The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1889-10-25
WOMEN AS INVENTORS.


Field for Great Achievement.
That women are coming to the front as in
ventors and patentees is evinced by the fact
that in twenty-five weeks patents were
granted to fifty-three women.
Within this century, or since the year 1870,
when the first patent was taken out by a
woman, 500 inventions have been patented
by women. The first woman to get an in
vention patented was certain Mary Keis,
and her discovery was one for weaving straw
with silk or thread. In 1915 Mary Brush re-
ceived a patent for a corset Sophia Asher
followed in 1919 with a carbonated liquid
cream of tartar, and Julia Phantom, in 1922,
with foot stove After that date the en-
tries are annual, with the exceptions of the
years 1927, 1929, 1880, 1882, 1885 SO, 1914,
1916, 1852 and 1886.
From the first year of this century to 1858,
precisely fifty patents were granted to wo-
men. Up to the outbreak of the civil war,
patents were granted to only two southern
ladies, one to Mrs. Agdalena s. Goodman,
of Florida, for an improvement in broom
brushes in 1849.
During the saSae period New York had fur
nished IA womanpatentees; Massachusetts,,
4; Ohio, 2, and Maine, Connecticut and New
Jersey each.
The patents were by no means confined to
domestic arts and conveniences or to the hy-
giene or adornment of women. For instance,
in 1864, a Miss Montgomery brought forward
an improved war vessel In the same year a
young woman from Michigan introduced the
improved lantern dinner pail Miss Mont
gomery also devised an improvement in loco
motive wheels, having, by the way, many as
sociates in railroad inventions, even to an
apparatus for destroying vegetation on rail-
roads.
One woman in Iowa made an improvement
for cigars; another in Philadelphia offers
mustache spoon; a third in Boston contrib
utes trousers tree. There is an apparatus
for killing mosquitoes patented by woman.
The question naturally arises, Did that wom-
an make her fortune?
Some of the more bizarre devices are for
inducing sleep, for restoring facial symmetry
and for exposing hair to the action of heated
vapors. Mrs. Maria Beazley, of Philadel-
phia, is clever inventor who levies on the
shipping departments of the oil and sugar re-
fineries eternal obligations as well as profit
able royalties By means of her invention
hundreds of ready made barrels are turned
out in day.
Mrs. Emma D. Mills, one of the most ener-
getic advocates in New York of the intro
duction of women into occupations hitherto
monopolized by men, has invented patent
typewriter attachment, has patented it in her
own name, and is to manufacture and sell it
herself. For this purpose Mrs Mills has even
had to have special tools made, but she has in
no way yielded to obstacles that to most wo-
men would seem unconquerable The attach
ment is on the order of the governor of an
engine, and stops all action of the machinery
It seems that an inventor who makes her own
tools and with them manufactures her own
patent ought to succeed.
The celebrated English actress, Mrs. Ken
dial, is the inventor Of lamp and candle
shade, from the sales of which she makes a
handsome profit. The wife of New York
banker has invented machine for making
wire rope, the patent of which she has sold to
San Francisco firm for $25, 900 cash and a
royalty. The way she came to hit upon this
was from device she used to twist her
worsted. Miss Helen Blanchard has made
fortune through the invention of a simple at
tachment for sewing machine.
A hand refrigerator and lunch box has
been invented by Miss Phelps, of Dorchester,
Mass. It is particularly suitable for lunches
and picnics, and has compartment for ice.
The smallest size holds three pounds and a
half of ice in zinc lined box, and it is said
to last for seventeen hours
Miss Proctor, of Lima, O., has patented a
process by which it is claimed 10000 cubic
feet of Illuminating gas can be extracted
from one barrel of Lima OIL
Blanche Willis Howard the novelist, has
patented music rack and bath shoe.-New
York Star.