Evening star., 1938-07-17

wider usefulness of the device was so
apparent as to win a correspondingly
broader patent.
over per cent of the total number
OF inventions patened by women
relate to structural equipment and
materials. Intimate familiarity with
the need for improvement in such
matters is evidenced by some of the
letters from inventors of such appli.
ances. One woman wrote that the
window ventilator she had developed
was the outcome of two weeks ILL
ness in bed at home and three weeks
in hospital during hot, rainy June
and early July 1 had started it
before, but not until I had to lie in
those hot, stuffy rooms did realize
how badly it was needed"
Heating and lighting devices are
likewise concerned with a woman's
everyday duties, but here inventive ac-
tivity OF wide scope requires more
technical knowledge and usually a
higher grade of creative skill. Gas
igniters, hot-air furnaces and regis
ters, liquid-fuel furnaces, thermostatic
pressure valves, carbon for arc lights
and other inventions of like grade are
among those which the Patent Once
has marked new and useful" and for
which it has granted letters patent to
women.
Steam and street railway trafic had
had q large share of attention from
women inventors. The list is not con-
fined to devices for enhancing the
comfort of travel-easier chairs. wider
berths, more effective screens and cur
tains; the inventions range over road
bed and rails through rolling stock
equipment to traffic signals and block
systems.
HE number Of inventions concerned
with motor trafic, constituting
almost one-haf Of the transportation
patents granted to women, together
with the wide scope of inventive ac-
tivlty shown in the official records,
serves to reflect clearly the increasing
share taken by women in the opera
ton of motor cars One woman, a
number Of years ago, wrote Patent
Once oficials in answer 10 the otlss-
ton, What circumstances led YOU to
invent cleaning device and wind
shield cleaner?"
She replied: While driving NV
automobile the rain came down in
sheets, which caused me to drive up
to the curb and wait for the rain to
subside. Then, while riding on q troll.
ley behind glass covered with sleet.
I saw the same thing would apply, so
I worked out my device 10 avoid this
danger"
AS might well be expected, the fair
sex has been intimately concerned
with inventions relating to the busi-
ness of housekeeping. The official
Patent Once list. which embraces the
largest number of inventions patented
by women, speaks for its itself and
1t speaks ably. 1t constitutes nearly
% per cent of the total number of in
ventions paterted by women and Is a
convincing answer to the charge that
women have not contributed ma
terially to the labor-saving devices IN
the home
Indeed. there's not single phase Of
household labor which has not called
out the inventive abilities Of some
women with sufficient success to war
rant the Federal Governments grant
ing letters patent for new and use
full device"
7 ETTERS from individual woman
inventors reveal a great diversity
of training and sharp divergence
of standards of efficiency in household
management. Letters coming from
obviously educated woman inventors
show an inventive achievement to be
the direct result of trying to reduce TO
an exact science cooking and preserv-
ing and canning and celaning In the
home
Other letters are from women,
scarcely able to write. who have in
vented devices to tighten heavy bur-
dens or make irksome duties less gall
ing. Several types Of answers are IL
Illustrated in the following excerpts
from the letters which come from the
woman inventors
One patentee wrote that she in
vented pie-pan cover because Of
"overflowing of juicy pies, the best
of the pie being wasted, leaving the
poorest part of pie in crust. Also,
cleaning of oven after baking pies"
Another fellow sufferer from the
exigencies of domestic mishaps was
the woman who wrote that the con-
ditions which led to her invention of
reinforced wooden bowl was
"6-inch split in the top of my bowl as
was working butter. 1t came in two,
spilling the water and my bowl on the
floor"
Probably no list of inventions pat
ented by women will arouse more in
terest than the list of those m the
field of science. Some Of them IN
volve only a slight technical knowl-
edge. but others clearly reveal scien-
tific qualities. Such devices as marine
compasses." instruments for indicat-
ing ship stability" and sound record
ing and producing instruments" are
not the creations of unframed minds.
NEXT to inventions that facilitate
the business of housekeeping
those concerned with articles of per-
sonal wear and use are by far the
greatest group. They account for
nearly % per cent of the entire num-
ber Of patents granted to women in
recent 1o-year period. One pat
entee said she had invented o hairpin
after walking up the street one day
and counting Is hairpins which had
dropped on the sidewalk.
Yes. women have made material
contributions to the sum total Of In
ventive achievement. They have de-
signed. devised, discovered and In
vented to erabellish life with creative
comforts and to enrich humanity
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