The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-05-19
WOMEN ELECTRICIANS.
ELECTRICITY OFFERS GREAT IN
JUDGEMENTS TO WOMEN
SEEKING A PROFESSION.

Hundreds of Students, Factory Girls,
Etc, Now Engaged In study and
Work VIII Soon Present Surpris-
ing Statistics-Some Women who
Are Making Wonderful Records in
the Electrical World.
New York, May 1T do not under
stand why more women do not study cleo
tricity" said the professor of electrical
engineering at a famous university. ITO
my thinking it is a profession far more
suited TO women than law or medicine,
surgery or other callings, which they flock
to, and / have never talked with an in
structor who did not entertain the same
opinion. Electricity is clean, requires no
strength in manipulation, and calls for
no greater order of ability to understand
It's laws than is necessary to master other
learned professions. 1t is a fascinating
study, one likely to increase in interest
and supply an ever-broadening incentive
for work. Il offers, moreover, abundant
chance Tor substantial returns and those
who have applied themselves to it have
made excellent records. The Massachu-
sets Institute of Technology has turned
out five or six women graduates in cleo
tricity. Nearly all the state universities
have at times had women students in the
electrical engineering class rooms, but
they have been the exception and not the
rule. Women study physics and chemls-
try, they go all around the subject In It's
underlying relations, but they give cleo
tricity pure and simple the cold shoulder,
when 1t is in reality we'll suited to their
90 ma nffv flbVSiral and mental
women who Have Won.
America can boast one woman who is
a full-fedged electrical engineer with six
years active work to her credit. Miss
Bertha Lamme is one of the staff of engi-
nesrs fo- a big manufacturing company
In Pttsburg She designs machinery,
makes calculations and does exactly the
work of a man electrical engineer. she
is % years old; is native of Ohio, oil
Dutch ancestry, and is graduate OF the
Ohio University.
One of the five examiners in the cleo
trical department at the patent office IT
Washington is a woman She was among
the first women in the country to STUDY
electricity, and has held her present posi-
ton many years. Her duties include the
keeping track of all inventions and appll-
cations for inventions, touching electricity
In any form. And she must have practical
as we'll as scientific knowledge or the
availability of the articles submitted.
There are possibly 80 women in the
country who have taken either full or
partial course in electricity, either from
private instructors or at the co-educa-
tional institutes A few of these are
owners and managers of electric lighting
and electric car plants in various places.
One hears of them through the manufao-
turers of electrical goods. At Bay City,
Mich, at Saginaw, at Elenville, New
York, are electric plants operated by wo-
men. A Pennsylvania woman is assistant
purchasing agent for a well known firm
She is credited with such familiarity with
electric appliances and fittings that she
knows at glance when the goods offered
are being held at a higher figure than
they are worth or whether they are cheap
| at any price.
Several women use their insight into
electrical science to write what may -
| termed popular articles on the subject
| for papers and periodicals. Others give
| lectures on electricity in the smaller
| towns, and have classes at private
| schools. The foremost woman in electri'
science anywhere in the world is Mrs.
| Bertha Azrton of London. She has made
| valuable Investigations of the phenomena
! of the electric arc, and is a frequent con
| tributor to scientific journals Lately she
| read an important paper before the Eng
| lish Institute of Electrical Engineers, tue
first paper ever read before that body by
| a woman. There are other English Wo-
| men who are working prctically as cleo
| tricians, but Mrs. Azrton is wholly "A
scientist and is recognized in Great Bril-
tain, Europe and here in America, where
| electrical genius has made such marked
| progress, as having been of much assist
ance to the science.
In the factories at Chicago, Pfttsburg
| Schenectady, Harrison and other places
| there are hundreds of girls and women
working at the manufacture of electrical
| goods. They make all the filaments for
| the lamps. They wind the armatures for
the dynamos. They wind and cover with
| spun silk or paper miles OF wire, large
| and small, used in the induction coils, In
| the great underground cables, and on the
magnets for telephone receivers and
| switchboards. These women tip all the
cords, solder all the important little med
| iums and do all the deft and delicate
| work necessary in such manufacture.
| Five or six forewomen will supervise and
| instruct the others In a single factory.
| The first class workers have the chance
| OF promotion and of steady work at good
| pay, as long as they wish II. The manu-
| facturers are anxious for intelligent girls
| to train.
Miss Margaret CIeaves.
woman who is regarded at electrical
| headquarters as a marvel in all round
knowledge of electricity is Miss Marga-
| ret Cleaves of Iowa, now OF New York.
| She is as familiar with influence ma
| chimes, coils, alternators, ba tteries. met
| ers and current controllers. as the aver
| age woman is familiar with styles and
| modes In dress. In the application of
electricity as a remedial agent, she holds
a place in public estimation similar TO
the one Miss Lamme holds as an electri-
cal engineer. For. according to compe-
tent authority, physicians, when they use
electricity scientifically are also electrical
engineers. only their workshop holds prob
lens OF health, life and death.
For eight months In the year DR..
Cleaves is instructor and has turned out
more than fifty women graduates, beside
many men graduates In the electro med
zeal branch of treatment. Gray haired
physicians come to her clinic for knowl-
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