Heat of Genius: The Untold Story of Alice H. Parker and the Invention That Warmed America

The Innovation Chronicles: A Revolutionary Black Inventors Nonfiction Series)\

By: David G. Stone

Narrated by: She Speaks Narrating

On December 23, 1919, Alice H. Parker received Patent No. 1,325,905 for a revolutionary gas-powered heating system that would transform American homes forever. Yet today, almost no one knows her name.

"Heat of Genius" chronicles the remarkable life and groundbreaking innovation of Alice Parker, the Black woman inventor whose vision of centralized heating became the blueprint for every modern HVAC system. While America struggled with deadly heating methods—coal stoves that poisoned families and wood fires that burned down neighborhoods—Parker imagined a safer future where clean, efficient heat could be distributed throughout homes via a network of ducts.

Her patent was decades ahead of its time, describing technologies that wouldn't become commercially viable until the 1950s. But Parker's race and gender ensured that her revolutionary ideas would be implemented by others, making fortunes for white inventors while she remained invisible.

Through extensive research and survivor interviews, this compelling biography reveals not just Parker's technical genius, but the systematic erasure of Black inventors from American history. It's a story of brilliance overlooked, innovation stolen, and the hidden foundations of modern comfort.

Alice Parker's legacy lives in every heated home in America. It's time her story was finally told.

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