heat that took the chill off this morning. She patented a gas furnace design with room-by-room controls, and it paved the way for modern central heating.

  2. Garrett Morgan 1923

    The yellow light on your drive. He patented the three-position traffic signal and sold the rights to General Motors for forty thousand dollars.

  3. Sarah Boone 1892

    The blouse you ironed. She patented a better ironing board, narrow and curved so a sleeve could finally lie flat. One of the first Black women to hold a US patent.

  4. Frederick McKinley Jones 1938

    The eggs that crossed the country fresh. He built the first automatic refrigeration unit for trucks, then co-founded Thermo King.

  5. Marie Van Brittan Brown 1966

    Your doorbell camera. A nurse in Queens, she designed the first home video security system, then patented it with her husband Albert.

Play both puzzles right here on the page — nothing to print, nothing to install.
Prefer paper? The printable PDF is waiting at the bottom.

Puzzle one

Word Search · The Inventors

All 18 words are hiding in the grid. They run forwards, backwards, up, down and diagonally. Every one of the five surnames is in there.

To play here: tap the first letter of a word, then tap its last letter.

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0 of 18 found

Find these 18 words

  • ALICE
  • BLUEPRINT
  • BOONE
  • BROWN
  • FREDERICK
  • FURNACE
  • GARRETT
  • INVENTOR
  • IRONING
  • JONES
  • MARIE
  • MORGAN
  • PARKER
  • PATENT
  • SARAH
  • SECURITY
  • SIGNAL
  • THERMO

Imani Oliver · Learn History the Fun Way® · imanioliver.com

Puzzle two

Fill-In · The Inventors

Every word below fits into the grid exactly once. Use the letter counts to work out where each one goes, then let the crossings do the rest. Start with the 9-letter words — there are only two.

To play here: tap a square and start typing. Tap it again to switch between across and down.

0 of 18 placed

Fit these 18 words

5 lettersALICE, BOONE, BROWN, JONES, MARIE, SARAH
6 lettersMORGAN, PARKER, PATENT, SIGNAL, THERMO
7 lettersFURNACE, GARRETT, IRONING
8 lettersINVENTOR, SECURITY
9 lettersBLUEPRINT, FREDERICK

Imani Oliver · Learn History the Fun Way® · imanioliver.com

SolutionsAnswers to both puzzlesStop here if you are still playing

Puzzle one · Word Search

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Puzzle two · Fill-In

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Imani Oliver · Learn History the Fun Way® · imanioliver.com

If you enjoyed these

You just played one of each. There are 100 more in every book.

Same large print, same real history, same five-facts-you-never-knew feeling — a hundred puzzles at a time, printed on paper that does not bleed through.

Black History Word Search book by Imani Oliver, front cover

Word Search Books

Liked puzzle one? Five titles, 100 large-print puzzles each, every word a real name worth knowing.

See word search books imanioliver.com/collections/word-search-books
Black Women Fill-In Puzzles book by Imani Oliver, front cover

Fill-In Puzzle Books

Liked puzzle two? The newest line. Five titles of criss-cross puzzles built the same way, on the same history.

See fill-in books imanioliver.com/collections/fill-in-puzzle-books

Every book is $14.99. Take 3 or more and shipping is on me.

Here is your printable copy

Both puzzles and the answers, laid out on three clean pages.

Download the printable PDF

Thank you for spending a little time with these five names. Nobody taught us our mornings were this Black — that is exactly why I make the books.
Imani Oliver · Founder, Learn History the Fun Way®