Women’s history month is a time to celebrate the women who have impacted us in our personal lives as well as women throughout history who have made contributions to society. Female inventors left a huge impact and should be remembered for their contributions to the world. It is important that we celebrate the accomplishments of female entrepreneurs and inventors so that we can encourage a new generation of women to do the same.
The First Monopoly Game
Elizabeth Maggie patented the realty and taxation game known as “The Landlord’s Game” in 1904. Maggie created the game because she wanted to show the negative side of unchecked capitalism, according to a 2015 article from The Guardian. She wanted to spread the teachings of Henry George, a progessive economist who believed that people should own the value they produce themselves but that the economic value obtained from land should belong equally to all people living in society.
30 years later, the game that we still play today known as “Monopoly” was created and directly inspired based on the game Maggie invented.
Picture of The Landlord’s Game from The New York Times
The Very First Home Security System
Marie Van Brittan Brown patented the first home security system in 1969. Brown was an African- American woman living in New York City at the time when her and her husband came up with the idea. She came up with it when she was alone in her home at night after getting off work from her job as an electronics technician.
The security system she created consisted of a sliding camera that could take images from four different peepholes in her door and a two way microphone to talk and hear the person outside. There was also a button on the remote to contact the police and unlock the door. This invention paved the way for modern home security systems that we see today.
Image of very first home security system design from Blackpast.org
Life Raft
In 1882 in North Carolina, Maria Beasley invented a life raft with guardrails. It was also fireproof and could be folded. Life rafts had already existed prior to her making it, however her innovations helped them make them much more helpful and saved many more lives.
Her design of life rafts were actually used on the Titanic and saved over 700 people.
Beasley has invented a number of other things such as the footwarmer and the barrel-hooping machine. Her contributions to society will never be forgotten.
Model of Beasley’s life raft design from https://americanhistory.si.edu/
Medical Syringes
The medical syringes that we use today were invented by a nurse named Letitia Geer. In 1896, Geer patented her new design for medical syringes. The syringes that were used prior to her innovation required the use of two hands and were much more difficult to use. Geer’s medical syringes only required one hand and were also much cheaper.
Greer helped revolutionize the medical industry and a version of her innovation is still used today, over 100 years later.
Image of Geer’s medical syringe model from http://mapleridgemuseum.org/
Paper Bag Machines
Margaret Knight was an American inventor who created a machine for making flat bottomed paper bags. Knight worked at a textile mill in New Hampshire when she came up with the idea of her very first invention, which was a safety device that could be used on looms.
After that, in 1870 she created the paper bag machine that could automatically cut, fold, and glue paper bags together. Prior to her invention, it would take 30 people to do the same amount of work her machine could do. This invention is significant because an updated version of it is still used today.
Model of Knight’s paper bag machine from https://americanhistory.si.edu/
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