Forgotten female inventors

Female inventors have discovered and invented countless life-changing inventions in the history of the world. I am pretty sure you would be surprised that many of the inventions you thought were invented by a man, in reality were created by a woman.

A closer look into the history of humanity is enough to show us that women’s achievements have more often than not been overlooked when it comes to handing out praise and recognition. Sadly, even today we often find that sometimes this can still be true.

Shaming, corruption, and painful socio-cultural eras in human history have caused some of those inventions and names of their inventors to remain in obscurity, without proper recognition, unable to come out to daylight. For a long time, some female inventors have been forgotten, removed from history, and their inventions attributed to men.

If you ever wondered who was the first woman in history to receive a patent for her invention in her own right we have to look into some historical archives.

According to the U.S. Patent Office’s first official list of women patentees which was compiled in 1888, the first U.S. patent was issued to Mary Dixon Kies in 1809 for inventing a process for weaving straw with silk or thread. Unfortunately, this historic patent - like many other women’s patents - was destroyed in the great Patent and Trademark Office fire in 1836.

The list (see image above), titled “ Women Inventors to Whom Patents Have Been Granted by the United States Government, 1790 to July 1, 1888,” documented the 2,297 patents granted to women up to that point. Later installments of the list aimed at including more recent patents were published in 1892 and 1895.

It is through this document that we know that Mary Dixon Kies was the first American woman to receive a U.S. patent in her own name. On 5 May, 1809, she was granted a patent for a technique of weaving straw with silk or thread to make hats and bonnets. This innovation significantly boosted the New England hat industry during a time when trade embargoes had limited imports from Europe.

Whilst Mary Dixon Kies is credited as the first American woman to receive a U.S. patent, some sources suggest that Hannah Wilkinson Slater may have been the first. However, that’s not accurate since the patent received by Slater in 1793 was under the name Mrs. Samuel Slater, not in her own name.

Mary Dixon Kies’ patent was notable for being issued in her own name, a significant achievement at a time when women had limited legal rights and patents were not easily attributed to women.

From there, and until the 1840s, only 20 other patents were issued to women. From 1855 to 1865, women received an average of 10.1 patents per year in contrast to the 3,767.4 patents issued to men. From 1865 to 1875, the number of women-issued patents increased to 67.3 compared to men’s 11,918.4 patents.

In some cases, women did not bother to look for patenting their work because it was not socially acceptable for most women to file patents. Such was the case of Ada Lovelace, who in 1843 wrote a scientific paper that paved the work for the development of computer software, artificial intelligence, and computer music. She wrote the first computer programme and the first computer algorithm.

Ada Lovelace invented the first mechanical thinking-calculating machine when collaborating with mathematician Charles Babbage. Unfortunately, she did not patent her invention and most of the credit of her work was attributed to Charles Babbage. Later, the Ada Programming Language was named after her as a way of recognition. However, even today, many still credit Babbage for her work.

By 1910, the number of women patents were still only 8,596, representing a tiny 0.8 per cent of the total patents issued in the United States. Not always women were able or was it legal, or socially accepted for them to own property, and because patents are a form of intellectual property, many women patented their inventions under their brother, husband or father’s name.

An early example of this is Sybilla Masters, the first female inventor in recorded history. Sybilla invented a way for cleaning and curing the Indian corn crops that the colonists in early America received as a gift from the native Americans.

Sybilla Masters’ innovation allowed the corn to be processed into many different food and cloth products. However, the patent for her invention and the associated rights were issued to her husband, Thomas, by the British courts in 1715 since at that time, the prevailing laws stated that women could not own property.

Back then, both women and African-Americans had no rights to own patents. Inventions and patents were a white man’s thing.

An interesting historical fact is that 75% of the patents issued to women between 1895 and 1900 were profitable. And some female inventors were incredibly prolific. An example of this is Beulah Henry, who created about 110 inventions and was granted 49 patents.

Some of Beulah Henry’s inventions included the vacuum ice-cream freezer patented in 1912, and umbrella with a variety of different coloured snap-on cloth covers patented in 1924, the first bobbinless sewing machine which she patented in 1940, the Protograph that worked with a manual typewriter to make four copies of a document and received a patent in 1932, continuously-attached envelopes for mass mailings for which she received a patent in 1952, Dolly Dips soap-filled sponges for children patented in 1929, Miss Illusion, a doll with eyes that could change colour and close, and was patented in 1935.

Socially, it was difficult for women to patent their inventions. The social environment began to change with the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, a World Fair-like event held to celebrate the progress of the 100th anniversary of the United States.

It was then when the Centennial Women’s Executive Committee was established. Consequently, a separate Women’s Pavilion was created. It was there where women inventions either with patents, or with patents pending were able to publicly display their inventions for the very first time.

For much of the early days of legal grants in intellectual property, the creative occupations of artist, engineer, writer, scientist, and musician were dominated by or exclusive to men.

Many cases in history have seen creative works of talented women circulated anonymously or pseudonymously, just a fancy way to say they usually were attributed to a male member of the woman’s family or her husband.

This was the case of two talented female musicians: Clara Schumann, spouse of Robert Schumann, and Fanny Mendelsohn, sister of the composer Felix Mendelsohn. At the time, a woman acquiring patents or copyrights was widely seen as improper. Conveniently, that was a male’s view point.

Clara Schumann was a talented and accomplished pianist and composer in her own right. However, her work came second to her husband, Robert Schumann. Rather than receiving the credit for her own music compositions, Clara was only seen as her husband’s helper.

But now, back to the first U.S. patent granted to a woman in her own name and right in 1809, Mary Dixon Kies’s contribution was recognised by First Lady Dolley Madison, who praised her for aiding the nation’s economy.

Despite the success of her invention, Kies did not profit significantly from it. She died in relative obscurity in 1837. Almost 200 hundred years later, her legacy was rather quietly honoured with her induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006.

Mary Dixon Kies’ invention is still relevant today in millinery, the craft and art of designing and making hats, fascinators, and other decorative headpieces.