The inventors you're about to read about have three things in common.

1. They're all geniuses.
2. They've all helped shape the world we live in today.
3. They all happen to be of African-American descent.

As part of today's two-hour Innovations Special, Leland Burge, Dean of College of Engineering Architecture and Physical Sciences at Tuskegee University, joins us via satellite to discuss the most significant African-American inventors in United States history.

Each of these groundbreaking inventors is the real McCoy, which, incidentally, is a reference to African-Canadian engineer Elijah McCoy's lubricating device for steam engines and industrial machinery. McCoy's invention was an oil-dripping cup that lubricated machine parts while in motion, thus eliminating the need to shut down machines or stop trains in order to oil them. Like any successful inventions, copycat inventions followed suit. The superior performance of the McCoy Lubricator, however, led engineers and machine operators to ask for it by name, the real McCoy.

Ready for more tidbits and world-changing inventions? Read on.

Leland Burge's top 5 African-American inventors

1. George Washington Carver
   An expert in botany and plant pathology, the prolific Carver invented more than 300 products from peanuts (including peanut butter, which is the best food of all time), more than 100 products from sweet potatoes, and more than 100 products from other plants. As the director of the agriculture department at Alabama's Tuskegee Institute, Carver was visited by presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge. One of the most brilliant and well-respected agricultural innovators in world history, Carver also turned down offers to work for Thomas Edison and Joseph Stalin. In 1952, Carver was honored with Booker T. Washington by being featured on a 50-cent coin.
   
   
2. Lonnie Johnson
   What does an aerospace engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory do for kicks? Invent the SuperSoaker water gun, if it's Lonnie Johnson. Johnson patented the summertime enhancer in 1991, but his arsenal of inventions doesn't end there. Among Johnson's 42 patented inventions are a thermodynamic heat pump, a device for measuring the moisture potential of soil, and (of course) an automatic wet diaper detector.
   
   
3. Lewis Latimer
   In addition to inventing low-cost, mass-production carbon filaments for use in light bulbs, Latimer was a multitalented modern Renaissance man. He was an accomplished poet, musician, draftsman, author, and engineer. Latimer was the sole African-American member of Thomas Edison's engineering division, nicknamed Edison's Pioneers, and provided the drawings for Alexander Graham Bell's patent for the telephone. Among Latimer's several inventions is a device upon which many others have probably had some great ideas, too: the water closet for railroad cars.
   
   
4. Granville T. Woods
   Several of Woods' inventions greatly improved the railway systems of the United States, but perhaps the most significant was the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph, patented in 1887. The system was the first to enable engineers to communicate with railroad dispatchers and other engineers while the train was in motion, which led to a significant decrease in the amount of railway accidents. Woods was awarded more than 60 patents in his lifetime, including an incubator that could handle up to 50,000 eggs at the same time and key innovations in air-brake systems.
   
   
5. Mark Dean and Dennis Moeller
   IBM engineers Dean and Moeller invented the 16-bit Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus in 1987. This technology allowed IBM PC AT system software to communicate quickly with peripheral hardware. Dean and Moeller's work paved the way for today's plug-and-play hardware components. Dean is currently Vice President of Systems in IBM Research and the director of IBM's Austin Research Lab. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1997.

The rest of the best

• Benjamin Banneker
  Mathematician, astronomer, and author of the first Farmers' Almanac.
  
  
• Benjamin Carson
  Pediatric neurosurgeon, developed surgical techniques to successfully separate conjoined twins.
  
  
• Charles Drew
  Inventor of the blood bank.
  
  
• Philip Emeagwali
  Programmed a 65,536-processor supercomputer to compute a world-record 3.1 billion calculations per second.
  
  
• John Thompson
  Invented "lingo programming" language, which is used to develop content in Macromedia Director.
  
  
• Shirley Ann Jackson
  The first African-American woman to earn a doctorate in Theoretical Solid State physics at MIT, and the first woman to be named Black Engineer of the Year (2001).
  
  
• Madame C.J. Walker
  Invented a treatment for straightening hair and revolutionized the cosmetics and hair-care industries. She was the first female African-American millionaire.