Woman as an Inventor

Author(s): Matilda Joslyn Gage

Source: The North American Review , May, 1883, Vol. 136, No. 318 (May, 1883), pp. 478-
489
Published by: University of Northern Iowa

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25118273

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 WOMAN AS AN INVENTOR.

No assertion in reference to woman is more common than

that she possesses no inventive or mechanical genius, even the
United States census failing to enumerate her among the in
ventors of the country. But, while such statements are care
lessly or ignorantly made, tradition, history, and experience
alike prove her possession of these faculties in the highest
degree. Although woman's scientific education has been grossly
neglected, yet some of the most important inventions of the
world are due to her. Hon. Samuel Fisher, while Commissioner
of Patents, said: "Any sketch of American inventions would
be imperfect which failed to do justice to the part taken by
woman." The New York " Times," in an editorial upon woman's
inventive genius, says : " The feminine mind is, as a rule, quicker
than the masculine mind; takes hints and sees defects which
would escape the average man's attention. Women frequently
carry the germs of patents in their head, and cause some rude
machine to be constructed which serves their purpose. If
women would fix their minds on inventions, it is entirely prob
able that they would distinguish themselves in this line far more
than they have done hitherto." The " Scientific American" tes
tifies of the inventions of women for which they solicit patents,
that "in their practical character and in their adaptation of
means to effect a definite purpose, they fully equal the same
number of inventions made by men."
Ancient tradition accords to woman the invention of those
arts most necessary to comfort, most conducive to wealth, most
promotive of civilization. Man's first needs are food, clothing, and
shelter, and to woman tradition assigns their present practical
forms. Isis in Egypt, Minerva in Greece, Surawati in India, the
mother of the Incas in Peru, and several empresses of China,

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 WOMAN AS AN INVEN TOB. 479

have alike been worshiped because of their inventive genius.

Diodorus, speaking of the worship paid to olden gods and god
desses, says : " The inventors of things useful and profitable to
man's well-being were as a reward of their deserts thus honored
by all men with everlasting remembrance." He adds, that the
gods of Egypt were of two characters : first, the supernatural,
or purely spiritual gods ; second, u most beloved and most wor
shiped," those human beings who had been of especial benefit
to the world, and who after death were enrolled among the gods.
Foremost among these secondary gods he places Isis. To her was
attributed the invention of bread-making, and the foundation of
agriculture ; previous to her time the Egyptians lived upon un
cooked roots and herbs. She also taught the art of healing and
the manufacture of flax, and laid the foundations of Egyptian
literature. Down to the time of Galen many medicines bore the
name of Isis. So famed were the medicines of Egypt that the
prophet Jeremiah mentions them, and Homer sang their praises.
The potion Nepenthes, which lulled sorrow, given by Helen to
Telemachus, was obtained in Egypt by the wife of a Trojan
hero. Isis also invented the art of embalming; through its
means the Israelites were enabled to keep their oath to Jacob,
and take his body with them when they fled from Egypt, nearly
four hundred years afterward.
Athens, a name synonymous with all that is beautiful in art
or generous in culture, a city that still holds power over men's
hearts, was under the special protection and guidance of the
feminine inventor and goddess Minerva, who, as Pallas Athene,
was one of the most ancient religious conceptions of the Greeks.
Regarded as the inventor of every kind of work usually done by
woman, she was equally deemed the originator of agriculture
and mechanics ; the inventor of all tools of man's handicraft ; of
musical instruments, and of the arts ; of war chariots ; of ship
building, and the breaking of horses. Ceres not only gave corn
to the Greeks, but, under the name of Thesmophoros, was
revered as the first law-giver. Letters, attributed to the Muses,
look back to a feminine source for their invention. Divination,
that art which ruled the actions of heroes and turned the fate
of empires, with its sibyls, priestesses, oracles, and books, has
come down through history as originating with woman. To the
Amazons the javelin, shield, and battle-ax were attributed; even
the toils and nets of the hunter are also ascribed to woman.

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 480 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.
But, leaving the realm of tradition and half-mythical history,
we still find woman accredited with some of the earliest and
most useful inventions. That she was the primitive artist is
quite universally conceded. To her, as the one to prepare the
food, the invention and ornamentation of pottery is ascribed.
Among savage races it is still easy to trace the inception and
growth of this art in woman's hands. The most ancient Chinese
writers accord the invention of spinning to Yao, wife of the fourth
emperor, and the discovery of silk to Si-ling-chi, wife of the
Emperor Hoang-ti, four thousand years before Christ. This
country was long known as Ser, or S?rica?the land of silk. Its
later name of China originated from Sien Tshan, under which
appellation, as goddess of silk-worms, Si-ling-chi is still wor
shiped. When the word China is spoken, it is in perpetual
honor and remembrance of this woman inventor. The unpar
alleled duration of Chinese civilization and the prosperity of
that country are largely due to silk, the secret of which was for
ages kept from other nations ; and which formed an export of
extraordinary value, its weight in gold being paid by Roman
emperors for a garment. The culture of the mulberry, the rear
ing of silk-worms, and the manufacture of silk in various forms,
are still the great staple domestic industries of this people, to
whom cotton was unknown until within the last eight hundred
years.
Aristotle was the first European writer to mention silk, yet it
was not until a thousand years after his time that the secret of
its manufacture became known to the West. It is now, however,
an article of great commercial value to many nations. The
worth of its raw material produced in France alone is computed
at $32,000,000 yearly, and the profits upon its manufacture at
$12,000,000. Gauze was the invention of Pamphile, a woman of
Cos, who, shortly after the introduction of silk into Europe,
Penelope-like, unraveled its web, re-manufacturing it into a
transparent fabric known to Roman ladies as " Coa vestis," and
to moderns as coan or gauze. One of the most diaphanous
fabrics of the ancient world, familiarly designated as "The
Woven Wind," it was yet possessed of sufficient strength to take
colors, and bear embroidery of silk and gold thread.
Under the forms of velvet, crape, gauze, satin, foulard,
pongee, plush, and lace, silk, largely contributing to the wealth
of the world, has shaped the policy of states. As lace, its use

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 WOMAN AS AN INVENTOB. 481
dates only from the middle of the eighteenth century. No other
fabric requires such delicate manipulation. Upon the white
varieties not even every woman can work, as the breath itself
must possess exquisite purity. Those who have what is locally
termed the haleine grasse, i. e., greasy breath, are compelled to con
fine themselves to the manufacture of the black varieties.
Silk is possessed of the qualities most sought by manufact
urers : delicacy, luster, strength, and a capability of taking any
color desired. It is the strongest of all fibers, exceeding that of
hemp or flax. By a law of eternal fitness, spinners strive for a
thread like a woman's hair, u long, fine, strong, and vibrant." As
a source of wealth, lace, equally with silk, has largely influenced
state policy. The value of the finest thread lace when wrought
in points is enormous, far exceeding that of precious stones. No
other art, it is said, is capable of bringing about such an extraor
dinary increase in value from a material worth as little as flax
in the unwrought state. The early records of this art are lost
in the mists of antiquity, but there is no doubt that woman was
its originator. At the exposition of woman's work in Florence,
a few years since, visitors were greatly interested in a specimen
of the magnificent lace known as u Puleto di Venezia" (Venetian
Point). Its stitch, lost since the thirteenth century, has re
cently been rediscovered by Madame Bessani, a humble work
woman, to whom the Italian Minister of Commerce accorded
letters patent, with exclusive control of her discovery for fifteen
years. The importance of Madame Bessani's invention to Italy
is incalculable, opening to that country an immense source of
revenue and political power.
Pillow-lace making, which brought this elegant addition to
the toilet within the reach of all, was the invention of Barbara
Uttmann, of Saxony, at a period when that country was on the
verge of financial ruin. The art spread with great rapidity, and
Belgium soon derived an immense revenue from it ; and although
three hundred years have since elapsed, lace still continues to
be its great source of wealth. Nor has its influence upon other
countries been less beneficial : not only did wealth accrue ta
England through its introduction there, but a great moral
change for the better soon appeared as one of its effects.
To Mheural Nisa, best known to English-speaking peoples
through Moore's " Light of the Harem " as Nourmahal, is the
world indebted for its priceless Cashmere shawls, the manufact
ure of which gives employment to thousands of men and women,

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 482 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.
and forms one of the principal sources of revenue in India. To
her, also, we owe that most exquisite and costly perfume, Attar,
or more properly, Atyr of Roses. Her husband, the great con
queror Jerunzebe, most passionately attached to her, through his
love, and for the benefits she had conferred upon her country,
caused her name and the title " Light of the World " to be struck
on the coins of India. He built to her memory that fairy temple
on the banks of the Jumna known as the Taj Mahal, which
travelers vie in describing as all that is most light, graceful,
exquisite, and picturesque in architecture. With K?me jo, a
woman worker in bronze, the decorations in relief, so much used
by Japanese artists, originated. Wood-engraving, the pioneer
of all other forms of engraving, was the invention of the Cunio
children, twin sister and brother, at Ravenna, Italy, in the thir
teenth century. The discovery of cotton as a textile fiber,
ascribed in the East to Semiramis, was in America attributed to
the mother of the Incas, who taught the Peruvians its manu
facture. The Caftan, or Eastern robe of honor, also known as
" Semiramis's Gown," was ascribed to that Eastern heroine,? an
invention for the purpose of concealing her sex when journeying
to meet her husband. The right to wear this garment has for
ages belonged only to potentates. It was one of the emblems of
exalted rank chosen by Haman, when consulted by Ahasuerus
as to the marks of distinction to be shown " the man whom the
king delighted to honor."
The straw industry of the United States owes its origin to
Miss Betsy Metcalf, who, in 1798, made the first straw bonnet*
ever manufactured in this country. Within twelve years there
after the State of Massachusetts alone produced half a million
dollars' worth of straw goods. That State now produces six
million hats and bonnets annually; a great deal of straw is alsa
manufactured in other States.
The most remarkable invention of the age, in its industrial,
social, and political influence, ? the cotton-gin,? owes its origin
to a woman, Catharine Littlefield Greene, widow of General
Greene, of Revolutionary memory, with whom the idea origin
ated. The cotton-gin heads the list of sixteen remarkable
American inventions that have been adopted by the world.
After the close of the war General Greene settled in Georgia,
# The Rhode Island Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Industry
possesses a facsimile of Miss Metcalf s original bonnet. It -was woven of
seven straws.

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 WOMAN AS AN INVENTOB. 483

where he soon died. The great difficulty of separating the seed

from the cotton was at that time the staple subject of conversa
tion among planters. To separate a pound of the black seed from
the lint was a day's task for a negro. The white variety, muck
more valuable, from its greater tenacity, was scarcely at all cul
tivated. It was the regular custom of the planter's family to
unite in this work every evening, and a fortune was prophesied
for the person who should construct a machine capable of doing
the work. After a conversation of this character between some
guests at her house, Mrs. Greene conceived the idea of such a
machine, and intrusted its construction to the hands of Eli
Whitney, then boarding with her, who possessed the usual New
England facility in the use of tools. The wooden teeth at first
tried not doing their work well, Mr. Whitney wished to abandon
the machine altogether ; but Mrs. Greene, whose faith in ultimate
success never wavered, would not consent; she suggested the
substitution of wire. Within ten days from the first conception
of Mrs. Greene's ideas, a small model was completed, so perfect
in its construction that all succeeding gins have been based
upon it.
This invention produced an extraordinary increase in the cult
ure of cotton. Instead of the single pound cleaned by hand,
three hundred pounds were now daily separated from the lint
at the same cost. Not only did the languishing industries of the
South receive a sudden and stable impetus, but every part of
the world felt the influence of this woman's idea. It may be
asked why Mrs. Greene, then a widow, did not take out the
patent in her own name; but to have done so would have
exposed her to the ridicule and contumely of her friends and
a loss of position in society, which frowned upon any attempt
at outside industry for woman. Through her second hus
band, Mr. Miller, she afterward assumed a subordinate interest
in it.
A very slight investigation proves that patents taken out in
some man's name are, in many instances, due to women. A re
cent noted instance of this kind is Miss Louise McLaughlin's
invention of underglaze painting on pottery. Miss McLaughlin,
desiring that all artists should share in its benefits, explained
her process to every person who asked her, and even wrote a
book giving this information. But a certain man, seeing its
value, took out a patent upon it, thus prohibiting even its in

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484 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.
ventor from using the fruit of her own brains. The Burden
horse-shoe machine, turning out a complete shoe every three
seconds, was a woman's invention. At a renewal of the patent,
in 1871, it was claimed that thirty-two million dollars had been
saved to the public during the fourteen years of its use.
A third great American invention, the mower and reaper,
owes its early perfection to Mrs. Ann Harned Manning,* of
Plainfield, New Jersey, who, in 1817-18, perfected a system for
the combined action of teeth and cutters, patented by her hus
band, William Henry Manning, as " a device for the combined
action of teeth and cutters, whether in a transverse or revolving
direction." Mrs. Manning also made other improvements, of
which, not having been patented, she was robbed after her hus
band's death by a neighbor whose name appears in the list of
patentees upon this machine. Mrs. Manning also invented a
clover cleaner, which proved very lucrative to her husband, who
took out the patent. Nor was she the only woman whose thought
has been turned toward agricultural machines. The name of
Elizabeth Smith, also of New Jersey, appears in 1861 among the
list of patentees upon an improvement to the mower and reaper,
whereby the knives could be adjusted while the machine was in
motion.
The smallest inventions sometimes prove the most lucrative.
A San Francisco lady, inventor of a baby carriage, received
fourteen thousand dollars for her patent. The paper pail, the
invention of a Chicago lady, yields a large income. The gimlet
pointed screw, the idea of a little girl, has realized millions of
dollars to its patentee.
Among recent inventions of importance by women, are a
spinning machine, capable of running from twelve to forty
threads ; a rotary loom, doing three times the work of an ordi
nary loom ; a volcanic furnace for smelting ore ; an improved
wood-sawing machine ; a space-saving clothes-mangle ; a chain
elevator ; screw-crank for steamships ; a fire-escape ; a device for
correct pen-holding, invaluable in schools; a wool feeder and
weigher, one of the most delicate machines ever invented, and of
incalculable benefit to every woolen manufacturer ; a self-fasten
ing button ; a portable reservoir for use in case of fires ; a pro
cess for burning petroleum in place of wood and coal for steam
* Sister of Mrs. Cl?mence S. Lozier, M. D., Dean of the Women's Home
opathic College in New York.

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 WOMAN AS AN INVENTOB. 485
generating purposes ; an improvement in spark-arresters, to be
applied to locomotives ; a danger-signal for street-crossings on
railways; a plan for heating cars without*fire; a lubricating
felt for subduing friction# (the last five all bearing upon rail
road travel) ; a rapid change box, a marvel of simplicity and
convenience, invaluable at railway stations and ferries, the
invention of a girl of sixteen; syllable type with adjustable
cases and apparatus; machine for trimming pamphlets; writ
ing-machine ; signal rocket, used in the navy ; deep-sea tele
scope ; method of deadening sound on elevated railways ; smoke
burner; satchel-bottom bags; bag-folding machine, etc., etc.
Many improvements in sewing machines have been made by
women ; as a device for sewing sails and heavy cloth ; quilting
attachments: the magic ruffler; threading a machine when
upon a full run (an idea scouted by male machinists) ; an adapta
tion of machines for sewing leather, etc. This last was the in
vention of a practical woman machinist, who for many years
carried on a large harness manufactory in New York City.
Systems for improved drainage ; for better ventilation ; for
forcing water to great heights and distances ; a thousand house
hold appliances, etc., are the fruits of woman's inventive genius ;
but they must be passed by, as this paper is designed simply to
attract public attention toward a subject upon which much
ignorance and misapprehension exist.
The deep-sea telescope, invented by Mrs. Mather, and im
proved by her daughter, is a unique and important invention,
bringing the bottom of the largest ships to view without the ex
pense of raising them into a dry-dock. By its means wrecks can
be inspected, obstructions to navigation removed, torpedoes suc
cessfully sought for, and immense sums annually saved to the
marine service.
A machine which, for its complicated mechanism and extra
ordinary ingenuity, has attracted much attention both in this
country and Europe, is that for the manufacture of satchel-bot
tom paper bags. Many men of mechanical genius long directed
their attention to this problem without success. Miss Maggie
Knight, to whose genius this machine is due, received a com
pliment from the Commissioner of Patents upon its entire origi
nality. Most inventions are but an improvement upon some pre
ceding one. She refused fifty thousand dollars for it shortly
* Took the first prize at the fair of the American Institute.

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486 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

after taking out her patent. Miss Knight has since invented a
machine doing the work of thirty persons in folding bags, and
herself superintended the erection of the machinery at Amherst,
Mass. The Eureka street-sweeper, the invention of a Hoboken
lady, owes its origin to the fact of this lady's dress having been
spattered with mud by a clumsy machine one day in New York.
Possessed of a mechanical genius, she determined to try her hand
upon a sweeper that should do its work more perfectly. Her
success was great, and her invention a vast improvement upon
all its predecessors.
The remarkable invention of Mrs. Mary E. Walton, for dead
ening the noise of elevated railroads, has occasioned much com
ment. Edison and other inventors had for six months unsuc
cessfully striven to accomplish this end, when Mrs. Walton
brought forward a device which was at once adopted by the
Metropolitan and other elevated railways. The benefit to
human health and life likely to accrue from this invention
can scarcely be realized. The evil effects of persistent noise
upon the human system are very great, and an invention tend
ing to lessen its force confers a benefit upon mankind. A
prominent New York physician says : " We see very little of
the gentle decline of old age in New York City. The constant
din of travel and traffic, borne for a time without evidence of
injury, suddenly shows itself in a shattered nervous system
and imminence of dissolution." Since her noise-deadener, Mrs.
Walton has taken out, both in this country and England, a
patent for a smoke-burner, that she considers much more valu
able. By this device all smoke from a fire, furnace, or locomo
tive is consumed, as also the dust caused by railway trains, and
the offensive, unhealthful odors emitted from factories, gas
works, etc. When in England, Mrs. Walton received the con
gratulations of British officials for it, as one of the greatest
inventions of the age.
While passing by woman's discovery in science, where the
names of Hypatia, Maria Agnesi, and Caroline Herschel shine,
mention must still be made of the aquarium, the invention of
Madam Jeanette Power, one of the most eminent naturalists of
the century. It was used by her in making curious scientific
discoveries. The value of the aquarium to marine zoology is incal
culable. Not only can rare species from the Indian, Arctic, and
Pacific oceans be brought into close comparison, but the subject

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 WOMAN AS AN INVENTOB. 487

of embryology can be studied, and the great Darwinian problems

of evolution and permanence of type are likely to be solved by
its instrumentality.
Medicine, even in modern times, owes much to woman. It
was to her knowledge of this art that woman's persecution for
witchcraft in the middle ages was largely due. Through Madame
de Coudray's invention of the manikin, a knowledge of physiology
has been much more widely diffused than would otherwise have
been possible. Many delicate and important surgical instruments
owe their origin to woman, as also the adaptation of wax for
recording medical observations Dr. Hunter was indebted for
the illustrations of his greatest work to the observations of a
woman preserved in wax. *
Chemistry offers an infinite resource to the inventor in a field
whose exploration has scarcely begun. A Prussian governess
recently invented a new fulminate for needle-gun cartridges, and
the Government is experimenting with it with a view to its pur
chase. From this lucrative field woman is largely debarred
through that prejudice and injustice which still deprives her of
full opportunities for scientific education, t
But among woman inventors the name of the celebrated
sculptor, Harriet Hosmer, must not be passed by. Miss Hosmer
has succeeded in producing marble from limestone, closely
simulating the finest antique varieties. This process had long
been unsuccessfully sought by the Italian Government. But her
most valuable invention is that of the permanent magnet as
a motive power. Scientific men and practical machinists deem
this one of the most important inventions of the century, and
its influence upon the world as likely to be far-reaching and
extraordinary. No such power was known to inhere in the
permanent magnet until Miss Hosmer's discovery, to which she
gave fifteen years of study and experiment.
The national value of patents, and the relation of invention to
civilization, are subjects that receive marked attention both in
England and the United States. A paper upon the latter topic,
read in London, in 1881, before the Society of Engineers, forcibly
represented the loss sustained by the nation through the obstacles
placea in the way of inventors, upon whose genius, this paper
* Mademoiselle Biheron.
tA lady who won the chemical prize at the University of Edinburgh,
over 240 competitors, was not permitted to receive it on account of her sex.

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 488 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

claimed, England was dependent for holding her place amon

the nations.
The inventions of a nation are closely connected with the
freedom of its people. During the reign of George III. the
average yearly number of patents taken out in Great Britain
was but fourteen. At present the average is five thousand,
while in the United States it is eighteen thousand. This differ
ence is directly traceable to the progress of freedom and educa
tion. While, as has been shown, many of the world's most
important inventions are due to woman, the proportion of
feminine inventors is much less than of masculine, which arises
from the fact that woman does not possess the same amount of
freedom as man. Restricted in education, industrial opportu
nities, and political power, this is one of many instances where
her degradation reacts injuriously upon the race. The majority
of inventions are the result of much consideration and self
reliant thought. Inventors must not only possess full freedom
to exercise their powers, but there must also be a certain welcome
and protection to their ideas. Deprived, as woman is, of political
power, she has to face contempt of her sex, open and covert scorn
of womanhood, depreciatory allusions to her intellectual powers,
?all tending to hamper the expression of her inventive genius.
Nor is woman by law recognized as possessing full right to
the use and control of her own powers. In not a single State of
the Union is a married woman held to possess a right to her
earnings within the family; and in not one-half of them has
she a right to their control in business entered upon outside of
the household. Should such a woman be successful in obtaining
a patent, what 'then ! Would she be free to do as she pleased
with it ? Not at all. She would hold no right, title, or power
over this work of her own brain. She would possess no legal
right to contract, or to license any one to use her invention.
Neither, should her right be infringed, could she sue the
offender. Her husband could take out the patent in his own
name, sell her invention for his own sole benefit, give it away if
he so chose, or refrain from using it, and for all this she would
have no remedy.
It is scarcely thirty years since the first State protected a
married woman in the use of her own brain property. Under
these conditions, legally incapable of holding property, and
trained, as she has been, to seclusion, dependence, and abeyance

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 WOMAN AS AN INVENTOB. 489
of thought, that woman has not been an inventor to an equal
extent with man is not so much a subject of surprise as that she
should have invented at all.
While every invention, however small, develops new indus
tries, provides work for a multitude of people, increases com
mercial activity, adds to the revenues of the world, and renders
life more desirable, great inventions broaden the boundaries of
human thought, bring about social, religious, and political
changes, hurrying mankind on to a new civilization. Lecky
forcibly shows the loss to the world from the celibacy and mar
tyrdom of the best human element in the past. No less is the
darkness of the world kept more dense, and its civilization re
tarded, by all forms of thought, customs of society, or systems
of law which prevent the full development and exercise of
woman's inventive powers.
Matilda Joslyn Gage.

VOL. CXXXYL?no. 318. 34

34
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