Sir James Black - Black in fiction

Pharmacologist, born in Uddingston, South Lanarkshire, WC Scotland, UK. He studied medicine at St Andrews, Scotland, then taught at various universities, becoming professor of analytical pharmacology at King's College, London (1984–93). His reasoning on how the heart's workload could be reduced led to the discovery of beta-blockers in 1964, and his deductions in 1972 on acid secretion in the stomach resulted in the introduction of cimetidine in the treatment of stomach ulcers. He shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1988.

James Black was born in Hackensack, New Jersey on 1 May 1800. About 1820 Black spent some time at Bayou Sara in Louisiana working as a ferryman and as a steamboat deckhand on the Red River which took him upstream to Fulton, Arkansas. Black left the boat and settled at a crossroads 14 miles northeast of Fulton that would later become Washington, Arkansas and Black's permanent home.

During his travels, Black had befriended Elijah Stuart. Stuart opened a tavern at Washington and Black was hired by a local blacksmith named William Shaw. Black, due to his previous training, worked on firearms and knives while Shaw concentrated on horse shoes, wagon wheels, and the like. Black would later become a partner in the business with Shaw.

Black fell in love with his partner's daughter, Anne Shaw, and was forced out of the partnership when Shaw would not allow the marriage. Backed by the note he had received from the dissolved partnership Black purchased some land along the Cossatot River and established a blacksmith's shop, dam, and mill.

Black's endeavor came to an end when he was thrown off of his land. Black then discovered that the note he had received from William Shaw for his share of the partnership was actually worthless. Black set up his own blacksmithy in competition with Shaw's and married Shaw's daughter in 1828 despite Shaw's objections and also convinced Shaw's son to join him in his business.

Black and his wife had three sons and a daughter during this period.

In 1830 Black made the famous Bowie knife for Jim Bowie.

After Bowie's death in 1836 Black did a brisk business selling his knives to pioneers bound for Texas.

In 1838 Black's wife Anne died and in 1839, while Black was in bed from an illness, his father-in-law Shaw broke into Black's house and brutally attacked him with a club.

Black went north to seek medical advice where his eyes were further damaged by the inept ministrations of a Cincinnati, Ohio, physician.

Black lived on a local plantation for a couple of years until Dr. Isaac Newton Jones took him into his home.

James Black died on 22 June 1872 in Washington, Arkansas.

Black's shop has been recreated as part of the Old Washington Historic State Park.

Black's knives are exceedingly rare and are prized by collectors. Several examples of Black's knives are on display at the Historic Arkansas Museum as part of the American Bladesmith Society collection.

Black in fiction

In the 1956 film The Iron Mistress Black is depicted forging Bowie's knife from steel that he has extracted from a meteorite.