St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-12-29
WOMEN AS INVENTORS.

The following question is prOpounded
TO the GLOBE by a fair correspondent:
is it because of their lack of inventive
genius, or is it because their sphere is
restricted by the abnormal social condi-
tions surrounding them that women do
not appear in the list of the worlds
greatest inVentors?'' The question is a
broad one, and requires more historical
research than we have the time to give
il. Yet, in giving an off-hand answer,
we will say that women neither lack in
ventive genius. nor is there anything in
the social conditions of this age to pre-
vent the sex from giving free play to
their genius for invention. If they are
laggards in the race it is simply because
they choose to be. 1t is certain that, as
a rule. women have more Of what we
call mother wit than men. They are
quicker to grasp a situation and reader
to meet an emergency. This faculty is
in a sense the primary law Of invention,
and being the pOSseSsorS of it, there is
no reason why women should not be-
come inventors.
We have no means Of determining the
relative prominence of the sexes in the
inventive progress of the world, for all
ancient history deals mainly with wars
and cOnqueSts; but what few CLEANS of
light are shed upon events outside of
plundering and killing show woman in
a favorable light as the promoter of
civilization. To begin at the beginning
we go back to the Garden of Eden and
find that the first human invention, the
manufactured the fig leaf apron, ema-
mated from the fertile brain of the mother
of mankind: and it is fair presumption
that woman bore her full share in do
nestle invention in all the earlier cent
urieS. 1t was then, as now, character
lstic of the sex to devote most time
and attention to the useful arts:
and thus it was old TUBAL
CAIN managed to file his cayeat
OH patent for the sword and spear. 1t
was REBEKAH who invented mask for
JACOB when she wanted to rob EsAU
of his birthright, and it was a woman's
inventive wit that delivered SAMSON
into the hands of the Philistines. There
is no lack of evidence that the genius of
invention was strongly developed
among women in the earlier period of
the worlds history, nor is there any
reason to suppose that there has been a
deterioration of it in later times. 1t is
true the records show that in mod
ern times most inventors have been
men, vet there is enough in the records
to show that women can invent, and do
invent, when they are inclined to. The
patent Office records of the United
States, from 1890 down to this
time, show that over $500 patents
have been issued to women, and
they include some of our most
useful inventions. ranging over broad
field from pincushIon to a ship of
war, from a corset to fire ladder, and
from cosmetics to agricultural imple-
ments. The first patent granted by this
government to "a woman was in 1900,
when MARY KEIs took out letters Tor
patent on an invention for straw weay-
ing with silk or thread. Fifteen years
later MARY BRUSH received a patent
for corset, and in 1922 JULIA PLAN
TON obtained protection from the gov
eminent for her invention of a foot
stove. 1t has been during the last
decade, however. where invention has
been doing so much for womankind in
making so many beneficent changes in
her home life. that woman's inventive
genius has been chiefly stimulated.
Nearly One-half of the patents granted
to women during the first century
of our national history have been
granted during the last aan years, and
the fact that 1,5OO applications from
women are now on file in the patent
office at Washington would indicate that
the female sex will yet assert itself in