By Jacqui Nelson
An inventor's life is an adventurous mix of creativity, practicality, and paperwork. Products need a purpose and patents need to be pursued. Meet two historic women whose inventions helped save lives (on land and at sea) back in their day and today too...
Mary Elizabeth Anderson
( born 1869 in Greene County, Alabama )
In 1889, Mary and her sister and their widowed mother moved to Birmingham, Alabama where they built and managed an apartment building. From 1893 to 1898, Mary moved to Fresno, California where she operated a cattle ranch and vineyard before returning home to Alabama.
Note: I couldn't find out why Mary went west or why she left. I feel there's a larger story there! But the life-saving invention story happened later, so on we go...
In the winter of 1902, Mary visited New York City where she observed a trolley car driver struggling with windshield visibility due to falling sleet. When she returned home, she hired a construction company to produce a working model of a windshield wiper.
In 1903, she was granted a 17-year patent for a hand-operated wiper with a lever inside a vehicle that controlled a spring-loaded rubber blade on the outside of a windshield. The patent paperwork labeled it a "window cleaning device."
Similar devices had already been made, but Mary’s was the first to be effective. In 1922, Cadillac became the first car manufacturer to make Mary’s windshield wiper standard equipment. Unfortunately, by then Mary’s patent had expired.
Maria Kenny Beasley
( born 1847 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania )
Note: Sadly, I could not find a picture of Maria.
Two years after being inspired by the 1876 Centennial Exhibition (the first official World's Fair in the United States), Maria gained her first patent in barrel making. She went on to earn seven more patents in barrel making and in 1884 showed her barrel-making machine at the World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans.
Maria’s machine enabled 1,500 barrels to be produced a day. Royalties from sugar and oil refineries contracts using her barrel-making machine earned her $20,000 annually.
Her other inventions included foot warmers, cooking pans, train anti-derailment devices, and in 1880 a life raft that was "fire-proof, compact, safe and readily launched." Earlier life rafts were made of flat, wooden boards. Maria’s design included guard railings surrounding rectangular metal floats.
In 1912, the Titanic carried 20 of Maria’s life rafts that helped 706 men, women, and children survive until rescuers arrived.
Can you imagine driving a vehicle without windshield wipers? Or boarding a ship that doesn’t have life rafts?
I can't, and I'm very thankful that these women (and so many other intrepid inventors) made life a lot safer than it was in the past. The more I read about the past, the more I realize just how wild it truly was!
Have you ever invented something or wanted to?
Hope you'll share your favorite or even your not-so-favorite inventions! I love my computer, but sometimes I hate it as well. Life seemed so much simpler and a lot more relaxed before computers became standard equipment.
Read about my stories on my
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such fearless and creative ladies. Just running a cattle ranch or a boarding house was impressive. Great post. Thank you
ReplyDeleteThese were smart and inventive woman that you don't hear anything about as you need those wipers and they really had a brain that really worked!Peggy Clayton
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments, Gini & Peggy! Love sharing these stories with you ❤️
ReplyDeleteI love reading bios, etc., of women who have made a contribution to society and overcome the gender bias. Too bad the patent expired on her windshield wipers and Cadillac has no doubt profited ever since.
ReplyDeleteHappy to hear you enjoyed my blog post, Elizabeth! The more success stories I hear, the more confident I feel about achieving my own goals.
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