American Women Inventors.

Otago Witness, Issue 2387, 30 November 1899, Page 56

American Women Inventors.

Rev. Ada 0. Bowles gave an interesting talk lately on "Women as Inventors," the result of 12 .years' research, the substance of which is reprinted in the U.S. Woman's Journal. She said that in China silk-weav-ing was invented by the wife of the fourth emperor, for which divine honours are still paid to her. Japanese bronze work was the invention of a woman. In India the weaving of Cashmere shawls was invented in the seclusion of the harem by a woman, who also gave so wise counsel to the prince, her husband, that v he changed her name from Nourmalial (Light of the Harem) to Nourjehan (Light of the World), and had coins struck bearing this -title. Attar of roses was invented either by the same woman or by Her mother, .the authorities differing on this point. The secret of Venetian point lace which had been lost in the thirteenth century, was rediscovered in this by an Italian work woman. The beautiful gauze called " woven wind " is a woman's invention.- When Harriet Hosmer took her Yankee brains to Rome, she found -out the way. to make marble from limestone, -which the Italian Government had. long been seeking. _,

In America women's progress in invention has kept pace with .their progress in education. Mary Kees was the first American woman to take out a patent in 1808. It was for weaving straw with silk or thread. At that time girls received hardly any education. During the next quarter of a century only 15 patents were taken out by women. These included a globe for teaching geography, a baby-jumper, a fountain pen, a deep-sea telescope, and the first cook stove.

By 1834 women in America had a few more educational privileges, but not many, and in the next 25 years women took out patents for 35 inventions. By 1869 high schools were opened to women, and the war was coming. The high schools taught them to use .their minds, and the war forced them out' into many new avenues of work. During the quarter of a century from 1859 to 1884 the number of inventions patented in. America by women rose to 1503. Women who took their husbands' places on the farms invented many improved agricultural implements especially in the. West ; women went into the shoe shops and dt once began to take out patents, in machinery ; women nursed in th 6 hospitals, and 'invented improved bandages', canteens, camp beds, etc. Colleges, Sloyd, and manual training are now developing the latest inventiveness of American women, and during the 12 years from 1884 to 1895, the latest date to which the Patent Office reports have been published, women have taken out 3905 patents Some large and important inventions are due to women. Mrs Harriet Strong, who began by a corset, afterward moved with her husband to California ; and since his dea€h she has taken out patents for reservoirs and dams. She is now an old woman, but the other day I saw that she had just patented /a device for the storage- of water. Mrs Ada Van Pelt, while her husband was postmaster at Oakland^ Cal., invented a permutation lock with three thousand combinations ; also a letter-box for the outside of houses, that throws up a signal when there is a letter inside for the postman to collect. This is now in daily use. Satchel-bottomed paper bags were invented by a woman, who was offered 20,000d0l for the patent before she left Washington. An invention which revolutionised the making of screws originated with a little girl. A woman invented the Burden process of making horseshoes, which turns out a perfect horseshoe in an incredibly short time. This invention has saved the country 2,500,000d0l in 14 years. Yet there are still many persons who believe that women cannot invent.