Here’s an innovation that was not solely done by a woman, signal flares for ships. Martha Coston found plans in a notebook that belonged to her late husband. As a determined widow, she spent 10 years working with chemists and pyrotechnics experts to make the idea a reality. Yet she was never given the credit- -her late husband was.
The circular saw was conceived by a Shaker woman, Tabitha Babbitt. Her prototype was attached to her spinning wheel in 1813. Although the Shaker community didn’t approve of filing a patent, they took full advantage of the invention.
Hungarian biophysicist Marcia Telkes invented the thermo electric power generator to provide heat for Dover House, a wedge shaped structure she conceived with architect Eleanor Raymond. Telkes used Grauber’s salt, the sodium salt of sulfuric acid, to store heat in preparation for sunless days–the first 100% solar house.
On a lighter note, alphabet blocks were patented in 1882 by Adeline DT Whitney and the game Monopoly,originally known as “The Landlord’s game” was patented in 1904 by Elizabeth Maggie. Thirty years later, Charles Darrow refigured the board design and sold it to Parker Brother’s as “Monopoly”. The company bought Maggie’s patent for the original $500 and no royalties! “Do not pass GO, do not collect $200!”
Even everyday useful items come from resourceful women. When cotton mill worker Margaret Knight invented a machine to make paper bags with a flat square bottom in 1868, a man named Charles Annan saw the design and tried to patent the idea first. But Knight was a feisty fighter and filed a lawsuit which she won in 1871!
Disposable diapers had their debut in 1951 by Marion Donovan who dubbed them ‘waterproof Boaters”. The original cover for the diaper was made with a shower curtain and first sold at Saks Fifth Avenue. A year later Marion created an entirely disposable diaper and sold the patent for $1 million.
When babies are born they are rated with an APGAR score. This acronym stands for “Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity” . The test was named after Dr. Virginia Apgar who tested newborns in 1952 at one minute and five minutes after birth to determine if they needed immediate care.
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