Women Invent!: Two Centuries of Discoveries That Have Shaped Our World
Introduction hen I was a girl the comic book character I most enjoyed was the inventor Gyro Gearloose He was so enthusiastic about having ideas and each time he got a new one a lightbulb would appear That was the way I too felt when I got an idea I liked that feeling I still do As I grew older my fascination with inventors and inventing con tinued When my friend Laurel Gaiser s father Conrad invented Bounce the antistatic tissue I was thrilled to know an actual inven tor My interest in his thought process led me to wonder about the stories behind the invention of other household items and eventually to write a magazine article about women inventors As part of my research I spoke with many inventors Each told an engrossing story about the discovery of her invention As soon as I finished hearing one tale I wanted to hear another Then I began reading about the lives of eighteenth and nineteenth century inven tors Since I couldn't talk with them I read their patents While many history books depict women as just being around and many books on inventors give little evidence of women's work the patent records reveal a different story In her 1917 patent May
WOMEN INVENT Conner of Garden Grove Iowa describes her hay handling device an intricate system of ropes and pulleys connected with a hayfork and a carriage To write of it May could not have been merely around her farm she had to have been in the barn measuring dis tances and angles figuring weights and plotting directions She was a busy thinking woman And I discovered every other woman inven tor to be the same I grew to admire each one I hope that my depic tion of their involvements and their activities does justice to their remarkable accomplishments I am honored to tell their
Fig 3 1 Necessity Calls We still live in a world in which a significant fraction of people including women believe that a woman belongs and wants to belong revelusively in the home The world cannot afford the loss of the talents of half of its peo ple if we are to solve the many problems which beset us Dr Rosalyn Yalow Nobel Prize winner 1977 he horse trotted at a steady pace pulling the open carriage It was a pleasant day in the mid 1880s in Baltimore Maryland The family riding in the countryside especially the mother and father talked of the birds that flitted about Their daughter was too busy to chat She was watching the birds as they flew from branch to branch Then a loud blast an explosion fright ened the horse The little girl turned to look and saw the horse rear saw its front hooves fly into the air and then down again The carriage rocked unsteadily Her mother and father held onto her and the carriage Then the horse began to run gallop too fast much too fast The carriage was tipping to one side then another The little girl screamed How were they going to get the carriage free of the run away
