The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1910-10-01
WOMEN AS INVENTORS

Up to ten years ago, a search Of
the patent office reports would have
attested to the customary claim of the
male doer of things that women was
backward where great originality was
required. But behold what a decade
mas done. Not page of the official
report Of patents but that some wo-
mans success is recorded: And not
alone this; for each year there is to
be found an increasing number of
successful women inventors whose in
ventions~ are not patented in their
own names, but bought outright by
manufacturers and business firms who
themselves secure the patent
Inquiry at manufacturing plants
and mercantile houses reveals the
fact that women. employees are con-
stantly suggesting improvements in
the machinery and methods employed
by the firms. A woman clerk in a
New York store invented sometime
ago a parcel delivery system which
Melted her substantial returns. And
one New England mill owner, herself
an inventor, enjoys the right to sever
al patents that represent the inge-
nuity of the women operators in her
employment, one Of the devices bring
ing in over $4,000 year.
Those acquainted with the field
say that fully 800 Of the patents taken
out by women within the last ten
years are yielding unusually large re-
turns to the inventors, and that others
not yet out on the market are des-
tined to be equally successful. When
a device can command within a. few
minutes after being patented, $4,000,
the originator of the idea is quite be-
yond masculine criticism; and such
was the offer to the woman inventor
Of the satchel bottomed paper bag. A
simple glove buttoner is yielding the
woman who thought out the scheme
$4,000 a year. A patent adjustable
waist supporter has made the inven-
tor independent.
The gradual increase of the number
Of women factory workers is evidenced
in the factory appliances which come
improved from their hands. Again,
the far Northwest runs to household
novelties, like butter workers, brush
es for cleaning upholstery and COM
positions for kindling fires.
To enumerate the inventions which
have come from women in the last
five years is to include lock with
5000 combinations, q letter box for
the outside of houses which shows a
signal when there is a letter inside
for the postman to collect, an i'm
proved canteen, an apparatus for re-
moving wool from skin by electricity,
a speedy and profitable process for
making horseshoes, new aluminium
holder, improvements in harness and
vehicle and a buttonhole cutting ma
chine by: which the distance between
buttonhOles Is measured automatic
ally.
Nothing could be more divergent
| than the SUBJECTS which have engaged
women inventors during any two con-
secuttve months of last year. A woman
| pupil at q New York school of en-
balming invented a burial apparatus
that has been improved by popular
undertakers. And then the list runs
through alarm clock, a fire escape de-
| vice, brake for vehicles, a fruit
press, carpet stretcher, a system of
| ventilating buildings, a barrel tapping
and emptying device, hammer guard
l
and an invalid chair. 1T ~: ..->,,5
! Undoubtedly the opportunities for
higher education enjoyed today by
| women, are responsible for their great
activity in this new field. Again, the
100000 women workers in this
| country are more than industrious,
they are bringing great skill and fine
! training to bear on their work. Wo-
man has. become dissatisfied with the
few learned professions. She wishes
to attest her practical nature; ana
the fact that she is doing inventive
work Of a high order demonstrates
her efficiency as practical worker.
According to u. s. government a,l-
thorities, in the last seventeen years
nearly twenty-three thousand men
have been killed in coal mines. Near
ly fifty thousand have been seriously