Women Inventors

Forgotten wonders

Move over Women’s Day. With their great inventions, women have for centuries gone beyond symbolic observances, says ZEHRA NAQVI

Inspired Ideas (from left) Marie Curie is the most famous woman inventor, but there are others such as Mary Anderson, Harriet Strong, Patricia Billings and Hedy Lamarr

Have you ever wondered who invented the windshield wiper? Or a medical syringe? What about the car heater?

So many of the little things that make our lives easier are used by us without giving a minute’s thought to the person who first made them. It would be quite an interesting exercise to find out about these unsung heroes. And in this case, unsung heroines — Mary Anderson for the windshield wiper; Letita Geer for the syringe; and Margaret Wilcox for the car heater.

Surprised? Most people would draw a blank when asked to name a woman inventor.

At best, they might come up with Marie Curie (and even she is best known for discovering radium, not for the radium-isolation techniques she designed). Very few people are aware that female minds have been behind some ingenious inventions. Ranging from ordinary but useful creations such as mounted globes, patented by Ellen Fitz in 1875, the cooking stove created by Elizabeth Hawk in 1867, or the electric water heater by Ida Forbes in 1917, to inventions of imposing stature such as dams and reservoir construction by Harriet Strong in 1887, submarine lamps and telescopes by Sara Mather in 1885 or elevated railways by Mary Walton in 1881, women have been hard at work.

Amusing

Run a Google search for inventions by women, and you’ll find umpteen interesting answers. Some can be quite amusing, such as chocolate chip cookies, alphabet blocks or disposable diapers! Others could be complicated, and need careful reading. Sample this: famous Austrian actress Hedy Lamarr was also a pioneer in the field of wireless communications. The “spread spectrum technology” she invented was, simply put, a way to create an unbreakable code that prevented interception of messages by Nazi agents in World War II. This technology formed the technical backbone for cellular technology and other wireless communication.

Another thrilling example of female ingenuity is the ‘Blissymbol Printer’ invented by Rachel Zimmerman of Ontario in the mid 1980s. The printer works through symbols on a touch pad, which are converted into written language and enable communication by non-speaking people, even those with severe disabilities such as cerebral palsy.

Some of these inventions sound like objects from science fiction works. What would you say about construction material that is indestructible, fire-resistant as well as non-toxic? This seemingly magic material was created by Patricia Billings, a sculptor who was trying to create a cement additive to prevent her sculptures from shattering. What she ended up inventing is the world’s first workable replacement for asbestos, patented by her as ‘Geobond’.

The first woman inventor recorded in history is Sybilla Masters, who developed a way to process corn into food and fibres as early as 1715. But that patent was issued in her husband’s name by the British courts. This, in fact, brings us to the chief reason why history has recorded so few inventions by women — the non-existence of legal rights.

Until the late 1800s women could not claim ownership of property, and patents, being a kind of intellectual property, could never be issued to a woman. So most offerings of female minds went in the names of husbands, sons or fathers. Added to this were low women education and socio-cultural beliefs that refused to accept that a woman might be able to innovate and invent.

In the words of Swiss woman author Laurence Deonna: “People complain that society, because of its ruthlessness, kills thousands of little Mozarts every year, but never has a word for all the little Marie Curies drowned in the kitchen sink…” How true!

http://www.hindu.com/mp/2009/03/17/stories/2009031750240500.htm