What Were These Women Up To?

Written by Karry MacDonald | 30 March 2009
Posted in Money Matters

One notable is Margaret Knight, a whirlwind of 90 inventions and approximately 27 patents. In 1871, Knight patented the design and the machine that made flat-bottomed paper bags. Until her invention, paper bags were designed like envelopes. She founded the Eastern Paper Company that produced this flat-bottomed bag. Yes, her design is the paper grocery bags we use today. To her further credit, Knight was the first woman to bring a patent interference suit against a man, Charles Annan, who, after seeing her machine fabricated at a shop, filed a patent before her. In court, Annan asserted that women’s brains could not understand the technical application of machinery. Knight won her lawsuit because she kept meticulous records, had numerous witnesses who could testify, and had the tenacity and money to see the lawsuit through to the end. She never married, but later in life, she assigned patent rights to family members.

The Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876 featured the first Woman’s Pavilion, but not without diligence and aggressive lobbying by prominent feminists. In this Pavilion, 59 women, with 85 exhibits of their inventions, patented and patent-pending, were displayed. One-fourth of these women were unmarried or widowed. 

The following are the names of just a few of the remarkable women and their inventions that followed from the post-Civil War period to 1900: Josephine Cochran - working dishwasher; Helen Blanchard - zigzag sewing machine; Margaret Colvin - washing machine; Emily Tassey - improvement to dredging machines; Letitia Geer - medical syringe; Mary Walton - a noise reduction system for elevated railways; Carrie Everson - method of ore extraction; and Anna Connelly - fire escape.

If white women were subjected to bias and stereotype, we can only try to imagine what intelligent, inventive women of color had to endure. For example, Ellen Eglin, a black woman, invented, and patented, the clothes wringer washer in the 1880’s (no more specific date is found). She was so certain that no white women would buy or use it if they knew a black woman invented it, she sold her patent, for next to nothing, to a man to manufacture. Another African-American, Sarah E. Goode, persevered and fared much better. She patented her folding cabinet bed in 1885, and sold it at the furniture store she owned in Chicago, Illinois. Stop. 3rd installment

As technology and industry changed, so did women’s inventions. Slowly, women began to be acknowledged for their thinking without being ridiculed as being unfeminine.  Women invented in diverse fields controlled by men. With the 20th century commencing, new inventions by women in these male-dominated fields proliferated as follows: Mary Anderson, 1903, automobile windshield wipers; Catherine Ryan, 1904, a locking nut and bolt; Ida Forbes, 1917, an electric hot water heater; and from architect Anna Keichline, 1926, an efficient kitchen design for construction.

Like the Civil War, World War I brought changes in women’s lives and how they saw themselves. Unlike the Civil War, few inventions were patented by women during this time, however, the numbers of women gaining advanced educational degrees reached numbers that would not be seen again until the 1970s.
 
Notable inventors following World War I include Majorie Joyner, 1928, an African-American, invented the permanent wave machine; Olive Dennis, who was also the second woman to graduate Cornell with a degree in civil engineering, designed a railroad passenger ventilation system. Prior to World War I, Beulah Henry began her prolific inventing career. Ms. Henry went on to patent 52 of her 110 inventions, from the vacuum ice cream freezer, which she patented in 1912 at the age of fifteen, to a combination mailing and return envelope, manufactured in continuous strips for machine addressing, in 1962.

The 1930s and the Depression hit women the hardest. Slogans such as “Get the Men Back to Work” discriminated against women in every workplace. Twenty-six states prohibited married women from working. Such dark days were soon replaced by another darkness…this time, World War II. Within this shadow, sparks of dreams ignited into action. When just a few years before women were dismissed from employment, they were now eagerly recruited to fill the jobs of the men again fighting overseas, with the understanding that their employment would end along with the war.

An advantage World War II did give women was the opportunity to be employed in “male” jobs, including drafting, designing, engineering, and tooling. Inventors and inventions to help the U.S. war effort were publicly sought with invitations to invent called out to men, women, and children.

Notwithstanding this plea, it was not an inspiring time for our country and few women patented inventions. However, two notable patents were issued: In 1942, Hedwig Keisler Markey (actress Hedy Lamar) co-invented, with George Antheil, a secret communication system used by our government; and sculptor, Lillian Greneker, invented an indestructible form for molding rubber fuel tanks used on planes and submarines.

Following World War II, did these women “quietly” return to their “domestic duties”? No, these women had had a taste of equality, earnings, and the opportunity to prove they possessed the brains to get things done. There was no going back. Women continued to invent with intensity and success, though not with publicity.

Later lists of advances in the medical and drug fields abound with the inventions of women. Elizabeth Hazen and Rachel Brown invented Nystatin, an antibacterial fungicide, in 1957. Dr. Gertrude Elion, with 45 patents, many shared with Dr. George Hitchings, invented drugs like: Purinethol and Thioquinnine for the treatment and cure of leukemia; Imuram, making kidney transplants possible; and the herpes treatment- Zovirax.

In 1988, Dr. Patricia Bath, became the first African American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical invention. She invented the method of more precisely and painlessly removing cataract lenses using lasers.

For the computer geeks among us, and for those totally unaware how it all works, but use computers everyday, the name of Grace Hopper should be recognized. Actually, I need to amend my error: it is Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper who in 1952 invented the computer compiler, which was the first program to translate programming codes into language that could be read by computers. She is also known as the “mother of COBOL”, a business-friendly software program that is still in use today. Stop. 4th installment.

Armed with more information than I can process, I am now enthusiastically informing friends, and anyone else I can corral, about these fabulous women. I tell them that a woman, Stephanie Kwolek invented Kevlar (think bullet-proof vests) in 1971. Moreover, that in 1948, Maria Telkes invented and designed the first solar-heated home, which was built, and still, stands, in Dover, Massachusetts. And that the trash can with the step-on lid lifting peddle was one of many inventions by Dr. Lillian Gilbreth. Along with her husband, Frank, Gilbreth studied ergonomics, worker stress/productivity and management efficiency. Incredibly, she was also the mother of twelve children. Her family is the subject of the book and movie, Cheaper by the Dozen.

There are too many incredible women inventors to list them all in this article. My dilemma was what criteria should I follow in choosing who to include? Strangely, I found myself unenthusiastic about listing any of the scores of women who improved upon the corset. Yet the inventors who sought to free women of this constricting garment were, in essence, physically liberating women while society, rigid and frightened that women might actually be as intelligent and competent as men, continued to cajole or ridicule them in an attempt to keep them “confined”. I cannot dismiss the premise that numbers of ingenious and creative women lost their patent rights due to unfair laws, unethical legal maneuvers, the US Patent Office fire of 1836, or simply because they lacked the financial means to persevere through the process. I wonder about other hard-working Shaker women who, because of their religious beliefs, would not patent their inventions leaving us with little information on their inventive successes. Additionally, I note that not all patents, then or now, are ever manufactured, make money or lead to fame.

Paralleling my research of early women inventors was the ever-present aura of suffrage and equal rights struggles. The Equal Rights Amendment is still in limbo. However, the shining light to focus on is the increase in the numbers of women pursuing degrees and employment in the fields of engineering, technology, chemistry, and medical research. About 20% of all inventors are currently female and that number is expected to rise to 50% over the next generation.

At first, I was elated and amazed at the lists of inventions by women. This feeling changed to sadness as I realized that I only discovered this information with significant effort - and because of a quest for an 18th century inventor.

This journey ends with Olivia’s satisfaction of adding a woman to her 18th century inventor’s list. My journey ends with the satisfaction of being able to add numerous women’s names to “the list” of American Inventors.