Evening star., 1938-07-17

will eventually come into $40 900 900
left by their father, and her personal
wealth several years ago was estimated
at 100000.
Several of Mrs. Slater's patents re-
late to dolls-eyes that move side
ways as we'll as up and down, NOV
able eyes for rag dolls with savings
banks in their heads, atomizer dolls
which spray perfume. dolls hats,
smoking dolls and on down a unique
list. Mrs. Slater is also the patentee'
of tape measure holder and PIN
cushion, cover for loose-leaf folders
on books. military blanket, an au-
tomato ice gauge for refrigerators
and combination chair and couch"
VERY few people know that the
ice cream freezer was invented
by none other than the winsome
Dolly Madison, the Presidents wife.
Surprising. too. is the announcement
from the Patent ONCE that the very
first patent granted an American was
issued by the British government to
Thomas Masters, planter, of Penn
sylvaria," for a new invention for
cleaning and curing Indian corn
found out by Sybille, his wife"
Whether or not British law would
have permitted Sybille Masters to
take out her own patent matters not
Sc much as the fact that it was con-
spicuously against custom in those
days for women to do so bold thing.
No actual restrictions attach to
women under the American constitu-
tional and Federal laws providing for
the issuance of patents, but the mo-
mentum of public thought expressed
in the British governments first grant
of patent for an American inven-
ton has carried a general assumption
of women's disability for creative labor
even to the present day. A well-known
encyclopedia, commenting on Ameri-
can patent law, says: Minors and
women and even convicts may apply
for patents under our law"
OF THE 5000 patents issued to
women during q 10-year period,
al, or ~ per cent, are concerned
with some phase of farm work. The
Job of caring for poultry. cows and
other stock has stirred the ingenuity
of woman farmers, but the types OF
inventions facilitating such work are
outnumbered by the types of patents
granted to women for planting, tilling
and harvesting machinery and equip
ment. These in many instances re-
late to devices for facilitating the
principal labor involved in raising
some OF the Nations most important
longest cultivated crops-corn, cotton,
sugar cane and beets, tobacco and
grains.
That these farm inventions are by
farm women is evidenced by the adj
dresses Of the patentees and more con-
clusively by the correspondence irh-
tiated with some Of them concerning
the circumstances leading to their
inventive achievement. A Florida
woman was asked. What circum-
stances led you to invent a fertilizer
distributor"
She replied: Yankee laziness,
reckon. didn't like the idea of bend
ing my back so much, hence the dis
tributor" r..
A Texas woman writes about the
conditions surrounding her invention
as follows:
II was farming and planted sugar
cane to make molasses. When time
came to strip cane was short Of
help and I shirked the old tiresome
way of stripping cane. I then studied
a new way. - After three trials I
had what I needed 1t did the work
of four people, prevented backache,
sore hands and that tired feeling"
Records show that occasionally a
city woman will develop an invention
for farm use. For example. an ad-
Unstable rake, handy in gardening, was
invented by golf teacher who had
been sorely inconvenienced by golf
balls getting lodged in places out
Of arms reach. She devised the rake