How many stereotypes make their way into our minds when it comes to inventions? Knowing the history of these inventions by women makes us want to deepen the subject and understand why there is no way to bring to light the contribution that so many women have given to our society.
Instrumentation for cars, clothing, medicines and inventions for the safety of buildings, women from the 1800s onwards have characterized the world of invention and proposed solutions to problems that we still encounter today .
Some of them have even thought of a future far away from them , such as designing a solar-powered heating system. How is our society changing and how can we do to give due honor to those who have contributed to improving it?
Below you will find 10 inventions of women , which allow us today to live better, save time and prolong our health. Some are truly amazing and worth knowing.
Let’s see together the inventions that have improved and changed our lives.
1) The wipers
Mary Anderson. This is the name that you must remember every time it rains and you can better scrutinize the road thanks to the presence of the windshield wipers in the car . On a trip to New York in the early 1900s, Mary noted that public transit drivers were forced to drive with their heads out the window in snow or rain. Anderson patented the first wiper, but the object was unsuccessful until the patent ran out and everyone was able to freely access his creation and commercialize it.
2) The circular saw
The invention of the circular saw dates back to the 1800s, thanks to Tabitha Bobbins and her daily life. Living in the woods, the woman noticed how hard the work of the woodcutters was and that it was not efficient in terms of the quantity of raw material compared to the quantity of work. She then invents a circular blade, powered by a wheel pedal, which she was unable to patent due to her religious beliefs.
3) The fire escape stairs
Regarding the fire escape stairs of the buildings, famous in many American cities for actually changing the appearance of the metropolises themselves, the first combination on the structures and emergency exits was by Anna Connery, who in 1887 designed this very low combination system. cost , but very effective to ensure safety.
4) The bra
Practical, and today also an instrument of seduction, the bra was created to overcome the problem of corsetry , which had forced and modified the bodies of women for centuries, from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. Fortunately for us , Mary Jacobs decided in 1914 that she needed an intimate model suitable for a low-cut and transparent dress . From that day on, different models have followed one another up to today’s great choice.
5) The diapers
Marion Donovan , on the other hand, inventor and one of the first entrepreneurs, was responsible for the first prototypes of diapers. Educated and always in contact with the family business, Donovan made the first diaper with a curtain and a sewing machine, solving the problem of waterproofing and contact irritation on babies . After a period of failure, thanks to the contacts developed in the fashion world, Marion Donovan sold around the fifties some models (including the Velcro fastener , another invention of her) to the Saks Fifth Avenue chain. A year after the invention and her patents were sold to a corporation for a million dollars.
6) The monopoly
Monopoly, or more correctly “Monopoly” is a parlor game that has been successful all over the world. Born with the intent to demonstrate the economic theories of the early 1900s and that the rich can only get richer while the poor, poorer, was officially invented by Elizabeth Magie , with evidently educational purposes. Very soon Charles Darrow sold an identical version of it, which is the one we know today.
7) The miniskirt
The miniskirt is not just a way to assert your right to dress as you please, but it really comes from a need for comfort. The French feminist Hubertine Auclert also founded the League of short women, in order to guarantee new opportunities for women and the improvement of their lives at the beginning of the twentieth century. From 1945 onwards, short skirts made their appearance in advertisements, but Mary Quant was the most famous British designer who cleared the miniskirt in the world of European fashion and then conquered the world . Even this detail alone gives her the right to be part of this list and the inventions of revolutionary women.
8) The dishwasher
Washing piles of dishes by hand discourages us today, but it was a real problem in the late 1800s. Josephine Cochrane , a wealthy Illinois lady who invented the first dishwasher, one of the inventions of women that changed our lives today, knows it well. . Even if the plates and glasses were still washed by the servants, the Cochrane’s aim was to make sure that they broke as little as possible and that time was greatly reduced. For fifty years this invention was not considered such for families, instead it took hold in the tourist and commercial world .
9) Solar system heating
In reality we are not just talking about houses, among the inventions of women we find Maria Telkes, a famous Hungarian chemist who has dedicated her life to capturing solar energy and using it for various projects, so much so that she is nicknamed “Sun Queen” . The first house entirely heated by the sun appeared in 1948 thanks to three women: Amelia Peabody who restored it, Eleanor Raymond who designed it and Maria Telkes who studied its functioning through ingenious panels and Glauber rooms, a chemical compound capable of transform and release heat .
10) The beer
We are not talking about recent times, because we know that from the nineteenth century onwards many processes have been patented to improve the final result. The origin of the beer, however, seems to date back to 7,000 years ago and should be located among the population that inhabited the Fertile Crescent . Armenian writings also report beer as a gift from a goddess , in fact it is said that this drink was discovered by chance, by a woman, working with cereals …
