The Mothers of Invention
Wherever
you are in the world, you own, are probably using, or can see something
invented by a woman.
Women
have been inventing since time began but so often were not allowed (sometimes
by law) to claim or patent their ideas and machines.
In order to get something useful onto the
market, they had to ask aman to register it. Black
women inventors had to resort to asking white men to help.
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| Ellen Eglin |
Ellen
Eglin (b.1849) invented the mangle or clothes wringer.
At that time, laundry
was washed by hand in a tub of hot, soapy water, scrubbed on a washboard and then wrung
out. Then repeat to rinse. Even
large, linen bed sheets, curtains and huge, banquet table cloths were processed this way.
Ellen
knew if white women were aware a black woman had invented such a device they
wouldn’t buy it and hard-working laundry maids across the USA would be deprived
of something she knew would make their lives easier. So
with a remarkable spirit of altruism, she decided to sell, for a mere $18, “to
a white man interested in the idea.”
The
mangle went on to be a world-wide best seller, revolutionising not only laundry
but much more.
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| Nurse Caroline Halstead |
William Halstead is named as the inventor of rubber gloves but it was his wife, Caroline (1861-1922) a nurse
who, having developed dermatitis at work, suggested
he develop this idea.
They worked. Caroline used them in the operating theatre
ever after, often to the scorn of surgeons who did not even wash their hands
between patients.
Josephine
Cochrane, (1839 –1913) the
daughter of an engineer, invented
a commercial dishwasher after the hostess at a party complained her crockery had become chipped.
As
we switch from plastic bags (forget all those disposable gloves in landfill) to
paper, we have Margaret Knight, (1838-1914)
to thank for the flat-bottomed paper bags which, with any luck, won’t deposit
your leaking milk bottle and eggs on the pavement as you walk home. She also invented the machine which constructed them; the sash
window and numerous other devices, including an Internal Combustion engine.
She is not even mentioned on the Wikipedia page which covers that, only men are
listed but here’s the proof.
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| Knight's Combustion engine |
Ever
wondered why we say ‘there’s a bug in the system’ when computers go wrong? That’s thanks to Grace
Hopper, a brilliant mathematician. She devised a ‘compiler’, the first software,
which gave computers instructions.
She
once found a moth in the Harvard Mk 1, seen above, hence the word debug.
Her
inventive ideas were not popular with male
computer programmers, then using only hardware. Grace suggested ‘software’ was the answer to their many problems
 |
| Grace and the unhappy men from Harvard |
Undeterred, Grace worked on her innovations, offering the mathematical solutions
to a few leading computer programmers. She was soon inundated with requests. Thus inventing both Open Source and the first effective ‘software’, later named COBOL.
People
who love tropical fish have Jeanne Villepreux-Power (1794 - 1871) to thank for
the aquarium.
A
marine biologist, wanting to study the Nautilus, she was convinced, against
popular opinion that it made its own shell. She proved this.
The Landlord's Game, invented to teach
the (sometimes evil) ways of Capitalism was the brain-child of Elizabeth Magie (1866
–1948) a game designer who patented the idea in 1904.
It
was not only a teaching device but a popular party game and at one of
Magie’s dinner parties, Charles Darrow and his wife so enjoyed it, he
asked for the rules. He then went on to change it slightly and “invent”
Monoply.
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| Myra Juliet Farrell |
Australian Myra Farrell 1878 –1957) at just 10
years old, had the idea of the self-locking safety pin. She patented many inventions: a folding pram hood, a method for automatically picking fruit, a baby sling and a press
stud which doesn’t need stitching.
Also
in the realm of baby care: Susan Olivia Poole 1889–1975, of Ojibway/Chippeway
heritage observed how mothers would tie babies securely into a ‘papoose’ and hang
this from flexible branches so the bouncing motion soothed the child. Thus was
born The Jolly Jumper, used and enjoyed by millions of babies around the world, mine included.
The
wonderfully named Eldorado Jones, 1860–1932 invented a muffler to deaden the
noise of aeroplanes. People living near
Heathrow and Gatwick should probably alert
the airlines about this 1931 invention.
Nicknamed,
‘The Iron Woman’ who mainly employed female worker over the age of 40 in her
factory, she also gave the world a
lightweight electric iron, a travel-sized ironing board and an anti-damp salt
shaker (whatever happened to that brilliant idea?)
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| Patrician Bath, pioneering Opthalmologist |
Opthalmologist,
Patricia Bath 1942 – 2019) developed and pioneered laser surgery for cataract
removal, including improvements to the laser probe which delivered it.
How
many military and police lives have been saved by the bullet resistant, stab-proof
vests and combat helmets?
That’s
thanks to Stephanie Kwolek (1923 –2014) and her
invention - Kevlar.
 |
| Chemist, Stephanie Kwolek |
Kevlar is heat
resistant and many times stronger than steel.
In an interview, Kwolek, stated:
“Once senior DuPont managers were informed of
the discovery, they assigned a group to work on it.” The group did not include
its inventor.
Kevlar
is used in a myriad ways including: combat gear, parachute lines, fire
fighters’ boots, cut-resistant gloves and armored cars, bomb-proofing,
hurricane rooms and bridges as well as in many sports applications.
Women
inventors also gave us: fire escapes (Anna
Connelly); life rafts (Maria Beasley); Solar Heating (Maria Telkes and Eleanor
Raymond); the refrigerator (Florence Parpart).
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| Florence Parpart proudly shows her fridge |
Alice Parker invented central heating) and Ada Lovelace, daughter of the dissolute poet Lord Byron, came up with the algorithms which allowed computers to change the world.
Maria van Britten Brown made a safer world
when she invented Closed-circuit TV as a result of the slow-response of police
to call outs in her area.
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| Maria Brown inventor CCTV |
.
Women
have been pioneers and inventive in every single walk of life and I could fill
a book with their amazing discoveries (and many authors have).
Just
one question.
We
have coffee filters (Melitta Benz) fridges, irons, ironing boards, dishwashers to make
domestic life easier but why hasn’t someone invented a kitchen-sized, reasonably priced automatic multiple potato
peeler?
