1910 - BLACK MAN INVENTS TROLLEY CAR DEVICE

HOPE, MD, Walter M. Hard, a young black barber, has invented a device which will improve trolley car service enormously. Hard's device, which he has patented, makes it almost impossible for the electrical contact on top of a car to slip off the overhead wire. This will eliminate the many wasteful delays trolley car riders now suffer whenever the contact slips and the care stops dead.