Crazy inventions by women we cannot imagine modern life without

1-The folding cabinet bed

Inventor and entrepreneur Sarah E. Goode was born into slavery in 1850. She was also the first African-American woman to be granted a patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, for her invention of a folding cabinet bed in 1885. Sarah moved to Chicago at the end of civil war to eventually become an entrepreneur and owned a furniture along with her husband Archibald. Her customers were mostly working-class and lived in cramped apartments and didn’t have much space for furniture, including beds.

In order to solve that problem, Goode invented a cabinet bed, which she described as a “folding bed”. When the bed was not being used, it could also serve as a roll-top desk, complete with compartments for stationery and other writing supplies.

2-Feeding Tube

Bessie Virginia Blount, also known as Bessie Blount Griffin, was an American nurse, physical therapist, inventor, handwriting expert and possibly the first Black woman to train at Scotland Yard’s Document Division. In the 1940s, she who worked with World War II veterans in New York City’s Bronx Hospital (now part of Bronx-Care Health System), where she taught veterans with amputations to read and write with their teeth and feet. It was during this work that Bount invented a device that her patients could use to feed themselves.

Blount’s invention involved a tube that delivered food to a person’s mouth whenever he or she bit down on it. She patented part of the design in 1948, then gifted the rights to the invention over to the French government in 1951 on the advice of a religious leader (the U.S. government hadn’t shown much interest in the device).

Her invention paved the way for modern feeding tubes, which can be inserted into a person’s nose or stomach if the user can’t ingest food orally. After patenting the feeding tube, Blount continued to invent and went on to become a forensic handwriting analyst.

3-Beer

Nearly 7,000 years ago in Mesopotamia and Sumeria, it was women who created beer. And for thousands of years it was only they who were allowed to operate breweries and drink beer. They were the only ones allowed to brew the drink or run any taverns because of their exceptional skills. Beer was also considered to be a gift from a goddess, never a male God in most ancient societies.

An author by name Jane Peyton who conducted extensive research into the origins of beer for a new book reports that a woman’s touch was found on beer throughout the ages.

Between the eighth and tenth centuries AD the Vikings spread terror by rampaging through Europe, fuelled by women-made ale. Women were the exclusive brewers in Norse society and all equipment by law remained their property.

Ancient Finland also credits the creation of beer to the women, with three women, a bear’s saliva and wild honey the apparent first ingredients.

The English ale was traditionally made at home by women. They were known as brewsters or ale-wives and the sale of the drink also provided a valuable income for many households.

By the start of the late 18th century and the Industrial Revolution, new methods of making beer led to the decline of women’s contribution and subsequently forgotten.

4-Stem Cell Isolation

While working in Palo Alto in 1991, Asian American scientist Ann Tsukamoto was part of the team that patented the first method of isolating blood-forming stem cells in 1991. Tsukamoto holds a total of 12 U. S. patents for her stem cell research, which has helped with the development of cancer treatments

5-Cataract Treatment

Patricia E. Bath was the first Black American to complete a residency in ophthalmology and the first Black female doctor to patent a medical device in the United States. The device she invented was the Laserphaco Probe, which removed cataracts — cloudy blemishes in the eye that can lead to vision loss.

Bath’s new ways of removing cataracts was faster, more accurate and less invasive than previous methods. She earned her first U. S. patent related to the procedure in 1988, and received four other U. S. patents related to her cataract-removal innovations during her lifetime, in addition to patents in Japan, Canada and Europe. She passed away at the age of 76 in .

6-CCTV Security System

Marie Van Brittan Brown invented the first CCTV security system. She noticed that law enforcement officers always took a while to respond to calls, and hence she decided to find a way to secure homes more effectively. She used cameras and a TV to help solve the problem. In the mid-1960’s, when Marie invented the CCTV security system, television sets in homes were a luxury and the possibilities for their use had only just begun.

While early TV stations had filled their schedules with professional wrestling, Marie created a feed of her own with her husband that monitored the entrance to her home. The system had a motor on the cameras to adjust and capture anyone who entered her house. The couple then connected the cameras to a TV screen.

They could now see who came into the house without having to be physically present in the front room. They also built a special mechanism for the door that allowed them to open it remotely. After realising that her idea for the first CCTV system worked, Marie patented it, and soon the idea spread and continues to expand into new industries and applications each day.

7-Kevlar

Stephanie L. Kwolek was a chemist who created synthetic fibers while working at DuPont’s Pioneering Research Laboratory in Wilmington, Delaware. The most famous one she created was Kevler — a strong, lightweight and heat-resistant synthetic fiber.

Kwolek patented the process for making Kevlar in 1966. Kevlar is used in bulletproof vests and other protective equipment, and has also become a substitute for asbestos since the 1970s, when companies began to scale back on using the cancer-causing material.

8-The Medical Syringe

Letitia Geer of New York invented the medical syringe in 1899. She was granted a patent for “In a hand-syringe”. The combination of a cylinder, a piston and an operating-rod which is bent upon itself to form a smooth and rigid arm terminating in a handle, which, in extreme positions, is located within reach of the fingers of the hand which holds the cylinder, thus permitting one hand to hold and operate the syringe.

So every time you are navigating through tricky bylanes in a faraway land, enjoying a glass of cool refreshing beer or feeling safe with the CCTV cameras around, don’t forget to acknowledge the efforts of these great women inventors!

9-Dishwasher

Josephine G. Cochran was a wealthy socialite in Shelbyville, Illinois when she got the idea to invent a dishwasher. Cochrane employed servants to perform housework in her mansion, but started washing her fine china herself when she discovered some of the servants had accidentally chipped them. Cochrane found her brief exposure to housework unpleasant, and resolved to build a machine that could wash the dishes for her.

The result was the first commercially-successful dishwasher, which Cochrane patented in 1886. Previous attempts at dishwashers had used scrubbers, but Cochrane’s design was more effective because it used water pressure to clean the dishes. With her patent secure, she founded Cochran’s Crescent Washing Machine Company. Because the machine was too expensive for most households, Cochran sold most of her dishwashers to hotels and restaurants.

10-Car Heater

The first person to patent an automobile heater was Margaret A. Wilcox, an engineer in Chicago. Wilcox’s 1893 design used heat from the car’s engine to keep drivers and passengers warm during trips. Later engineers improved upon the idea by making the heat easier to regulate.

Wilcox’s other inventions included a combined clothes and dishwasher, which didn’t catch on in the same way.

11-The Ice Cream Maker

Nancy Johnson, a housewife from England, invented the small-scale hand-cranked ice cream maker in 1843. She received the first patent for the machine on September 9, 1843, in Philadelphia. However, she did not have enough finances to produce her invention, so she later sold her rights to the patent to William Young, a kitchen wholesaler, for $200, who began producing and selling the churn publicly.

12-Wireless Transmissions Technology

Hedy Lamarr, an Austrian and American film actress, along with composer George Antheil invented the wireless transmissions technology. Her invention of secret communications system during World War II for radio-controlled torpedoes, employing “frequency hopping” technology. The US Navy did not adopt this technology until the 1960s, the principles of their work are the technological backbone for the modern Wi-Fi, GPS, CDMA and Bluetooth technology. Both Hedy and George were also inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014 for their work.

13-The Fire staircase

The first steel exterior staircase, a predecessor of the modern fire escape, was patented by an American inventor named Anna Connelly. At a time before women were allowed to vote or even work outside the home, Anna Connelly was one of the first women to submit an idea to the patent office. The cost-effective design was a revolutionary way to make buildings safer by adding an exterior staircase with platforms between levels that prevented people from falling several stories down a flight of stairs in the panic of an emergency. Anna is directly responsible for saving the lives of thousands of people for nearly 150 years.

14-The Life Raft/Boat

Maria Beasley of Philadelphia wanted a better life raft, one that was “fire-proof, compact, safe, and readily-launched” when needed. According to the patent, she invented a new design in 1880. Her life raft had guard railings and rectangular metal floats, which differentiated them from typical rafts with hollow tube floats and zero safety railings. By changing the style of the floats, Maria’s raft folded and unfolded more easily for use and storage, even with the added guard rails. Beasley of Philadelphia was one of the rare women who made fortunes from their inventions in the late 1800’s. Her barrel-hooping machine, an automated process to manufacture wooden barrels used for food preservation and wine-making, earned nearly $20,000 a year in a time when most women, if allowed to work at all, made less than $3 a day. Maria is considered one of the most successful female inventors of all time. She won at least 15 patents between 1878 and 1898.

15-Monopoly

Elizabeth Magie invented The Landlord’s Game in 1904, a leftwing teaching tool that came to be known by millions as the board game Monopoly. Her game was a critique of the injustices of unchecked capitalism. However, Elizabeth reportedly received a mere $500 for her creation, no royalties, and, until recently, little credit. Her game was completely ripped off by Charles Darrow 30 years later, who sold it to Parker Brothers.