Jia Johnson
See sources at bottom of article
Top: Dr. Shirley Jackson, Bottom Left-Right: Maria Beasley, & Mary Anderson
Throughout history, women have contributed many amazing inventions and discoveries that their male counterparts often overshadow. Of course, among those are Marie Curie, with the theory of relativity, and Grace Hopper with the computer, however, apart from them, there aren't many others you can name. These women had huge impacts on the way society lives today but so many other women have also contributed to amazing discoveries so this article will be highlighting some of those lesser-known female inventors and their contributions to the world.
Maria Beasly was an established inventor during her time, securing 15 patents throughout the late 1800s, and being one of the only women in her time to actually receive money from her inventions. Specifically, she made a lot of inventions concerning the safety of transportation, which, at the time, was very dangerous regardless of how you wanted to travel. Arguably, the most important of these inventions was the life raft. Around this time travel by boat was becoming more and more common due to the influx of immigration surging during this time, as well as ship rides being seen as status symbols by the wealthy due to their increasing extravagance. Beasly noticed that these boats were not as safe as they could’ve been. While lifeboats existed as safety precautions at the time they were wooden, couldn’t fit many people, and took up a lot of excess space on the boat itself. Beasley’s improved design utilized collapsible metal, to make them easier to store, as well as having airtight containers to protect certain belongings. She also added a safeguard that the raft could be used upside down in case the raft tipped over by adjusting the guardrail.
The technological advancements of Dr. Shirley Jackson have been the most recent of these three women. When she attended college she was one of the only African American women on campus, leading Jackson to face ostracization from many social aspects of college. She powered through, understanding the benefits it could have for her career and she was correct, as she is now an extremely successful inventor. The focus of her advancements was mainly on physics and telecommunications. Her breakthroughs have directly contributed to many aspects of modern-day communication including the technologies behind caller id and call waiting. She is also accredited with “probably the most philosophical and practical changes in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission” according to a member of her staff. This discovery can quickly and effectively predict risks associated with nuclear plants helping to prevent potential accidents.
Mary Anderson is best known for her invention of windshield wipers. She first came up with the idea during a trolley ride through New York when it was heavily sleeting and snowing. She realized how hard it was to operate due to obstructions of the front windshield. Drivers often had to open their windows to see out into the street, sometimes even having to stop the car entirely to manually clear the window. Anderson thought a more practical solution would be a spring-loaded arm with an attached rubber blade that would be operated by a lever from inside the vehicle. While this was not the first idea of or attempt at the windshield wiper, she was the first to successfully create one, which she patented in 1903. Despite the groundbreaking nature of this invention when she went to sell it to manufacturing companies she was repeatedly turned down. The invention would however grow in popularity over the next decade or two due to driving becoming increasingly more common. While this design was adapted and changed over time, Anderson’s invention set the groundwork for this design
Many of these inventions make up our day-to-day lives and how we live. Maria Beasly, Dr. Shirley Jackson, and Mary Anderson contributed so many advancements in science and engineering. Not just them, however, there are so many more great inventions created by women that had large impacts on society today. That being said, enjoy the rest of women’s history month!
Sources:
More on Maria Beasly-
More on Dr. Shirley Jackson -
https://cst.princeton.edu/people/shirley-ann-jackson#:~:text=Dr.,caller%20ID%20and%20call%20waiting.
More on Mary Anderson -
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