For all the inventions in the 20th century, there were lots of inventions from women concerning different aspects of our society. But not all were recognized and awarded further. In 20th century, one may address the term ‘HISTORY’ as ‘HERSTORY’ for each and every female inventor. There were several ladies who actively contributed brilliance to the world as we know it.
1. KEVLAR: Stephanie Kwolek commenced with her temporary job at DuPont in 1946, to earn enough funds to take admission in a reputed medical school. Later in 1964, she continued her research about the process of evolving polymers into strong synthetic fibers. She initially converted the polymers into hard rod-like molecules and further passes it through a Spinneret to produce fibers. The post effect of the experiment was an ounce-for -ounce strong fiber as steel which was further dubbed to Kevlar.
2. NYSTATIN: Elizabeth Lee Hazen and Rachel Fuller Brown used to work for New York State Department of Health in the 1940’s. Hazen was located in New York City and Brown in Albany. Hazen carried out several tests to examine that weather the organisms would have any reaction to fungi or not. They would work coordinative, despite of the distances. Hazen would further mail the jar of soil to Brown, who would further extract the agent in the soil that was responsible for such activity. Most of the samples were experienced to be much toxic in nature for human use. But after several experiments they both zeroed on an effective fungus killing drug named NYSTATIN in the year 1950.
3. WINDSHIELD WIPER: It was the first trip of Mary Anderson to the New York City. While travelling she noticed the driver of the tram was facing problem in driving it. He had to stop the tram every few minutes to wipe the accumulation of snow in front of his glass. After she reached home, she formed a squeegee on a spindle to be attached to the handle inside of the vehicle. Whenever the driver needed to clean the glass, he just needed to pull the squeegee that wiped the glass entirely. After 10 years, she was awarded for her invention in 1903 when the wiper became a household thing in their cars.
4. DISHWASHER: The invention of Dishwashers was an outcome of the frustration of Josephine Cochrane for her servants ho unintentionally broke her heirloom china crockery. As she invented this magical device, it was an immediate household device. It was exclusively loved by other women.
5. PAPER BAG WITH SQUARE BOTTOM: In 1870, Margaret Knight realized that the weight carried in paper bags shall be equally distributed, so that it can carry more items at one time, than its usual capacity. Therefore, she created a wooden device that would cut, fold and glue the bottoms of the paper bags in square shape.
6. COLORED FLARE SYSTEM: At 21, Martha Coston started acting upon the plans of flare system used by ships, laid out by his late husband. She spent her next ten years in revision and perfect execution of her husband’s plans using the pyrotechnic technology to her system. It finally worked and was extensively used in the civil wars.
7. THE COMPILER: Admiral Grace Murray Hopper was stationed at the Harvard University, were she used to work for IBM’s Harvard Mark I computer. She faced quite a lot of problems in directing the concerned system according to her wish. That is the time when she invented the Compiler, which used to translate the English Commands of hers into the computer codes.
8. LIQUID PAPER: While BETTE NESMITH GRAHAM watched the workers of her workplace painting a display on the window, she noticed the way they rectified their errors by painting them with another layer to cover the concerned errors. There was the idea which struck her mind and she mixed up a water based tempera paint with dye using her blender. She carried the substance to her workplace next day and omitted her errors on page by application of the concerned substance through brush. She received a patent for this in the year 1958.
9. CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES: While making a batch of butter drop do cookies, Ruth Wakefield felt short of melted chocolate. So she crumbled the Chocó bar in the batter and baked it further, expecting the chocolate to melt within. But the chocolate retained its shape, giving birth to chocolate cookies as a result.
10. CIRCULAR SAW: Tabitha Babbitt created a prototype of a saw that moved in circular motion. It was mainly formed to concentrate the number of men working to cut a particular block from two to one. She attached a circular blade to the saw to get the required motion.
