Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-04-29
MANY WOMEN INVENTORS.
MOST OF THE ARTICLES PATENTED THEM HAVE TO
DRESS AND DOMESTIC FARMING APPARATUS


she now writesi books music and
plays in open and successful compe-
luton with her mate, produces works
OF art, sculpture and painting, com
petes with him on the athletic field,
eNcels him in nursing. wins fame and
fortune in such professions as are
open to her, such as medicine surg
cry. college and settlement work. and
even occasionally writes her name
large in the scientific world, as Mrs.
Fleming, the famous astronomer. and
Madame Curie, the diseoverer of RAJ
dunn, have done. Perhaps it is be-
cause she hasn't yet wanted to put
it there. that her name is not on the
list of great inventors. She cannot
yet claim a telegraph, telephone.
steam engine, electric light, reaper.
improved loom, wireless telegraph.
aeroplane or automobile.
The reason is not far TO seek She
hasn't had time. When the 1910 CEN
sus came to the question of patents
and il listed 944,525 patents granted
to men IN this country since the be-
ginning of the patent system, but
$3.50 patents We're credited TO women
| nine tenths of one per cent. of the
total issue. But the percentage of
patents granted to women increases
yearly. Thus. from 1890 until 1888
there were 2455 patents granted wo-
| men and from 1883 to 1895, 2526. In
seven years more than doubling the
total that had been aceruing for the
previous 9S years. And from 1895 un-
| til 1910 there We're 1915 patents more
bringing the total number up to $685.
as stated.
The first patent granted to wo-
man i'm this country went to Mary
| kies for process of straw and silk
weaving. The patent was issued May
| ). 1899. before the system of number
ing patents went into vogue. The
| second patent given a woman WAS is
! sued more than six years later. Miss
Mary Brush had an idea for improv-
| ing corset, and on July 81 1915, re-
| ceiVed her patent on that invention.
Patent number three to woman
went to Miss Sophie Usher, four
years later. and on September II,
| 1919. she became the owner of a Unit
ell States patent on process fer
making violet water and cream of
| tartar into Il toilet lotion
Not until the eighth paten. to a
| woman came to issue did madame
leave such Womanly subjects as weay-
| ing, Kitchen utensils clothing and
cosmetics for the sterner arts. on
May 20. 1875, one Phoebe Collier pro-
cured patent on sdwing wheel fellies
which apparently inspired another
woman to leave her sphere for an ex-
| eursion into mans domain, so that
when Miss Elizabeth H. Buckley took
| her patent home with her. the ninth
| issue to woman. she had sole rights
to a certain way of making sheet
iron shovel-this was February IS,
| 1928.
| Unfortunately. the great Patent Of
/ fee fire destroyed many early doeu-
| ments and copies of patents. so that
much information about these early
issues is hard to get. 1t is a pity
| that we do not know what Miss Har-
riet Cock had, in mind when she re-
ceived the fifteenth patent granted TO
a woman. February 90 1888 for "cal-
ash balloon for ladies'" Is it an ar
| tiele of dress? Or an airship? One
suspects d hustle. but speculation has
no place about so serious u matter as
a patent.
The first numbered patent to go to
a woman was No. 1915, on February
,, 1899. TO Eliza Ann b. Judkins for
a method of shedding Whether
Shedding" indicated some early de-
piIatory process or a manner of put
ting up outbuildings or refers to taxi
ing the heart out of iibers of some
sort, is not known.
The great Civil War which flooded
the Patent Office with devices of all
sorts applicable to carnage and
bloodshed from inspired citizens who
desired thus to aid their country Cat
a price, while safely being taken
care of back home, had little infiu-
cnce in stimulating women to invent.
But few patents granted during those
years were To women. and of those
few but scant half dozen have any
bearing on the war Martha Willis,
of Rochester, n Y. received Patent
No Fl Sf3 in 1861. for bandage and
Clariss;l Britain. of St Joseph, Mich.
Patent No. 80, $50, for an improved
ambulance in 1868. Apparently hav-
ing an eye more to military beauty
than the care of the injured, one Sa-
rah Morsman. of Cleveland, Ohio, paid
for Patent No. 1861 in the same year
on an improved military cap But
Mary c. Ross and Louise Anderson,
the first of New York. and the sec
ond of st Louis We're more tender
hearted Miss Ross took two consec-
utive patents-40.642 and 40.643. on a
liEiment and salve. respectively, while
Miss Anderson thought of the old sol
diers and took 4o,66s on rheumatic
liniment-all three OF these patents be-
ing dated November II. 1868.
There are few scattering patents to
women to the end of the war. one for
a process of building war vessels %,
but most of them confined to band
ages, medicine and comfort for the sick
A strange feature of womens inven-
ton as shown by Patent Office records
is that a chiids toy was not patented
by "A woman until as late as 1867 when
Elizabeth Hawks procured Patent No.
64lo2 on playthng for babies.
The great majority of patents grant
ed to women have to do with articles
of dress and domestic or farming APP
paratus. Improvements in eorsets and
new designs in these garments get
more attention from the woman inVen-