The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-10-20
WHAT THEY HAVE DONE
RECORDS OF WOMEN IN THE
PATENT OFFICE
Many Wonderful. Devices Have Been
Invented by Women, and Not Only
Those Needed in Domestic Work,
but Many in Science and Machinery

1t is not surprising that foreigners
regard us as money-loving people
if they read the papers which
are full of ways and means to make
money, and especially ways for women
to earn their living. However, if one
comes to make a bargain with a for
eigner. it will be seen that we are
mere infants in the matter. But that
life in this country is largely given
over to schemes for money-making,
and that we spend our time in PLAN
ming how to-incfease our means, cam
not be denied. The fact that women
discovered a few years ago that they
could go into business and make money
at it. has been the means of innumer-
able suggestions for ways by which
they can turn an honest dollar was
interested in an article which appeared
in a late New York Sun giving an ac-
count of various inventions made by
bright women and by which they nave
very easily made fortune. Usually
when YOU see one of these simple pat
ents the first thought is how easy it
would have been to think it out and
to wonder why in the world you dld
not happen to chance upon 1t.
records
the fact that there are very few lines
in which women have not essayed to
make some short cut to comfort by
means of invention. When you find
that a. woman has patented a mans
collar or shirt button, do not imagine
she did this out of love for men in gen.
eral or any one man in particular, but
this especial button is sort OF LABOR
saving machine for herself, as men are
not wont to sew on their buttons save
when they have eschewed feminine So
ciety and are that most detestaple OF
things, an old bachelor.
According to the article mentioned
the records of feminine invention make
history of women's progress during
the last one hundred years. The nfst
woman appearing among the list Of
patentees was Mary Keis, who in 1919
invented a process of combining straw
with silk, thus making a material suit
able for the manufacture of Women,s
hats. She was followed by Mary Brush,
a few years later, who invented cor
set which would be now regarded as a
disfigurings sort of thing which no we'll
groomed woman would wear. After this
and from that time to the present day
women Si11flumefable have patented
everything under the sun and many
have made large fortunes. Most of these
inventions are the result-of the necessi-
ties of the different kinds of labor in
which women engage, and the signiti-
canoe of the patent record lies in the
development and extension of their
work as time has passed
At first the patents taken out by
women were always of domestic
character and pertained to dressmak-
ing or utensils for kitchen. work, but
gradually the more recent ones have
taken on a general character and one
is astonished to learn that women have
been responsible for many scientific
inventions and others which seem
equally out of their line. These in
ventors are not, as rule, women of
great ability or much education; but
are in many instances hard working
factory girls who saw ways of making
their labor lighter and took out pat
ents which netted them good sums. But
the curious thing about these inven-
lions is that so many of them relate
to guns, warships and tools which only
men use. A Swedish maiden invented
an aluminium solder, another woman a
lock with 5000 combinations, which
shows a fair amount of ingenuity for
feminine mind, and third brake for
vehicles The most wonderful inven-
tionS of machinery are recorded to the
credit of women beside the many pat
ents taken out for articles pertaining
to domestic labor, which it is not sur
prising should emanate from woman's
mind All this shows how women have
grown and spread out in every direc-
ton within the last hundred years and
how, if necessary, the world could get
on very we'll without men at all. One
seldom thinks of inventing anything
save when reading of the wonderful
things that have made such a differ
ence in work. and it appears easy when
you ponder upon the simplicity of some
of the patents But just try it and see.
Some women ought to be able, with the
assistance of the great wireless tele-
graph instruments, to patent some
thing which put into a mans pocket
will account for each hour of his time
and which can be scanned by his
spouse when he returns. Then, too, a
mother ought to invent device which
would give Billy or Johnny an awful
pinch whenever he uses a bad word.
Also let some woman go to work at
once to think out a plan by which
women's hair will curl naturally and
which will keep their hats on straight.
/ Nothing so far Invented keeps a wom-
ans hat on straight. There is still a
great field for the brains and ingenuity
of the fair sex.
n