Who Says Women Areni. Resourceful?

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 956, 26 April 1930, Page 20

Who Says Women Areni. Resourceful?

RarHO says that, 'where invention is concerned, y women are not creative. ) It has been alleged 71 that women's inventions ?Sl are restricted almost wholly to household contrivances, articles ot apparel and the like. But that is not true. Official figures show that these comprise only 22 per cent. o£ their patents. Four in every five of them have to do with the industrial arts, transportation and other things of general usefulness.

Women have been accused of not possessing the mechanical faculty. It is a notion manifestly disproved by records of their inventions in many lines. Their ideas have contributed substantially to the betterment of street railway services. They have patented a number of improvements for bicycles and motor-cycles. Even automobiles of various types owe to women their perfected development., embodying, as they do, quite a range of women’s inventions relating to construction, parts, tyres and accessories.

Recently a collection of models of inventions patented by women was exhibited. Not one of these bore a date later 'than ISSO. Drawings are now accepted instead of models.

The most interesting of these models is that of the first ice-cream freezer, which was patented by a woman in 1843. Hers was what is called a “foundation patent.” The familiar household freezer of today is the same machine only slightly modified. Previously no better way of making ice cream was known than by stirring the “mix” with a ladle, a very laborious process. The cotton-growing industry of

America owed in large degree its wonderful development to Eli Whitney's cotton gin. But there is some reason for believing that the idea behind this epoch-making invention was not entirely his, but was originated by a woman, Airs. Catherine Greene. In 1524 Miss Lucy Johnson wove seven pairs of seamless pillowcases and received a prize for her work at a lair. They were- the first seamless bags ever made, and her method of weaving, adapted for the power loom, is in common use today. The collar industry owes much to Hannah Montagu, who invented the attachable shirt collar. Whenever her husband's collar became soiled, his shirt, though clean, had to go into the wash. So why not make the collars separate and button them on?

She tried out the idea, which worked most satisfactorily. Women friends of hers came to learn. A man friend started to make linen collars by hand and opened a little shop for their sale. It was the beginning of an enormous business.

The modern paper bag. with a bottom like that of a satchel, is also the invention of a woman, Miss M. E. Knight. It is only one of many contrivances that contribute to human comfort and are regarded today as indispensable whicli owe their invention to women’s ingenuity. The typewriter is a man’s invention, or. one should say, rather, of many men. But the typewriter for the blind was invented by a woman. Even the telephone owes something to a woman, who, stopping at an hotel in New York, heard a man using the instrument in the next room. She could hear every word he said. Why not a “muffler” to subdue the voice of a person talking into the transmitter? She thought it

Inventions Rapidly Increasing in Numbers Disprove Contention That Woman Is Not Mechanically Creative Four Out of Five Practical Ideas for Industry, Art and Transportation . . .

out. worked it out. made a crude model and got a patent on it.

One of the most valuable of women’s inventions is the Coston flare ligh* burning like red fire, which is u ,Lj for signalling by coastguards and br mariners all over the world, it n-j, invented and patented by Mrs. Martha Coston.

Women are disproving the long accepted notion that their sex is no* mechanically- creative. There is important branch of industry, of commerce or of science that is not represented in the long list of women’s in vent ions. They have contributed im! portant improvements to mowing machines, reapers, ploughs and other agricultural machinery. Their experience as trained nurses in hospitals has given them valuable ideas iu relation to invalid chairs, bedtables, sterilising apparatus and surgical appliances.

A woman invented an improved ho>water heating system for houses; another, a telescope for examining sunken wrecks; another, an apparatus for sanding railroad tracks; another a car wheel; another, a cinder-consunv ing device for locomotives; another, a life raft.

Among the patents granted to women is one for a household furnace run with chemicals instead of ordinary fuel. Another is for a window sash that, will not stick. Another for a portable balcony adjustable to any house. Another for a refrigerator with revolving shelves. And another for a rocking chair for the baldheaded man, which keeps the flies off his polished pate with a tasseled cloth that swings from above as he rocks. Credited to women are patents for a sofa that turns into a bathtub; a bathtub that is convertible into a travelling bag, and a dressing table which, pulled out from the wall, discloses the complete outfit of a bathroom, including tub and washstand. The records of the Patent Office show that women are mindful of the comfort of their menfolk. Hence one of their patents for a “moustache spoon,” presumably designed to save father embarrassment by keeping bis moustache out of the coffee or the soup.

But most considerate of the male is a woman’s patent for an "improvement in cigars,” which consists in soaking them or the tobacco leaves from which they are made in an extract of pine needles, “to take away their unpleasant taste.”