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7S. 3 : Z7
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
JAMES J. DAVIS, SECRETARY

WOMEN’S BUREAU
MARY ANDERSON, Director

BULLETIN OF THE WOMEN’S BUREAU, NO. 28

WOMEN’S CONTRIBUTIONS IN
THE FIELD OF INVENTION

A Study of the Records of the

United States Patent Office

WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1923

[Public—No.

259—66th Congbess.]

[H. K. 13229.]
An Act To establish in the Department of Labor a bureau to be known as the
Women’s Bureau.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be
established in the Department of Labor a bureau to be known as the
Women’s Bureau.
Sec. 2. That the said bureau shall be in charge of a director, a
woman, to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice
and consent of the Senate, who shall receive an annual compensa
tion of $5,000. It shall be the duty of said bureau to formulate
standards and policies which shall promote the welfare of wage
earning women, improve their working conditions, increase their
efficiency, and advance their opportunities for profitable employ
ment. The said bureau shall have authority to investigate and
report to the said department upon all matters pertaining to the
welfare of women in industry. The director of said bureau may
from time to time publish the results of these investigations in such
a manner and to such extent as the Secretary of Labor may prescribe.
Sec. 3. That there shall be in said bureau an assistant director,
to be appointed by the Secretary of Labor, who shall receive an
annual compensation of $3,500 and shall perform such duties as
shall be prescribed by the director and approved by the Secretary
of Labor.
.
Sec. 4. That there is hereby authorized to be employed by said
bureau a chief clerk and such special agents, assistants, clerks, and
other employees at such rates of compensation and in such numbers
as Congress may from time to time provide by appropriations.
Sec. 5. That the Secretary of Labor is hereby directed to furnish
sufficient quarters, office furniture, and equipment for the work of
this bureau.
Sec. 6. That this act shall take effect and be in force from and
after its passage.
Approved, June 5, 1920.

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
JAMES J. DAVIS, SECRETARY

WOMEN’S BUREAU
MARY ANDERSON, Director

BULLETIN OF THE WOMEN'S BUREAU, NO. 28

WOMEN’S CONTRIBUTIONS IN
THE FIELD OF INVENTION

A Study of the Records of the
United States Patent Office

[*res q£.

WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1923

TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Part I:
Page.
Introduction.................................. . _
1
Summary...................................
9
Conclusions............................
10
Part II:
............................................................................
Patents for new and useful inventions granted to women by the United
States Patent Office..................................
11
Purposes shown by women’s inventions....................
13
Inventions facilitating agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry...
16
Inventions facilitating mining, quarrying, and metal smelting equip
ment and materials..........................................
20
Inventions facilitating manufacturing...........................
21
Inventions concerned with structural equipment and materials..........
24
Inventions facilitating transportation.......................
26
Inventions concerned with trade; hotels and restaurants; steam
laundry and dyeing establishments; and with dressmakers and
milliners’ supplies..........................................
31
Office supplies and equipment.............................
33
Inventions concerned with fishing........................
34
Inventions concerned with the business of housekeeping...’" .............
34
Inventions covering supplies for use in industry, agriculture,’"com
merce, and the home...................................
38
Scientific instruments (other than surgical), laboratory equipment,
meters, scales, watches, optical and photographic goods, apparatus,
and supplies.....................................
41
Ordnance, firearms, and ammunition................................
42
Inventions concerned with articles of personal wear and use..." ' ’
42
Inventions concerned with beauty parlor and barber supplies.’.....'.'.
45
Inventions facilitating the practice of medicine, surgery, and den
tistry, and those promoting safety and sanitation...................
45
Inventions concerned with education, arts and crafts, amusements
and miscellaneous activities....................
48
TABLES.

I. Number of patents issued to women and to men and the per cent increase
in such issuance in each decade or period since 1790......................
II. Number and per cent of patents issued to women in the ten selected
y years: 1905, 1906, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1914, 1918, 1919, 1920, and 1921....
HI. Number and per cent of patents issued to women in the ten selected
years, classified according to the purposes served.....................

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

United States Department
.

Labor,

Women’s Bureau,

Washington, November 27, 1922.
Sir: Submitted herewith is a report on women’s contributions in
the field of invention as shown by a study of the records of the United
States Patent Office.
Many requests have come to the Wbmen s Bureau for informa
tion in regard to what has been done by women in the field of cre
ative labor and in response to these requests this study was made.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Anderson, Director.
Hon. James J. Davis,
Secretary of Labor.
IV

WOMEN’S CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE FIELD OF INVENTION.
A Study of the Records of the United States Patent Office.

PART I
INTRODUCTION.

Have women made material contributions to the sum total of
creative achievements? Have they designed, devised, discovered,
and invented to reduce labor, to forestall danger, disease, and death,
to embellish life with creative comforts, and to enrich humanity
with new stores of knowledge?
Measured by the relative opportunities and facilities for experi
ment and research and by the relative popular encouragement
accorded women, are these contributions comparable with men’s
contributions in the same fields ? Finally, and more important
for the future, what progress or retrogression in comparative oppor
tunities and achievement have marked the decades that stretch
from the early eighteen hundreds to the current year ?
To find a convincing answer to these questions is the main purpose
of this report. A further purpose is to throw light on the extent
and nature of any handicaps under which women may labor, and
by so doing to open the way to the development of practical sug
gestions for the reduction of such handicaps as exist. The accom
plishment of this object will not only expand opportunities for
women of creative abilities; it will enlarge the measure of creative
service rendered the Nation.
Source of information.

The most obvious sources of information on the subject are the
records of the United States Patent Office. This is not to say that
the distinctions between the words “creative” and “inventive”
are ignored in this discussion. Creative activity goes on ceaselessly
in art, science, and literature, and in the less illustrious walks of
life, achieving important results that are not described as inventions
but are clearly within the field of creative thought. Schools of art,
of philosophy; systems of education; scientific theories—some
underlying momentous discoveries of practical value—are all crea
tive, though not properly described as inventions. Furthermore,
much creative activity that is clearly inventive is not reflected in
the patent records. Discoveries in the practice of medicine and
surgery, new ideas in baby care and child play, simplifications in

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

home and business management, have made conspicuous progress
in the last century; yet they are but faintly reflected, if at all, in
the patent records. Because such forms of creative activity are
not recorded they are not definitely measureable and can serve only
indirectly, therefore, in assessing the relative contributions of women
to the sum of creative achievement. There is, however, enough
synonymic quality in the word “inventive” as used by the United
States Patent Office and the word “creative” as used in its broader
sense to render the records a valuable index to the range and qual
ity of women’s originative tendencies.
The spectacular successes of a few women as inventors of new
mechanisms or discoverers of new processes and substances have
not effected a change in the prevailing disbelief in the creative
abilities of women as a whole. In the mind of the public these
spectacular cases have stood rather as the brilliant exceptions.
The purpose of this search is not, therefore, to give further attention
to the few well known cases of successful women inventors and
discoverers but to measure the number and analyze the quality
of all the inventions of women recorded within given periods.
For this measure one must turn first to the Patent Office to dis
cover whether the bare figures furnish any warrant for a detailed
study of women’s creative achievements.
The flow of inventions through the United States Patent Office
is of such torrential volume and pressure that the contribution of
women thereto entirely escapes observation. Indeed, so submerged
are the patents issued to women in the flood of patents running
annually to men that the first untested conclusion following a cur
sory reading of the lists is that these records confirm the general
unbelief in women’s inventive and creative abilities. But a closer
scrutiny of the records from decade to decade forces a revision of
such conclusion. Thin streams of water trickling here and there
into a strong, steady current can be overlooked when all told they
constitute less than 2 per cent of the volume of water, unless a sur
vey up and down stream reveals the fact that these trickles are
not an evenly distributed contribution of insignificant volume to
the flowing waters, but have grown from almost infinitesimal begin
nings and are showing a rate of increase which makes a perceptible
swelling of the stream a matter of easy mathematical calculation.
Then such tributaries are worthy of study.
A careful scrutiny of the patent records reveals a fair analogy in
the growing contributions made by women to the flood of inven
tions pouring through the United States Patent Office.
The 5,000 patents granted women during the 10 years chosen for
this study constitute less than 2 per cent of the total number of
patents issued during that period, but they are more than the total

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

number of patents granted women during a span of over 105 years
ended in 1895. They represent an average annual issuance 1, 250
times the annual issuance to women for the 45 years ended in 1836,
the beginning of the present serial number listing of patents.
Although the rate of increase—based on beginnings of only one
patent in two and one-half years—has fluctuated, it has shown a
marked increase throughout the decades, and has, with two excep
tions, exceeded the rate of increase in the number of patents granted
to men during corresponding periods. In the last decade for which
figures were published, the rate of increase in women’s patents over
the preceding decade was about three times the rate of increase in
those of men. Manifestly these facts must be considered in measur
ing the significance of the annual average of 501 patents granted
to women during the ten years selected for this study and the annual
average of 34,837 patents granted to men during the same period.
It is this rate of increase which furnished the warrant for a detailed
study of the patents issued to women in 10 years selected from the
27 years which have elapsed since the publication by the United
States Patent Office of the latest bulletin containing a list of patents
issued to women.1 Time and funds available for this study did not
permit a detailed analysis of women’s patented inventions for the
entire 27 years. It was not even possible to scrutinize the range
and quality of the published lists of inventions granted women
during the approximate hundred years ended March, 1895. The
most that could be done was to use these early lists to find the true
arithmetical perspective for the records of inventions patented by
women during the 10 years selected for this study.
The first conspicuous fact revealed by the summary of the patents
issued to women during various decades (see Table I) is that the
last two groups show approximately the same rate of increase in
average number annually over the group immediately preceding.
Furthermore, a brief inspection of the figures for the 10 selected
years (see Table II) will show that the average for the last five
years is over 35 per cent higher than the average for the first five
years, whereas the increase for men during the last five years was
less than 17 per cent higher than for the first five of the 10 selected
years. Unquestionably, then, the accelerating rate of increase
shown in the nineteenth century has continued through the two
decades of the twentieth century and adds further interest to a
careful analysis of the range and quality of inventions patented by
1 U. S. Patent Office. Women inventors to whom patents have been granted by the United States
Government October 1, 1892, to March 1, 1895. Appendix No. 2. Washington, Govt. Print. Off. 28 p.
1895. The regular patent lists issued by the Patent Office do not show men and women patentees sepa
rately, but there have been three publications which together brought the lists of women inventors up
to March, 1895. These lists were published chronologically, and for the last three years were arranged
by classes also. In none of the bulletins were the issuances treated textually.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

women as furnishing a fair indication of their potential capabilities
in fields of creative labor.
Factors to be considered in the analysis.

In searching these records the limitations of the material as a
safe guide to sound conclusions were not overlooked. Making
adequate allowance for such limitations in itself affords reasonable
protection against serious error. Indeed, no satisfactory analysis
of the records is possible unless the nature of these limitations is
understood clearly and is kept in mind throughout the discussion,
because such limitations must be measured with comparable con
ditions surrounding the inventive achievements of men.
Before proceeding to the more intangible, though more important,
of such limitations confronting women inventors, attention should be
called to a probable defect in the figures presented in this report.
The patentee lists issued by the United States Patent Office do not
carry the title Mr., Mrs., or Miss. It was necessary, therefore, to
include among women inventors only those whose given names left
no doubt of their sex. As some women’s given names are family
names, or names also borne by men, unquestionably some women
inventors are not included in the figures presented in this report. To
get the women with names of doubtful gender would have necessi
tated a search of the patent correspondence in each case, a process
which was not possible even had the resources underlying this report
permitted so expensive a procedure. Judging from the small pro
portion of women who bear names of doubtful gender, however, it is
not probable that the names omitted would have made any material
difference in the results, and it is certain that if there had been any
difference it would have served only to accentuate the trend shown
by the figures presented in the following pages.
But behind and beneath the patent records are conditions and
influences which have an intangible but far-reaching influence upon
the official figures showing women’s contributions to the sum of
inventions.
One of these influences is best reflected, perhaps, by the interesting
fact that the very first patent granted an American was issued by
the British Government to “Thomas Masters, planter, of Pennsyl
vania,” for a new “inventoon” for cleaning and curing Indian corn
“found out by Sybille, his wife.” Whether or not British law would
have permitted Sybille Masters to take out her own patent matters
not so much as the fact that it was conspicuously against custom in
those days for women to do so bold a thing. No actual restrictions
attach to women under the American constitutional and Federal
laws providing for the issuance of patents, but the momentum of
public thought expressed in the British Government’s first grant of

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

patent for an American invention has carried a general assumption
of women’s disability for creative labor even to the present day.
The latest issue of an encyclopedia commenting on American patent
law says: “Minors and women and even convicts may apply for
patents under our law.” 2
That the assumption of women’s disability is or is not warranted
is beside the mark at present. The phase of the matter pertinent
to this discussion is the well recognized fact that the creative spirit
flourishes in an atmosphere of friendly faith and languishes when
environed by indifference, unbelief, or hostility. “Lack of public
appreciation,” “failure to accord fostering conditions of growth,”
“want of active encouragement” are commonly assigned, and with
out challenge, as reasons why men have not made satisfactory
progress in this or that branch of creative work. If a lack of popu
lar interest in achievement along specific lines of creative research
retards the advancement of men to whom custom opens all research
facilities, it is not to be expected that women will be uninfluenced
by the traditional and prevailing lack of faith in women’s creative
abilities. Such a lack of faith not only discourages and retards
creative effort in women as it does in men but it also creates in
women a timidity about applying at all for patents on such inven
tions and discoveries as they do achieve, and fosters a tendency to
pass the creative suggestions on to their male relatives, who, with
the greater self-confidence bom of freedom from restricting customs,
perfect the inventions or complete the discoveries and secure the
patents.
To what extent this psychological factor has counted in the final
results there is, of course, no way of determining. But it must be
kept in mind in analyzing the record, not only because it indicates
the direction in which the patent records fall short in measuring
women s creative achievements, but because the rapid wearing down
of customs restricting women must be taken into account in judging
the significance of the relative rate of increase in the numbers of
patents granted to women from decade to decade.
A logical consequence of this traditional and widespread unbelief
in women s inventive abilities is the limitation on women’s oppor
tunities and facilities for the research and experiment essential to
achievement in fields of scientific invention and discovery. The
scientific laboratories of the great State universities are not closed
formally or expressly to women. To some of the great privately
endowed institutions of science women are nominally eligible as they
are nominally eligible to compete for some of the important scientific
research fellowships. But as there is no widespread belief in women’s
* Encyclopedia Americana, vol. 21, p. 383.

29807°—23-----2

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

inventive abilities and in their powers of creative research, so also
is there general absence of active encouragement of women to lay
claim to the existing opportunities and facilities for research and
experiment. This fact manifestly has direct bearing upon the rela
tive number, range, and quality of scientific inventions and discov
eries patented by women. Furthermore, these circumstances estab
lish a vicious circle—limited opportunities for scientific research,
limited scientific achievement; limited faith, finding justification for
itself in the relatively meager achievement of women along lines of
research, which can not be followed for lack of research opportunities
and facilities.
However, the restricted opportunities for scientific research affect
only a segment of the circle of inventive activity, for a striking
feature of the information revealed by correspondence incidental to
this survey was the abundant evidence that the inventive spirit
raises no educational bars against its search for human expression.
It flares out in response to the calls of emergency, necessity, or incon
venience. Unquestionably the educated arc better equipped to go
through the processes of patenting -inventions, and therefore there
may be more educated than uneducated patentees on the records.
But the impulse to devise and discover new ways to meet old wants
stirs human beings in all walks of life. The washerwoman invents
and secures a patent on a washboard that protects the hands and
lightens the labor of rubbing. The nurse creates a device to facilitate
the care of the bedridden. The woman who travels invents safety
signals on railroads, life guards for sea voyages, and so on through
the whole range of human interests and activities, in a large part of
which opportunities and facilities for scientific research are not pre
requisites for successful invention.
But there runs throughout the entire range of inventive activity
a condition which does act as a handicap on women inventors when
it comes to putting their creations and discoveries into patentable
form. This condition results from the normal division of the world’s
labor between men and women; woman’s work keeps her in the
home, or, even if she is a “woman in industry,” she has not the free
dom of movement in the world of business that is accorded a man.
As a result, materials and facilities for making or securing models
and sketches essential in patenting inventions are not so accessible
to women as to men. For example, thousands of housewives, doubt
less, have felt the need of some wooden or metal lifter with which
to raise the lid from a pot of boiling water or to hold it firmly in
place while drawing off the liquid without getting arms and hands
within scalding range of the escaping steam; but how many women
engaged in the daily round of cooking and other household duties

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

have as easy access to the materials, the tools, and the makers of
sketches and models as the man in the factory or mill who feels the
need of, and conceives the idea for, a machine guard, gauge, or other
device ? The same question applies in large measure to the man in
trade or profession. He is a part of the world of manufacture and
barter, of technical and professional service. Of this world, draft
ing, model making, filing applications and claims, are recognized
activities. Hven though a man may not be working directly with
the materials involved in his invention, his daily life outside the
home and his greater freedom in the world of industry and com
merce bring him within easy reach of draftsmen, model makers, and
patent attorneys, and render the steps essential to recording and pro
tecting his idea as obvious and familiar to him as they are unfamiliar
and obscure to the average housewife or even the average woman
engaged outside the home in a closely confining occupation. Further
more, women do not have the opportunities for studying conditions
required to meet the demands of outside activity, such as railroading
or mining, that a man has for studying conditions and equipment
essential to efficient discharge of household duties. This is not a
question of the psychology of custom but a question of comparative
ease of access to facilities essential to the patenting of inventions.
That men have always had, and still have, a long advantage in this
particular will not be denied.
Closely akin to these handicaps in conditions fostering inventive
achievements among women is their greater lack of funds and facili
ties for marketing the invention when patented. The difficulties
and disappointments incident to “putting an invention on the
market” have discouraged many a man from going to the trouble and
expense of securing a record patent. The public, ever grumbling
over inconveniences, sighing for escape from irksome burdens, resent
ing risks to life and limb, is still astonishingly indifferent or deaf to
new things devised for its convenience, new guards for its life and
goods. Manufacturers and tradesmen, dependent upon the public’s
responsiveness, are skeptical until they see unmistakable signs of
approval. There are cases, too, where an invention or discovery
would make serious inroads on an established business.
Again, the average manufacturer or tradesman is usually well
occupied with turning over the goods on hand. Neither has time
to study the yearly avalanche of inventions for such as affect his
business. The average inventor is too poor to search until a respon
sive manufacturer or tradesman is found. These circumstances
have wrecked the dreams of wealth of thousands of inventors, Both
men and women.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

Letters of inquiry, some of which were sent to men inventors,
concerning the circumstances and market success of patented crea
tions, awoke many a mournful note of wondering complaint because
an invention, though winning a patent from the United States Gov
ernment, was still on the hands of its unenriched and unknown
inventor. Letters from disappointed women inventors revealed a
quicker loss of faith in the invention, because faith in their own
creative abilities is not rooted more deeply in women than in the
general public.
It is not possible to present in tabular form the degree of financial
success which attended the inventions patented by women during
the 10 years selected for study. In the first place, “success” is a
relative and unstable term. Some inventions have met with such
marked success and some are still such financial dead weights on the
inventors’ hands as to admit of classification, but the majority are
not capable of clear demarcations, the temperament of the inventors
themselves obscuring the actual progress made in marketing. The
letters received in answer to personal inquiry can not, of course, be
discussed individually, but the theme running through them, not
barring those reflecting marked degrees of successful promotion, is
the difficulty and cost of patenting and marketing inventions. A
number of writers were plainly of the opinion that successful market
exploitation was beyond the reach of women because of their com
parative isolation and lack of familiarity with the business world.
Still others, some of whom had secured patents on really ingenious
devices, took the fact that the inventions were still dormant as proof
of uselessness. Not a few asked if there was not some institute or
agency through which women’s inventions might be brought to the
notice of appropriate parties. Practically all of them, barring those
who had assigned their patents to corporations, cried out for better
marketing facilities. None of those retaining faith in their own
creations seemed resigned to accept unresistingly the proverbial fate
of inventors—to enrich life though they themselves live and die in
poverty.
At this point it is well to guard against the natural assumption that
immediate and widespread use of an invention or discovery is the only
reliable indication of the value of the achievement. A little reflec
tion will serve to disprove the validity of any such assumption. Five
hundred years passed over the grave of the chemist who discovered
ether before surgeons used the antesthetic to annul the shock of pain
from the operating knife. The death of Alexander Graham Bell
brought to the public’s interested attention the long years of his
early struggle to get serious consideration for his first telephone
instruments. Indeed, the pages of recent and remote history are

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

so full of incidents of deferred recognition of inventions and dis
coveries that they compel the rejection of lack of immediate market
success as a reliable criterion of the value of such achievements.
Inventions and discoveries ignored to-day may be in general
use a decade or a score of years hence. The reverse may be true
of other inventions. The only criterion for purposes of such a
discussion as this is the standard of patentability set up by the
United States patent law for an invention or discovery. To win
letters patent from the United States Government the invention
must be ‘‘new and useful.” In other words, for the purpose of this
report the records of the United States Patent Office have been
accepted at their face value. Whatever fault there is in the standard
affects men and women equally, so no bias results from accepting
the standard in analyzing the achievements of women with those
of men.
In this, report women’s inventions and discoveries for which, as
“new and useful,” letters patent have been granted by the United
States Government have been grouped according to the spheres of
human concerns which these inventions and discoveries serve. The
conspicuous tact uncovered by this classification, as a glance at the
detailed tabulation in the following pages will show, is the remark
able range of human activity covered by these “new and useful”
inventions and discoveries patented by women. It might be ex
pected that an ample majority of the patents would be on household
devices and articles of personal wear and use. But while these
two classifications form the largest single groups, they do not, even
together, constitute the major part of the inventions and discoveries,
lobe sure, the numbers of patents granted to women for such things
as railroad bed and rolling stock equipment and internal-combustion
engines are not many, but the remarkable thing is that there are
any inventions of this sort credited to women, in view of the limiting
circumstances heretofore discussed.
A scrutiny of the tables and tabulations in this report will show
that the creative thought of women has ventured with success not
only into the realm of transportation but into agriculture, manu
facturing, mining, quarrying, smelting, building and construction,
chemical and other scientific processes, and a score or more of
other lines sharply diverging from the accustomed activities of the
majority of women.
SUMMARY.

The results of this survey may be summed up thus:
First. The actual number of patents granted to women inventors
is still small, but the rate of increase shown from decade to decade is
conspicuously high.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

Second. The range of women’s increasing activity in the field of
invention extends from the home into most of the important branches
of industry, commerce, and science.
Third. The inventions are not confined to the minor accessories
in each field of activity, but in many cases are contributions to basic
processes and substances.
CONCLUSIONS.

First. In view of the handicaps under which women inventors
have always labored, the rate of increase in the number of inven
tions patented by women and the range and quality of their inventive
achievements furnish an argument for expanding women’s oppor
tunities for research and experiment and securing to women easier
access to facilities essential in patent procedure.
Second. Women inventors, even more than men, are in need
of facilities for marketing or promoting their patented creations,
because women are generally more restricted in funds and less
informed concerning the methods of profitable patent disposal.
Third. The Patent Office records, on the whole, furnish a reason
able guaranty that with a reduction in the excessive discouragements
due to frequent failures to realize money quickly on patents, with an
expansion of opportunities for research, and with easier access to the
facilities essential to patent procedure, the Nation will be rewarded
by the increased measure of inventive service from women of creative
abilities; and capable women will find constantly enlarging oppor
tunities in this branch of the field of creative labor.

PART II.
PATENTS FOR NEW AND USEFUL INVENTIONS GRANTED
TO WOMEN BY THE UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

The Constitution of the United States in its first article, section 8,
provides that “Congress shall have power to promote the progress of
science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors
and inventors the exclusive rights of their respective writings and
discoveries.”
*
Neither the constitutional provision nor any law enacted thereunder
bars women from its benefits or discriminates against them in any
way. The basic legal requirements covering successful application
for letters patent always have been in the main those set forth in the
United States Patent Office Bulletins on “Rules of Practice”.
These read:
A patent may be obtained by any person who has invented or discovered any new
and useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful
improvement thereof, not known or used by others in this country before his invention
or discovery thereof, and not patented or described in any printed publication in
this or any foreign country before his invention or discovery thereof, or-more than
two years prior to his application and not patented in a country foreign to the United
States on an application filed by him or his legal representatives or assigns more
than twelve months before his application, and not in public use or on sale in the
United States for more than two years prior to his application, unless the same is
proved to have been abandoned, upon payment of the fees required by law and other
due proceedings had.3

Plainly the constitutional provision and the several laws based
thereon were framed for the promotion of activities in which woman
had little or no part in those days and from which, except in most
humble services, tradition effectively debarred her for many subse
quent years. For 19 years after the enactment of the patent law in
1790 not a single one of the 10,000 patents issued was granted to a
woman. The first successful application from a woman was recorded
in 1809 and was for a method of weaving straw with silk or thread.
Even for a quarter of a century afterwards there were less than a
score of patents granted to women.
The Patent Office records of patents granted to men are not kept
separate from those granted to women. Since the enactment of the
statute of 1836, patented inventions have been serially numbered and
are arranged also in the published documents by general classes.
The Patent Office has issued, however, three bulletins setting down
chronologically the patents granted to women during a period of a
little over a century—from the time of the enactment of the first
patent law in 1790 to March, 1895. Except for the last three years
Revised Statutes of the United States, sees. 4886-4887.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

there is no classification of the patents, and for these three years
the groupings are not constructed for the purpose of showing the
spheres of human interests concerned in the several inventions.
With the time and funds available for this study it was not possible
to make a detailed study of the patents granted women during the
105 years covered by the bulletins of the Patent Office, nor to make
an analysis of the patents which have been issued to women during
all of the 27 years which have elapsed since any record of women’s
patented inventions has been published. Instead, the method fol
lowed has been to make a numerical summary of the published records
for 105 years and to make a detailed analysis of the patents which
have been issued to women during 10 selected years since 1905. The
selections were made with a view to getting the level of achievements
for as long a period as possible and yet not going so far back that
correspondence with the patentees would be practically out of the
question, and also with a view to bringing out most recent figures
and to show the effect of the war. The decade following 1895—the
last year covered by the Patent Office’s published list of women inven
tors—was omitted as too far back to initiate such correspondence.
However, the statistical summaries of all the decades preceding and
of the 10 selected years furnish a fair basis of presumption concerning
the omitted decade.
The table following, therefore, affords a bird’s-eye view of thenumber of patents granted to women and the number granted to
men since 1790. It shows that though the number granted to women
is small, the rate of increase is conspicuously high, greatly exceeding,
except for the first two periods, the rate of increase in patents granted
to men.
Table

I.—Number of 'patents issued to women and to men and the per cent increase in
such ismance in each decade or period since 1790.
Patents issued to—
Women.

Men.

Periods following enactment of patent law, 1790.

Forty-five years prior to commencement of present
Nine and one-half years ending 1845...............................

Nine years ending 18941..................................................
Ten selected years from 1905 to 19212.............................

Average
number
annually.

Per cent
increase
over
previous
period.

Average
number
annually.

0.4
.7
1.3
10.1
67.3
106.0
229.8
501.6

85.0
75.7
676.9
566.3
57.5
116.8
118.3

220.9
456.9
964.8
3,767.4
11,918.4
16,079.3
21,784.0
34,836.9

Per cent
increase
over
previous
period.

106.8
111.2
290.5
216.4
34.9
35.5
59.9

1 The last published report on women inventors to whom patents had been granted did not give complete
figures for 1895; consequently this year was omitted from the figures.
2 See Table II.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

An interesting fact, which is not clearly revealed by the foregoing
table because the figures are given in 10-year periods counting from
1836 (date of the present series of numbers of letters patent), is that
the Civil War marked a conspicuous increase in the number of patents
granted to women. Previous to the outbreak of the Civil War the
patents granted women numbered less than half a dozen in a year.
During the war and the years immediately following the numbers,
while fluctuating, rose at times to over a hundred. It is too early to
judge yet of the permanent effect of the World War, but the yearly
average for 1918, 1919, 1920, and 1921, which constitute 4 of the
10 years chosen for this survey, is nearly 34 per cent higher than the
yearly average for the 6 selected pre-war years. This fact is revealed
in Table II, showing the number of patents granted women during
each of the 10 selected years.
Table II.—Number and per cent of patents issued to women in the 10 selected years: 1905.

1906, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1914, 1918, 1919, 1920, and 1921.

Year.

Total
patents
Issued.

Patents issued to
women.

Total

'■ patents

issued.

Number. Per cent.
Total............

353,426

5,016

1.4

1913

1905........................
1906........................
1910........................
1911........................

29,784
31,181
35,168
32,917

328
400
488
413

1.1
1.3
1.4
1.3

1918
1919
1920
1921

33,941
39,945
38,669
36,872
37,164
37,885

Patents issued to
women.
Number. Per cent.
501
522
666
494
638
566

1.5
1.3
1.7
1.3
1.7
1.5

PURPOSES SERVED BY WOMEN’S INVENTIONS.

Far more important than the foregoing statistical summaries are
the facts developed by a careful analysis and grouping of the inven
tions patented by women during the 10 years selected for this study.
If the steady increase in the numbers of patents granted women is
accounted for merely by the increase in the number of patented
hairpins, hair curlers, and such, trifles in feminine equipment, it is
without large significance either to civilization or as an indication of
women’s inventive abilities. The following classification, based
upon a careful scrutiny of the character and purpose of the inventions
granted women, shows at a glance how far from the truth any such
assumption is. There is not an important sphere of industry,
commerce, or the sciences unrepresented in these classifications.
A fact which adds significance to the industrial, commercial, and
scientific representations in the groupings of patents granted to
women is that all inventions for trifles of personal wear and sundry
unimportant conveniences are counted even though they were for
the same purpose. To illustrate, there were over 40 skirt gauges—all
new and useful but all for the same purpose. So with the curlers
and hairpins. But each counted in the sum total of the group and
29807°—23----3

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

weighed as one against the invention of an internal-combustion
engine or a block-signal system. Nevertheless, the proportion of
inventions concerned with important industries and professions is
not submerged by the inventions concerned with trifles of personal
adornment or minor conveniences.
Table

III.—Number and per cent of patents issued to women in the 10 selected years,
classified according to the purposes served.
Purpose served by patent issued.

All patents..................................................

Number. Per cent.
.

I. Agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.

Poultry raising supplies and equipment.
Dairy supplies and equipment.
Stock raising equipment..
Planting, tilling, and harvesting machinery and equipment...............
Farm buildings, fence materials, and water and drainage equipment.
Plant enemy exterminators..................................................................
Garden tools and equipment................................................................

II. Mining, quarrying, and metal smelting equipment and materials.
III. Manufacture....................................................................................
A. Chemical products and processes and apparatus for making such products..
B. Food product and beverage processes, and apparatus for making same........
C. Foundry materials and apparatus, machine-shop and other metal-working
tools and devices..........................................................................................
D. Leather and shoe making processes, machines and tools...............................
E. Power machinery and apparatus other than electric.....................................
F. Textile products, processes and apparatus for making products..................
G. Miscellaneous products, processes, machines, and tools used in manufacture
IV. Structural equipment and materials.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.

Road, conduit, and masonry construction and materials.
House building parts, materials, and tools.......................
Door and window fixtures................................................
Heating equipment and appurtenances............................
Lighting equipment and appurtenances............................

V. Transportation.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I,
J.

Automobile bodies and parts..............................................................
Automobile tires and tire attachments............................
Automobile accessories............................................................
Bicycles, motorcycles and parts, and air-pressure operated vehicles..
Horse drawn vehicles ,and equipment for vehicles and horses..........
Steam and street railways: Rail and road bed equipment................
Steam and street railways: Rolling stock and equipment.................
Traffic signals and indicators..............................................................
Boats and ship equipment..................................................................
Aircraft and equipment................................111

VI. Trade.
A. Store equipment and furnishings__
B. Advertising devices and equipment..
C. Measuring and dispensing devices__
VH. Hotel and restaurant equipment.....................................
VIII. Steam laundry and dyeing and cleaning establishment equipment.
IX. Dressmaker’s and milliner’s supplies...........................
X. Office supplies and equipment...................................
A. Office machines and attachments.............
B. Stationery and miscellaneous equipment...
C. Furniture......................
XI. Fishing......

Xn. Household.
A.
B.
LD.

Kitchen equipment.........................
Ash, garbage, and trash receptacles.
Latindry equipment........................
House-cleaning devices............. . . .

.
.
.
.

5,016

100.0

221

4.4

34
35
18
71
28
8
27

15.4
15.8
8.2
32.1
12.7
3.6
12.2

0.3

223

4.4

35
40

15.7
17.9

30
13
18
34
53

13.5
5.8
8.1
15.2
23.8

208

4.2

8
22
90
62
26

3.8
10.6
43.3
29.8
12.5

345

6.9

69
' 39
44
10
44
31
50
25
14
19

20.0
11.3
12.8
2.9
12.8
9.0

14.5
7.2
4.1
5.4

1.4

36
14
21

50.7
19.7
29.6

0.2

0.1

118

2.4

1.4

22
41
8

31.0

57.7

1L3

0.2

1,385

27.6)

440
31
165
81

31.8:
2.2
11.9
5.8,

WOMEN S CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE FIELD OF INVENTION.
Table

111—Number and per cent of patents issued to women in the 10 selected years,
classified according to the purposes served—Continued.
Purpose served by patent issued.

Number. Per cent.

XII.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
K.
L.
M.
N.

Household-Continued.
Dining-room equipment..........................
Bedroom equipment.............. .................
........
Nursery eqmpment and vehicles.......................
Bathroom equipment and conveniences....... ........
Furniture and parts..........................
Furnishings.................................................
Hangers, brackets, and other household hardware.’I!
Clothes closet conveniences and garment containers.
Insect and rodent catchers.........................................
Sewing and knitting containers and conveniences'...

44
127
47
27
81
46
97
52
28
119

3.2
9.2
3.4
1.9
5.8
3.3
7.0
3.8
2.0
8.6

XIII.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.

Supplies for use in industry, agriculture, commerce, and the home..
Cutlery, tools, and hardware................................................
Electrical equipment, apparatus, and supplies................................
Glass and earthenware containers and tops therefor............’ ’ ’
Sewing and embroidery machines and parts............ !..................
Stationery supplies and equipment..............
Telephone eqmpment and telegraph code........... ..........................
Wrapping, packing, carrying, or mailing devices.............. ^

378
37
45
si
61
71
26
87

7.5
9.8
11.9
13.5
16.1
18.8
6.9
23.0

XIV. Scientific instruments (other than surgical), laboratory equipment, meters,
scales, watches, optical and photographic goods, apparatus and supplies..............

1.5

XV. Ordnance, firearms, and ammunition............................................

0.4

1,090
154
139
115
12
47
378
43
21
113
68

21.7
14.1
12.8
10.6
1.1
4.3
34.6
3.9
1.9
10.4
6.3

XVI. Personal wear and use........................
A. Undergarments........................................
B. Outer garments................................. .........................................................
C. Headwear......................................... .......................................................
D. Handwear.......................................!!!!!!!”!!
[..................................
E. Footwear............................................................
F. Garment appurten ances......... ....................................................................
G. Baby garments and appurtenances.
........................................
H. Jewelry...................................................
...................
I. Toilet articles..............................................................................................
J. Purses, umbrellas, trunks, and other miscellaneous personal furnishings.
XVII. Beauty parlor and barber supplies.........

0.9

XVIII. Medical, surgical, and dental equipment
A. Instruments and apparatus..............
B. Sick-room equipment
C. Bandages, dressings, lbelts, and supports .....!!!..................
D. Stretchers and invalid carriers........................................ ” '
E. Defective foot and limb correctives and aids..........................
F. Manipulating and flesh reducing mechanism and equipment.
G. Dental equipment................

227
48
73
59
10
21
9
7

4.5
21.1
32.2
26.0
4.4
9.3
3.9
3.1

XIX. Safety and sanitation..
A. Life and limb protection devices..
B. Property protection devices.........
C. Sanitary equipment....................

129
45
26
58

2.6
34.9
20.2
44.9

XX. Education.
A. Mechanical aids to teaching.......
B. School furniture and equipment.
C. Musical instruction aids..............

75
40
13
22

1.5
53.3
17.3
29.3

67
23
11
16
10
7

1.3
34.3
16.4
23.9
14.9
10.4

211
170
17
9
15

4.2
80.6
8.1
4.2
7.1

XXI. Arts and crafts.
instruments and parts and musical mechanical aids.
B. Artist s and sculptor’s devices and equipment............
C. Equipment and devices for fabric and other craft work........
D. Theater apparatus........................................
E. Miscellaneous ornamentation devices...! ’ *.*. *.
XXII.
A.
B.
C.
D.

Amusement.
Children’s playthings..................
Apparatus for adult amusement!
Athletic equipment....................
Camping eqmpment...................

XXIII. Miscellaneous......................................
A. Election and registration conveniences.
B. Church equipment.
C. Burial equipment.
1 Per cents of no statistical significance.

14
6
1
7

0.3
(d
0)
P)

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

Although the foregoing tabulation shows to a striking extent the
many fields which are served by the inventive contributions of
women, they give little idea of the almost infinite variety and sig
nificance of the individual inventions. Of the 221 inventions for
agriculture it appears that 71 were for planting, tilling, and harvest
ing machinery; of 1,385 inventions for the household, 440 were
kitchen equipment; of the 227 devices for medical, surgical, or dental
equipment, 73 were for sick-room equipment. Such figures as these
show how women’s thought and interest and imagination have
tended to emphasize one or another type of need; but the variety
and the tangible result of this thought and interest and imagination
can be indicated only by a more definite listing of the objects in
vented. With such a listing as a background the picture is readily
evoked of the many women with unusual needs or quicker imagina
tions who were trying to improve conditions or help themselves
financially by meeting what they had found to be real problems.
In some cases it has been possible to elicit definite information as
to the circumstances which led to certain inventions. Even where
this information is not forthcoming, however, the perceptive reader
will find between the lines of the lists themselves stirring and
thought-provoking pictures of women in all walks of life, faced with
many different conditions, possessing the imagination and technical
ability to invent “new and useful” devices, and in addition having
enough determination and faith to take the next step and secure
letters patent for their inventions. The story of these women is
told in the following lists, which show only the different types of
inventions.
For example, there are not 40 entries for 40 skirt gauges. These
inventions in the tabulations are represented with the single listing
“skirt gauge,” unless any one of them serves a wider purpose. In
that case the wrider purpose is represented by a separate listing.
I. Inventions facilitating agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry.

Of the 5,000 patents issued to women during the 10 years selected
for this study, 221, or 4.4 per cent, are concerned with some phase
of farm work. Any assumption that such creations are confined to
chicken raising, dairying, and round-the-house choring will not be
verified by the records. Of course, the work of caring for the poultry
and cows and other stock has stirred the ingenuity of women farmers,
but the types of inventions facilitating such work are outnumbered
by the types of patents granted to women for planting, tilling, and
harvesting machinery and equipment. Bearing in mind that to win
letters patent an invention must be new and useful as to either pro
cess or product or both, it is interesting that, as the detailed tabulation
will show, the list of such inventions includes devices for facilitating

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

the principal labor involved in raising some of the Nation’s most
important and longest cultivated crops—corn, cotton, sugar cane
and beets, tobacco, and grains.
Further inspection of the list of inventions in this group will show
that they cover the entire range of farm work on the entire range of
farms, from the dry to the irrigated sections of the country. The
inventions reveal the fact that farm women have given creative
thought, and with success,' to farm buildings and fences, to drainage
and irrigation, and to the embellishments of farm life, in addition to
stock and crop raising.
That these farm inventions are by farm women is evidenced by the
addresses of the patentees and more conclusively by the corre
spondence initiated with some of them concerning the circumstances
leading to their inventive achievement. A Florida woman who
invented a device for distributing fertilizer answers the question,
“What circumstances led you to invent a fertilizer distributor,” thus:
Yankee laziness, I reckon.
hence the distributor.

I didn’t like the idea of bending my back so much,

_ A Texas woman who secured letters patent for a new and useful
improvement on a cultivator tongue writes:
Having been raised on a farm and seeing that there was needed improvement on
cultivator tongues, I made up my mind to improve on the old style tongue * * *.

Another Texas woman writes about the circumstances surrounding
the invention of a sugar-cane stripper:
I was farming in 1916 and planted sugar cane to make molasses. When time came

to strip cane I was short of help and I shirked the old tiresome way of stripping cane.

I then studied out a new way. * * * After three trials'I had what I needed. 1
had it to work perfect and I could do with it as much as four persons could do in the
length of time in the old way and make a better job of the work of stripping, as it
saved labor, prevented backache, sore hands, and the worn-out tired feeling * *

A Minnesota woman, inventor of a portable smokehouse, writes:
As a farmer’s wife my duty was to cure meats for summer use and smoked meat is
very much favored in my family. I tried to make mine without expense and after I
completed this device I used it successfully two years before I obtained a patent on it.

There were a few instances of agricultural inventions patented by
women who were not farmers, but they were not only exceptions but
easily explained exceptions. For example, an adjustable rake,
handy in gardening, was invented by a golf teacher who had been
sorely inconvenienced by golf balls getting lodged in places out of
arm’s reach or in streams. She devised the rake first simply to
recover the errant balls. The wider usefulness of the device was so
apparent as to win a correspondingly broader patent.
On the whole, the patents secured by women on inventions facili
tating agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry are in the main

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

achievements of women themselves confronted daily with the prob
lems of farm life. Some of the correspondents plainly were educated
women who were gripped by the spirit of modern scientific farming.
Of this group a typical example was a Nebraska woman who had
invented a feed rack because “conservation of foods as encouraged
by the Government during the World War made it necessary to
prevent all waste of grains and produce the greatest amount of food
within the shortest time possible. This could be better accomplished
by means of proper self-feeders or racks for live stock, which not
only saved grain but also gave quicker returns in the marketing of
live stock.” Other women who were as obviously restricted in early
training, looked only for a way to escape a particular and pressing
burden, and ceased inventive effort when the way was found. The
following list of inventions in the field of agriculture, forestry,
and animal husbandry show the many different needs met by the
inventions of women:
A. Poultry raising supplies and equipment.
Incubator.
Anti-vermin perch.
Incubator egg turning device.
Brooder.
Incubator heater attachment.
Brooder-coop.
Incubator thermometer.
Chicken feeder.
Incubator temperature regulator.
Device to prevent hens from setting.
Food compound to promote rapid growth Incubator trap.
Poultry dip holder.
of poultry.
Seed sprouter for chicken feed.
Poultry duster.
Poultry harness.
Egg case filler.
Poultry roost disinfector.
Hen’s nest.
Housing device.
B. Dairy supplies and equipment.
Milk can.
Butter worker.
Vacuum milk shipping can in which
Chum and chum dasher.
temperature will be maintained 24
Motor to operate chums.
hours.
Chum cover.
Milk-carrying tank.
Combined chum and butter worker.
Milk cooler.
Cow milker.
Milk pail.
Cow-tail holder.
Milk strainer.
Cow-udder protector.
Skimmer.
Cream can.
Apparatus for washing separators, skim
Cream dipper.
mers, etc.
Cream separator
Cream separating bottle.
C. Stock-raising equipment.
Automatic feeding hopper.
Animal blanket.
Feeding regulator.
Animal nose yoke.
Feeding rack.
Animal poke.
Feeding trough.
Cattle guard.
Stock feeding device.
Cattle stanchion.
Hog waterer.
Corn-shield for horses’ heads.
Device for applying insecticides to Tag for ears of animals.
animals.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

D. Planting, tilling, and harvesting machinery and equipment.
Beet harvester.
Grain lifter attachment for harvesting
Cane stripper
machines.
Cord holder for grain bundles
Grain-picking machine.
Com planter.
Grain header and conveyor.
Corn thinner.
Gravity grain separator.
Corn harvesting machine.
Harvester.
Corn-stalk cutter.
Hay baler.
Seed corn stringer
Hay spear.
Sod and corn-stalk cutter.
Irrigating device.
Cotton planter.
Irrigating system.
Cotton scraper.
Portable irrigating stand.
Cotton-picking machine.
Diffusion block for subsoil irrigation
Cotton chopper.
Time-controlled dam gate.
Cotton ginner.
Soil reclaiming means for water-current
Gin saw filer.
machines.
Portable combined cotton picking, gin Machine for cutting chaff.
ning, condensing, and compressing Marker for planters.
machine.
Peanut plow.
Cultivator.
Plow.
Double-row cultivator.
Disk plow and subsoiler.
Cultivator tongue.
Reversible disk plow.
Plow attachment and jointer.
Cultivator attachment.
Decorticating machine for fibrous plants. Motor-driven plow traction wheel.
Rotary plow share.
Disk sharpener.
Rice hulling machine.
Draft yoke for oxen and cattle.
Seed planter.
Fertilizer, insecticide.
Tobacco handling implement.
Fertilizer distributor.
Tractor.
Fruit picker.
Tractor-hitch whereby farm machinery
Grain cleaner for threshing.
may be pushed by tractor.
E. Farm buildings, fence materials, water and drainage equipment.
Cistern.
Fabric fence.
Fence fabric.
Wire-fence fabric.
Fence structure
Flume gate.
Grain elevator.
Grain storage bin.
Grain storage house, ventilated.
Gate.
Gate latch.

Land marker.
Portable smokehouse.
Pumping apparatus.
Pump drain.
Silo door.
Tank.
Water bed fence.
Waterway stock fence.
Windmill.
Wire knot for use in fence making.

F. Plant enemy exterminators.
Animal trap.
Boll weevil exterminator.
Tree cancer remedy.

Tree nourishing device.
Tree protecting apparatus.
Weed exterminator.

women's contributions in the field of invention.

G. Garden tools and equipment.
Adjustable rake.
Bee feeder.
Combined rake and hoe.
Hoe blade.
Rake attachment.
Lawn mower.
Shears.
Strawberry runner cutter.
Weeding tool.

Weed cutter.
Flower box; flower pot.
Gardener’s wheel chair.
Half-spray sprinkler.
Hose coupling.
Plant support.
Propagation pot or can.
Sprinkling pot.
Transplanting box.

II. Inventions facilitating mining, quarrying, and metal smelting equip
ment and materials.

In view of the fact that mining, quarrying, and smelting consti
tute not only basic industries but industries whose modern methods
of operation rest upon an imposing array of inventions and discov
eries, the accompanying list of contributions thereto by women
seems too inconsiderable for comment. Eeference to two facts, how
ever, may put the list in another light.
First. Inventions by women, like inventions by men, are, in the
main, sparks of creative thought that fly from the friction of necessity,
from the blows of emergency, or from the smolder of concentrated
research. This, of course, involves close contact with the conditions
concerned in the inventions. Although the mining industries engaged
the thought and labor of over a million people, during the 10-years
ended in 1920 less than one-third of 1 per cent of these were women
and this proportion was more than double that for the decade ended
in 1910. Manifestly the inconsiderable number of women active in
this field of human concerns must be put by the side of the inconsider
able number of patents granted to women for inventions facilitating
mining, quarrying, and smelting operations.
Second. The accompanying list of patents on inventions for mineral
extraction or treatment is apparently the result in the main of
laboratory research and reflects a measure of scientific training.
The restricted number serves but to call attention to the widespread
and well-known negative attitude toward women in the provision of
facilities and opportunities of scientific research.
Pad for carrying radioactive ores and
Amalgamator.
means for increasing activity of such
Apparatus for extracting copper.
Blasting barrel.
ores.
Composition of matter to be used in flux Process and apparatus for extracting ores.
Oil-well fishing tool.
ing metals.
Treating ores.
Electrolytic separation of metals.
Treating ores of the precious metals.
Hardening and tempering copper.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

III. Inventions facilitating manufacture.

None of the groups of inventions patented by women carries more
significance than that revealed by the accompanying detailed tabula
tions of inventions facilitating manufacture. The range and charac
ter of the creations reveal in a startling manner the influence of
factory manufacture on women’s inventive abilities as. they reveal
the growing influence of women on manufacturing industries. It
must be kept in mind that this list of inventions covers the processes
of manufacture, new products being included only when they are
for use in further manufacture, as now dyes, or when they represent
a combination of new processes and new products, such as new fuels
and new foods requiring factory equipment. Every invention which
gets into general use, of course, stimulates manufacture, but this
list has not been arranged with reference to this influence. The
invention of a new hook and eye, a new garment appurtenance, a
new kitchen appliance or other household device, finds no place
among these grants. Excluding all such articles, although they
unquestionably stimulate productive activity, and confining the list
strictly to the operating methods and materials of manufacturing
industries, gives peculiar significance to this group of inventions
patented by women. Not only do they range through 50 welldeveloped lines of industry but they are concerned with the basic
processes of some of our most important and some highly technical
industries, such as chemical manufacture and the construction of
power machinery. New dyes and new dye bases; chemical treat
ment of oils for commercial purposes; artificial fuels; leather restora
tives and preservatives; gas apparatus and manufacturing proc
esses; apparatus for utilizing momentum; air compressors; hoisting
apparatus for logging; reversible turbines; and scores of other devices
involve a knowledge of, and a concentration of creative thought
upon new uses of, nature’s substances and forces in the production of
the necessities and luxuries of civilized life. The great range of
inventive thought brought to bear by women upon productive
methods and materials is further reflected in the last subgroup of
this general classification of inventions concerned with manufacture.4
This list of miscellaneous products, processes, and tools used in manu
facture is a revelation in itself, for both the range and the character
of the inventions, but only a thoughtful reading of the detailed
tabulation of the whole group, which constitutes 4.4 per cent of all
inventions patented by women during the 10 selected years, will
reveal the full significance of women’s increasing contributions in
this field.
* The subclassifications under the general classification of manufacture in the detailed tabulation include
inventions that facilitate production frequently in more than one industry.

29807°—23-----4

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

A. Chemical products and processes and apparatus for making such products.
Gas:
Acid arsenate of lead.
Apparatus for generating gas.
Alkali salts of protallic acid as stable pro
Twyer-gate for individual gas pro
tective colloids.
ducing kilns.
Artificial fuel.
Kiln and method of operating same.
Binder for burning composition torch
Gunpowder.
fuse lighter. ■
Leather and leather substitute preserva
Burner for petroleum and other hydrocar
tive.
bons.
Lubricator for elevator guides.
Composition of matter to be used in paint Method of securing natural or artificial
ing.
hair from pulp.
Composition of matter to be used for re Paint.
moval of superfluous hairs.
Pneumatic distributing system for fluids.
Composition for process for revivifying Propulsion of air and other gases or fluids.
and preserving leather.
Pyrotechnic novelty.
Shoe dressing.
Dyes:
Sublimate, preparation of.
D.ye base.
Treatment of oils.
Dye bath.
Treatment of seaweeds for extraction of
Dye.
their elements.
Dyeing.
Treatment of sewage or contaminated
foods.
B. Food products and beverage processes and apparatus for making same.
Macaroni or like food product.
Apparatus for preparing food products.
Mixing machine.
Beverage producing material.
Nut butter.
Bread raiser.
Nut shelling and separating machine.
Cheese making.
Composition for use in making piecrust. Pie filling composition.
Composition for use in preservation of Preparing carrot flakes.
Preparing citrus fruit powder.
meat.
_
Composition of matter to facilitate whip Preparing whole rice.
Preserving compound for eggs.
ping of cream.
Compound for preserving eggs.
Purifying sugar juice.
Tool holding means for food machines.
Drying foods.
Dry shortening flour.
Treatment of grain for beverages.
Food product, and method of making Vegetable-curing plant.
Wine clarifying.
same.
Health food.
C. Foundry materials and apparatus, machine shop and other metal-working tools and
devices.
Device for shaping ends of hollow cores. Oiler for air compressor.
Reamer.
Mold for casting metals.
Skelp for making tubes.
Molding machine.
Soldering iron.
Sand-molding machine.
Spindle bushing.
Parting compound for molders’ use.
Standing valve construction for well
Temporary binder.
pumps.
Cutting torch tip.
Valve construction.
Die.
. .
Dust collector for small metal grinding Multiple wire drawing machine.
Wire splicing tool.
machines.
Duplicating and swaging device.
Wire twister.
Gauge attachment for shears.
•
Tubular armour making machine.
Lubricating bearing.

WOMEN’S CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE FIELD OF INVENTION.

D. Leather and shoe making processes, machines, and tools.
Leather working machine.
Coloring leather and products therefor.
Appliance for inserting beading in boots
and shoes.
Combined punch and bottom set tool.
Edge-trimming machine.
Follower or form for boots and shoes.
Heel plate and frame.

Laying and securing sole to uppers.
Machine for affixing heels to shoes.
Machine for boring and drilling wooden
French heels.
Sole.
Wooden French shoe heel and method of
making same.

E. Power machinery and apparatus other than electric.
Apparatus for utilizing momentum.
Air compressor.
Belt drive.
Flexible shaft coupling.
Hoisting apparatus for logging.
Internal combustion engine.
Reversible turbine.

Rotary engine.
Single acting steam engine.
Steam boiler.
Solar heating plant.
Water motor.
Water wheel.
Wave motor.

F. Textile products, processes, and apparatus for making products.
Embossed fabric for rugs.
Looms:
Fabric and method of making same.
Automatic reshuttling apparatus.
Imitation fur and making same.
Braking device.
Open mesh joint in fabric and manner of
Harness action.
making same.
Filling detecting mechanism.
Metallic cloth.
Protector rod holder.
Preparing background on pile fabric.
Picker action.
Preserved fabric display.
Shuttle.
Preserved textile article.
Thread-tensioning device for replen
Reinforced textile fabric.
ishing.
Rendering ramie and other fabric water
Other attachment.
repellent and coloring same.
Machine for making reinforced sheeting.
Fabric making machine.
Print-washing tank.
Humidifier.
Rug machine.
Rug making implement.
Thread measuring machine.
Yam reel, knockdown.
Yarn-spinning apparatus.
G. Miscellaneous products, processes, machines, and tools used in manufacture.
Artificial flower making process.
Box parts, machine for tonguing and
grooving.
Joint assembling machine.
Tree-barking tool.
Brush blank boring machine.
Buttons, machine for drilling and shaping
Clay-turning machine.
Concrete block molding machine.
Continuous kiln.

Cord and rope making device.
Rope measuring machine.
Cushion stuffing machine.
Apparatus for making leather-covered
cushioned seats for chairs.
Clothing ticket printing machine.
Glove finger turning device.
Device for arresting plaiting bobbins of
plaiting machine.
Strip notching and slitting machine.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

G. Miscellaneous products, processes, machines, and tools used in manufacture—Contd.
Carton.
Necktie ironing board.
Paper or similar cup and method of mak
Pronged fastener setting machine.
ing same.
Sack lining machine.
Book construction.
Glass grinding machine.
Composition for printing or the like.
Circular glass cutter.
Coating paper maclpne.
Guided glass cutter.
Printing apparatus.
Grinding machine.
Type clamp.
Hair curler forming machine.
Seed grading and cleaning machine.
Jeweler’s pliers.
Soap malting process.
Jeweler’s tool.
Soap and process for making.
Finger ring expander.
<
Insignia structure.
Cigarette tip and forming same.
Cigarette wrapper.
Paper box comer protector.
Tobacco stripping machine.
Core for paper roll.
Process and apparatus for saturating paper Tobacco ordering machine.
Tobacco wringer.
rolls.
Wrapper-sealing machine.
Paper vessel making machinery.

IV. Inventions concerned with structural equipment and materials.

Acquaintance with the range and character of manufacturing
inventions patented by women as revealed by the previous tabula
tions prepares one for what otherwise would be a surprise in the
scope and grade of women’s inventions facilitating construction of
roads and buildings. Even with the preparation afforded by the list
of manufacturing inventions, there are some contrivances in the
following list that extend beyond assured expectation. Machines
for forming subterraneous passages, metal conduit construction,
molds for cement blocks and concrete posts, are surprising con
tributions from women to the sum of inventions. On the other hand,
the list contains many inventions which would be expected if women
showed inventive ability at all, since such inventions have to do
with matters commonly under the observation of women, if not in
their care. Eaves-trough protectors, paint sprays, seats, shelf
construction, window and door fixtures, and other details of housing
equipment and materials are among the usual concerns of the average
woman householder. That this group constitutes over 4 per cent of
the total number of inventions patented by women is explained by
the large number of door and window fixtures and other minor hous
ing appurtenances.
Intimate familiarity with the need for improvement in such matters
was evidenced by some of the letters from women who had invented
such appliances. One woman wrote that the window ventilator she
had invented was the outcome of “two weeks ill in bed at home and
three weeks in a hospital during a hot, rainy June and early July.
I had started it before® but not until I had to lie in those hot, stuffy
rooms did I realize how badly it was needed.”

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

Heating and lighting devices are likewise concerned with a woman’s
everyday duties, but here inventive activity of wide scope requires
more technical knowledge and usually a higher grade of creative
skill. Gas igniters, hot-air furnaces and registers, liquid-fuel furnaces,
thermostatic pressure valves, carbon for arc lights, and other inven
tions of like grade are among those which the United States Patent
Office has marked “new and useful” and for which it has granted
letters patent to women.
A. Road, conduit, and masonry construction and materials.
Cement block, mold for.
Concrete testing, mold for.
Concrete post, mold for.

Metal conduit construction.
Shut-off system for conduits.
Machine for forming subterraneous pas
sages and lining same.

Continuous fascine for filling ditches.
Gutter section.

B. House-building parts, materials, and tools.
Drain valve.
Eaves—trough protector.
Flood support for buildings.
Post brace.
Sleeping porch.
Seat.
Shelf construction.

Carpenter’s tool.
Knockdown and portable frame
hoist.
Soldered rope chain.

Combination white-wash brush.
Fountain brush.
Moistener or softener for wall paper,
paint, etc.
Paint bucket.
Paint spray.
Wall paper hanger appliance.

and

C. Door and window fixtures.
Awning sash construction.
Screen, rolling, window.
Bell.
Screen door.
Door.
Screen door brace.
Door check.
Screen frame.
Door knob, illuminated.
Shutter and fastener.
Door lock and key.
Ventilator.
Door lock-hook.
Window construction.
Door lock, circuit closer for.
Window box and supports.
'
Door operating mechanism.
Window frame and means for attaching.
Door stop.
Window frame, revolving.
Door weight.
Window fastener for ventilation.
Hinge.
Window grating, adjustable.
Sash.
Window guard.
Sash fastener.
Window and screen attachment.
Sash lift and lock.
Window fixture.
Sash, combined holder and locking do- !' Window glass holder.
vice for.
Window grille.
Sash tightener.
Window kitchen.
Screen.
Window lock.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

D. Heating equipment and appurtenances.
Chimney cowl.
Coal chute.
Coal screen.
Combination furnace and cook stove.
Combination stove lining and grate as
sembly.
Crude oil burner.
Door for fuel openings of furnaces.
Draft equalizer.
Electric heater.
Fire-place flue.
Flue cleaner.
Flue stopper.
Furnace.
Gas attachment for heating furnaces.
Gas burner.
Gas heater.
Gas igniter.
Gate for draft chamber of furnaces.

Grate.
Heater attachment for stoves.
Heat-conserving composition.
Heat distributing attachment for stoves.
Heating device.
.
Hot-air furnace.
Hot-air register.
Hot-water heater.
Insulated pipe joint or coupling.
Liquid fuel furnace.
Oil burner.
Portable radiator heater.
Portable steam radiator.
Portable water heater.
Radiator attachment.
Radiator repair device.
Reflector for stoves.
Thermostatic pressure valve.
Water heater.

E. Lighting equipment and appurtenances.
Acetylene lamp.
Adjustable light shade and reflector.
Arc-light carbon.
Chimney support for oil lamp.
Deflector for oil burners.
Drawer lamp.
Electrolier.
Electric lamp bracket.
Electric lamp, portable.
Gas fixture attachment.
Gas mantle.
Holder for lamp and lantern burners.

Incandescent gas lamp.
Inverted incandescent gas lamp.
Incandescent electric lamp fixture.

Lajpp.
Lamp body.
Lamp burner.
Lamp chimney and burner.
Lamp chimney protector.
Mounting for oil burner.
Supporter for electric globe shades.
Wind and bug shield for lamp chimneys.

V. Inventions facilitating transportation.

Women have for many years been but little behind men as users of
transportation facilities. That all women have not traveled with
eyes and thoughts closed to the problems involved in transporting
people and property and that some have used their minds with success
on the impediments of travel are evidenced by the subjoined tabula
tions of the different types of inventions designed to facilitate and
guard persons and goods in transit. Indeed, the first conspicuous
fact developed by the figures and tabulations is that, of the total num
ber of inventions patented during the 10 selected years, this group of
inventions constitutes a larger proportion than either agriculture or
manufacture. This should cause but momentary surprise, if any, as
travel is not confined to one class of people, though restricted means
limit extensive travel to those enjoying liberal incomes or engaged in

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

actual transportation work. That the list of inventions is not so large
as that covering household devices and articles of personal use and
wear is in all probability due to the more limited opportunities for
continuous study of factors entering into the various problems of
transportation. In other words, while all classes of women—house
holders, professional women, and women hi business—travel by
horse-drawn vehicles, in motor cars, in steam or electric railway
coaches and water-craft, comparatively few have the opportunity for
that close, continuous contact with the conditions of travel from
which spring inventive achievements. The list shows, however, that
no form of travel is unrepresented, inventions facilitating air travel
furnishing instances of gratifying achievements by women. Some of
these aircr'aft inventions have been assigned to aircraft corporations.
A search through the formal descriptions of these inventions reveals
a high degree of technical knowledge and a comprehension of the
unsolved problems of air travel. Small numerically as is the entire
list of aircraft inventions, it nevertheless affords substantial argument
for larger opportunities and freer access for women to facilities of re
search and experiment.
It is noteworthy that although water craft are the oldest form of
transportation they have called out from women the least inventive
activity. With one or two exceptions, in this regard the list consists
of more or less minor parts and appurtenances.
Steam and street railway traffic has had a far larger share of
attention from women inventors. The list is not confined to devices
for enhancing the comfort of travel—easier chairs, wider berths,
more effective screens and curtains; the inventions range over road
bed and rails through rolling stock equipment to traffic signals and
block systems.
The number of inventions concerned with motor traffic consti
tuting almost one-half of the transportation patents granted to
women, together with the wide scope of inventive activity indicated
by the list, serves to reflect clearly the increasing share taken by
women in the operation of motor cars. The correspondence gives
evidence that this actual driving and care of cars, furnishing as it
does greater opportunity for observing the conditions of efficient and
deficient operation of the mechanism, is an important influence in
swelling the total of women’s inventive achievements.
One woman wrote in answer to the question, “ What circumstances
led you to invent a cleaning device and windshield cleaner?”
While driving my automobile the rain came down in sheets which caused me to
drive up to the curb and wait for the rain to subside. The thought came to me that
something could be devised to clean the windshield and permit driving in wind and
snow. Then while riding on a trolley behind a glass covered with sleet I saw the
same thing would apply, and so I worked out my device to avoid this danger.

women’s

CONTEibxjtions in the field of invention.

Another woman invented a combined license-plate holder and
danger signal because she was—■
Impressed with the fact, that must be obvious to anyone, that at present it is practi
cally impossible to read the rear number of a moving automobile at night. It is, of
course, of the highest importance that it should be made possible for police officers
and for citizens to be able to make out the rear number of an automobile that is speed
ing away at night.

In inventing equipment for horses, again it was the need dis
covered as a result of personal experience which stimulated the
formulation of the device. A woman from Montana who had
invented an adjustable horse collar, answered:
Having personal experience with horses I found it was very difficult to fit a small
collar on a large horse when the adjustment could only be made at the top of the collar.
Another reason—most people are not careful when removing or putting on a collar.
The result is nine-tenths of the collars are broken at the bottom while the rest of the
collar is perfectly good.
,

Unfortunately this woman’s experience which had enabled her to
invent a “new and useful” device did not seem likely to be of real
service to her or to others who were meeting with similar difficulties,
for her collar was not on the market, she said, “because I am familiar
with collars but not with selling them.”
A. Automobile bodies and parts.
Protector for timers of automatic engines.
Pump, air.
Reproducer.
Rim for steering wheels.
Rim, wheel.
Rim, collapsible.
Rim, demountable.
Rim, dual construction.
Rim clamping device for demountable.
Roller bearings.
Seat construction.
Spark plug.
Spark plug and air compressor.
Spark plug and testing device.
Starting mechanism for explosive engines.
Steering apparatus.
Steering wheel and indicator combined.
Support for running board.
Transmission lock.
Truck.
Valve-controlling device.
Valve, reversible.
Wheel, construction.
Wheel, demountable.
Wheel, frictionless.
Wheel, guard.
Wheel, loose mount.
Wheel, spring.
Wind shield.
■

Axle, flexible.
Bed, automobile.
Body, convertible.
Brake for trucks.
Brake control, arm operated.
Brake, emergency.
Brake lever.
Brake shoe, self-adjusting.
Bumper.
Carburetor.
Clutch mechanism.
Cylinder cock.
Driving mechanism.
Door.
Electric engine starter.
Exhaust muffler.
Fender.
Frame, side.
Gear lock.
Grease cup.
Inflating valve.
Jack.
Motor vehicle'.
Piston and packing ring.
Piston pump.
Piston ring.
Piston ring groove.
Piston rod.
Priming mechanism for explosive engines.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

B. Automobile tiresand tire attachments.
Antiskidding attachment.
Pneumatic puncture proof tire.
Antiskid stud.
Puncture healing composition.
Armor for tire.
Puncture proof tube protector.
Combined tire and rim.
Resilient tire.
Deflation for pneumatic tire wheels.
Spring tire.
Electric tire attaching means.
Tire.
Fastening for skid chains.
Tire chain.
Liner for tires.
Tire filler.
Machine for making inner tubes.
Tire protector.
Macliine for tire making.
Tire rack.
Metal inner casing for auto tires to prevent Valve for inner tube valve stem.
inner tube punctures.
C. Automob
Article to prevent accumulation of
moisture on glass.
Automatic detector for identifying vehi
cles.
Carrying receptacle for automobiles.
Child-holding attachment.
Combination tail and auto license light.
Combination license plate holder and
danger signal.
Cushion spring.
Dimmer for headlights.
Electric-lighting system.
Foot rest.
Gasoline indicator.

D. Bicycles, motor cycles, and pan
Bicycle gearing.
Child’s bicycle seat.
Guard.
Lantern attachment.
Spring wheel.

and air-pressure operated vehicles.
Support for bicycles.
Wheel attachment.
Carriage for hand luggage.
Chair-supporting rack.

Accessories.
Glare shade.
Hand protection device for steering
wheels.
Headlight-turning mechanism.
Indicating plate or device.
Light.
Lock.
Seat strap.
Speed indicator.
Speed regulator.
Stop signal.
Wheel clamp.
Wind shield cleaner.
Wind and rain shield.

E. Horse-drawn vehicles and equipment for vehicles and horses.
Nose bag.
Seat, extension for carriages.
Currycomb.
Spring seat.
Clevis.
Sleigh brake.
Harness lining and pad.
Snaffle hook.
Holdback.
Swingtree.
Horse collar.
Swingtree clip.
Horse-releasing device.
Tire, cushion.
Horse-shading attachment for vehicles.
Tool, calking.
Horseshoe.
Trace carrier.
Horse overshoe.
Traveling wagon.
Horseshoe calk.
Two-wheeled vehicle.
Horseshoeing device.
Vehicle.
Horseshoeing rack.
Wagon-dumping mechanism.
Hub.
Wheels.
Neck-yoke pole attachment.
Whiffletree hook.
Rein guide.
Whiffletree hook and ferule.
Rein holder and whip socket.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

F. Steam and street railways: Rail and road bed equipment.
Adjustable wheel anchor.
Apparatus for removing snow and ice
from rails.
Car replacer.
Rail bender.
Rail clamp and tie.
Rail crossing, shockless.
Rail fastener, metallic.
Railway gate.
Rail joint.
Rail joint and fish-clamping plate.

Railway rail support and rail fastening.
Railway tie and rail-securing means.
Railway composition tie to which rail
can be secured without use of spikes.
Railway cross tie.
Railway tie plate.
Sectional railway rail.
Spike.
Switch.
Switch-operating apparatus.

G. Steam and street railways: Rolling stock and equipment.
Attachment for back of car seat.
Automatic train-stopping means.
Car brake.
Car coupling.
Car-door operating mechanism.
Car-door switch control.
Car fender.
Car seat, convertible.
Car step.
Car truck.
Cinder deflector.
Clothes retainer for railway-car sleeping
apartments.
Coal-car cover.
Compartment box for smokers.
Draft connection.
Dust and smoke conveyor for cars.
Extension step for railway cars.

Flexible coupling.
Foldable stair for sleeping-car berths.
Grain-car door.
Guard for open railway cars.
Handrail column.
Operating appliance for angle cocks for
air hose.
Passenger car.
Reflecting mirror for locomotives.
Rigid hand grip for cars.
Sand box for cars.
Sewerage system for railroad cars.
Spark arresters.
Storm curtain for open street cars.
Swinging car step.
Trolley retriever.
Uncoupling device.
Umbrella receptacle for cars.

H. Traffic signals and indicators.
Electric signal system.
Illuminated signal indicator.
Operating mechanism for signals.
Street indicator for cars.
Traffic signal.
Vehicle-signaling crane.

Block-signal system.
Car-door safety signal.
Car-signal.
Direction indicator.
Direction signal.
Electric signal lamp.

I. Boats and ship equipment.
Anchor-hold support.
Arrangement for closing ship leaks.
Apparatus for raising submerged objects.
Electrically propelled boat.
Folding gang plank.
Means of killing vegetable and animal
life on boat hulls.

Oarlock.
Raft.
River boat sleeping equipment.
Self-leveling cot, bunk, or couch for use
on ship board.
Ship construction.
Ship ladder.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

J. Aircraft and equipment.
Airplane.
•
Aircraft.
Aircraft of lighter-than-air type.
Direction indicator for air and marine
craft.
Dirigible airship.
Dirigible headlight.
Flying machine.
Landing brake, •

Lift indicator for flying machine.
Liquid container for airplane.
Mechanism for steering plane vertically
and horizontally without aid of human
contact.
Parachute.
Propeller.
Safety alighting attachment.
Wire-reinforced fabric for wings.

VI, VII, Vin, and IX. Inventions concerned with trade; hotels and
restaurants; steam laundry and dyeing establishments; and with
dressmakers’ and milliners’ supplies.

The conspicuous fact revealed by the figures on, and detailed
tabulations of, the four following lists of inventions concerned with
trade, hotels and restaurants, steam laundry and dyeing establish
ments, and with dressmakers’ and milliners’ supplies, is the brevity of
the lists. The patents for inventions in these four groups combined
are fewer than those granted women for inventions facilitating
agriculture or for those concerned with manufacture. In view of the
fact that women are engaged in such large numbers in the four spheres
of activity represented, the meagerness of numerical results causes
some surprise. An analysis of each of the four lists, however, will
su»gest & satisfactory explanation. The inventions concerned with
trade do not include the commodities that are objects of barter and
sale. They include only devices designed to permit trading with ease
and expedition. A little reflection will make clear that the sum total
of such equipment in any trading establishment consists of fixtures,
weighing and measuring facilities, bundle wrapping and cash handling
devices, and advertising service. In actual count all these facilities
together are not so many as to render insignificant women’s inven
tive contributions thereto as shown in the attached list. The same
thing is true of the lists of inventions concerned with hotels and
restaurants, and with milliners’ and dressmakers’ supplies. It
should be noted that sewing machines and parts are not included
among dressmakers’ supplies and equipment, because these machines
belong to a much wider sphere of productive activity than is covered
by the work of dressmakers.
The inventions concerned with steam laundry and cleaning es
tablishments do not include the devices invented to facilitate laundry
work and fabric cleaning in the home, where, in spite of the enormous
volume of work sent to steam laundries, most of the nation’s washing
is done. A reading of the list of household inventions will show
that women have centered inventive thought with marked success
upon the business of removing soil from fabrics washed in the home.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

VI. Trade.
A. Store equipment andfurnishings.
Automatic delivery system.
Automatic stock counter.
Box and package elevating apparatus.
Bundling machine.
Collapsible foot-measuring device.
Collapsible rack.
Coin-re cpiving and delivering apparatus.
Combined ribbon holder and measuring
mechanism.
Color comparing rod.
Combination packing and display case.
Display fixture.
Display rack for veils.
Picture display device.
Hat display stand.

Hat barrel.
Gambrel.
Holder.
Meat rail and hook.
Measuring apparatus for corsets.
Package binder.
Plate-glass structure.
Registering machine for coin-controlled
apparatus.
Tag attaching device.
Twine holder.
Value printing and indicating device for
scales.
Window display.

B. Advertising de ces and equipment.
Advertising car construction.
Advertising machine.
Advertising material attached to horn.
Changeable letter sign.
Display card.
Electric sign.
Illuminated changeable sign.

Means for advertising quarters, lodgings,
and like.
Novelty adapted for advertising.
Pictorial device.
Stamp and advertising book.
Writing tablet, advertising.

C. Measuring and dispensing devices.
Cake cone holder and dipper.
Candy doll, wrapped.
Candy package.
Ice cream dipper.
Liquid dispensing device.
Liquid vending machine.
Machine for applying labels.
Miscellaneous measuring and dispensing
device.

Shoe shining machine.
Sign card.
Stamp and ticket vending machine.
Ticket holder.
Vending machine.
Vending machine, coin-operated device
for.

VII. Hotel and restaurant equipment.
Automatic cut-off for water glasses.
Block pad.
Cleaning off machine.
Electrically heated tray.
Hot food table and cabinet.

Machine for drying and polishing glasses.
Slide rail holder.
Tray mechanism.
Suspension device for umbrellas and like.

VHI. Steam laundry and dyeing and cleaning establishment equipment.
Carrier for laundry.
Dyeing machine.
Folding machine for flat work.

Machine for folding fabric articles.
Shine or gloss remover and nap producer.
Tray for laundry marking pins.

women’s contributions in the field of

INVENTION.

IX. Dressmakers’ and milliners’ supplies.
Bias folder.
Device for coating threads.
Dress form.
Dress pattern.
Dress stiffener and tightener.

Garment weight.
Plaiter and plaiting machine.
Skirt marker and measure.
Tape measure and pin cushion.
Tailoring device.

Hat frame.
Milliner’s work holder.
Hat block for hat renovating.

Trimming attaching device.
Stainless paste.
Steaming form for milliners.

X. Office supplies and equipment.

.
of inventions concerned with office supplies and equipment
like the four lists immediately preceding, is relatively small, but it is
long enough to show that women have been influenced by the larger
opportunities for inventive ability afforded by the demands of office
work. Not all of the inventions of this type, however, were made by
women who were working in offices, or exclusively for use in offices
Correspondence revealed the fact that some of the devices were of
more general application. The woman who had invented a telephone
muffler answered the question as to the circumstances which led to
her invention thus:
hile stopping at a hotel m New York two years ago I could hear all that a man in
the next room said while using the telephone. I thought it out, worked it out made
a crude one and went to my patent attorney’s office with my crude model and had him
test it by using it.
A. Office machines and attachments.
Calculator.
Typewriter line indicator.
Duplicating machine.
Typewriter paper guide.
Duplicating machine, signature roll for. Typewriter ribbon spool.
Duplicating machine, alignment device Typewriter spacing and securing anchor.
for.
Typewriter underscorer.
Typewriter machine.
Typewriter attachment.
Typewriter keyboard.
B. Stationery and miscellaneous equipment.
Bill book.
Index, card.
Check holder, manifold.
Index system.
Copy holder.
Index tab.
Combined copyholder and notebook Paper clamp for typing.
cover.
Paper clip.
Desk receptacle.
Pencil sharpener and attaching clip,
Eraser and brush.
Pencil stamp.
Eraser shield for typing.
Self-binding cover for papers.
File wrapper.
Stamp or envelope moistener.
Impression paper.
Stamp and label applying machine.
C. Furniture.
Chair, revolving.
Clothes tree and holder.
Desk.

File.
Noise reducing typewriter stand.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

XI. Inventions concerned with fishing.

The small list in this classification of inventions patented by women
requires no other comment than to call attention to the fact that the
devices are not confined to fishing for sport. Some of the inventions
are concerned with commercial fishing.
Bait.
Fishguard
Fish stop.
Fish tool.

Hover.
Line and float.
Line casting machine.
Net apparatus for deep-water fishing.

XII. Inventions concerned with the business of housekeeping.

This list, which embraces the largest number of inventions patented
by women, speaks for itself and it speaks ably. It constitutes nearly
28 per cent of the total number of inventions patented by women
during the 10 selected years and is a convincing answer to the charge
that “women have not contributed materially to the labor-saving
devices in the home.” There is not a phase of household labor which
has not called out the inventive abilities of some woman with suffi
cient success to warrant the United States Government in granting
letters patent for a “new and useful device.” There is no need of
reading the list into the text. Its bearing upon the widespread
belief that women have failed in resourcefulness in their peculiar
sphere of activity .should secure a careful reading of the detaded
tabulations. One fact of importance only will not be made suffi
ciently clear in the tables and tabulations without text discussion.
The letters from individual women inventors reveal a great diversity
of training and a sharp divergence of standards of efficiency in
household management. Letters coming from obviously educated
women inventors show inventive achievement to be the direct result
of trying to reduce to an exact science cooking and preserving and
canning and cleaning in the home. Other letters are from women
scarcely able to write who have invented devices to lighten heavy
burdens or make irksome duties less galling. Several types of
answers are illustrated in the following excerpts from the letters
which came from the women inventors.
One woman wrote that she invented a pie-pan cover because of
“ overflowing of juicy pies, the best of the pie being wasted, leaving
the poorest part of pie in crust. Also, cleaning of oven after baking
pies.”
Another fellow sufferer from the exigencies of domestic mishaps
was the woman who wrote that the circumstances which led to her
invention of a reinforced wooden bowl was “ a 6-inch split in the top
of my bowl as I was working butter. It came in two, spilling the
water and my bowl on the floor.”

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

That this inventor had come up against the difficulties of business
competition was indicated in a later part of her letter when she asked
tor advice because a company to whom she had gone did not want
bowls reinforced “as it would last too long, and to them it was not
attractive.”
The need for a special contrivance which was not procurable was the
circumstance which brought about the invention of a kitchen cabinet,
according to the report of one woman inventor:
I was teaching home economics. I was living in one room and taking my meals
anywhere I wished. Many times I desired to get my own breakfasts and suppers in
my room, as many persons do, in order to save time, to reduce living expenses, and
to have a chance to eat some of my own cooking. I desired a piece of furniture in
my one room which would give the service of an entire kitchen but at the same time
be an attractive piece of furniture for a living or bed room. I designed such a cabinet,
had it made and finished as a piece of mahogany furniture and found after using it that
it answered my purpose perfectly. Knowing that thousands and thousands of women
on th^maritel
1 thougllt 1 would Set “W device manufactured and placed

This is an account which is like many others. A personal need felt
and satisfied, a realization that this need must be common to many
others, and the consequent patenting and marketing of the device
Ihvery type of housewife is represented in the following detailed
tabulations of household inventions for which patents have been
granted to women during the 10 selected years of this study.
A. Kitchen equipment.
Alarm device for utensils.
Device for cooking asparagus.
Apparatus for boiling eggs.
Dish drainer.
Baking implement.
Dish drier.
Biscuit and doughnut cutter.
Dish pan and appurtenances.
Bottle and glassware cleaner.
Dish tray.
Bread board.
Dishwashing machine.
Broiler.
Drip attachment for oil cans.
Can and bottle opener.
Egg tester and separator.
Candy cooker, hot air.
Egg washer and slicer.
Candy cutter.
False bottom for utensils.
Canning and preserving container.
Fireless cooker.
Canning and preserving method and Food drier.
equipment.
Fruit, meat, or vegetable grinder.
Canning and preserving fruit jar holder.
Fruit seeder and corer.
Coating composition for cooking utensils. Funnel.
Coffee pot, cocoa pot, tea pot.
Grater or masher.
Colander.
Griddle and greaser for same.
Cook book.
Guard for egg and whipped cream dish
Cooking device.
Hand rubber.
Cook stove and attachments.
Handle for utensils.
Cooking utensil and lid.
Hot utensil holder.
Cooking utensil support.
Ice cream freezer.
Cooler.
Juice extractor.
Culinary implement.
Kettle polisher and scraper.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

A. Kitchen equipment—Continued.
Refrigerator and attachments.
Kettle protector, adjustable.
Sanitary cooking apparatus.
Kitchen appliance.
Sealing press.
Kitchen cabinet and attachments.
Sieve-cleaning device.
Kitchen table.
Shield from oven heat.
Knife rest.
Sifter, sieve, strainer.
Lamp stove.
Sink cover and shield.
Lid holder.
Sink-drain disinfectant.
Measure.
Skimmer.
Meat tenderer.
Spoon holder for cooking utensils.
Milk-card holder.
Spoon holder.
Mixer, egg beater.
Stove implement.
Oven and warming closet.
Toaster.
Pickling weight.
Vegetable tapper.
Portable kitchen.
Waffle iron.
Pot stirrer.
Window kitchen.
Protector for stoves.
Provision safe.
B. Ash, garbage, and trash receptacles.
Ash can and holder.
Ash distributor.
Ash sieve and screen.

Chute for garbage.
Garbage receptacle.
Trash can and burner.

C. Laundry equipment.
Ironing table, ironing board, and cover
Apparatus for washing.
attachments.
Bucket clothes washer.
Ironing machine.
Clothes catcher and drainer.
Iron support and holder.
Clothes line and fixtures.
Laundry basket and receptacle.
Clothes pin.
Laundry strainer.
Clothes pin bag.
Soap holder. .
Clothes pounder.
Sleeve ironing board.
Clothes prop holder.
Washing board.
Clothes sprinkler.
Wash boiler and attachments.
Clothes stretcher.
Washing machine.
Clothes wringer and attachments.
Washing machine attachment.
Curtain stretcher.
Wash tub and attachments.
Drying frame and drying device.
Wax pad.
Heater for washing machines.
Spring hinge attachment for board and
Iron and attachments.
tubs.
Iron attachment for stoves.
Ironer—sleeve, waist, cap.
D. Uouse-i ming devices.
Broom and broom rack.
Brush cleaner.
Bucket.
Carpet and portiere beater.
Carpet sweeper.
Cleaning compound.
Cleaning device.
Cutlery cleaner.
Device for holding material for cleaning
wMl paper.

Dust cloth, dust pan.
Floor scrubbing equipment.
Mop, brush.
Oil-absorbing device.
Step ladder.
Stovepipe cleaner. "
Wall cleaner.
Window cleaner.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

E. Dining-room equipment.
China, table.
Cloth and support, table.
Cutlery.
Dining room furniture.
Electric toaster.
Glassware and tray.

Napkin holder.
Napkin.
Spoon holder.
Table mat.
Tea cart and server.
F. Bedroom equipment.

Bedstead.
Bedstead attachment.
Bed clothes.
Bed drapery, fixtures.
Bed rest.
Bed-warming device.

Bed-airing device.
Bracing leg for beds.
Mattress and springs.
Mattress turner.
Wardrobe.

G. Nursery equipment and vehicles.
Cabinet.
v
Nursery seat.
Carriage. ■
Nursery toilet.
Carrier.
Milk warmer.
Comforter, bed clothes.
Play pen.
Crib, bed.
Swing.
Diaper cleaner.
Tub and support.
Harness for children.
Walker and jumper.
High chair and attachments.
Weighing device.
H. Bathroom equipment and conveniences.
Bathtub and fixtures.
Portable shower-bath apparatus.
Bathing apparatus.
Rubber sponge.
Bath spray.
Toilet.
Controlling mechanism.
Toilet appurtenance.
Lavatory and shampoo bowl.
Toilet cleaning device.
Lavatory cabinet.
Toilet paper holder.

I Furniture and parts.
Bookstand and bookhoider.
Cabinet.
Chair, couch.
Christmas-tree holder.
Footstool, footrest.

Mirror and adjustor.

Piano stool and music cabinet.
Portable screen.
Rocking-chair fan, automatic.
Sectional furniture.
Table.
Miscellaneous furniture.

J. Furnishings.
Awning, canopy.
Head rest.
Bag holder.
Piano shield.
Bird bath.
Pipe hanger.
Bookhoider.
Radiator cover.
Chair attachment.
RugCurtain.
Screen.
Cuspidor.
Seat cover.
Drying rail and foot rest for heat radiators. Shade.
Flower holder.
Shelf.
Hammock and canopy cover therefor.
Sundial.
Hanging basket.
Urn.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

K. Hangers, brackets, and other household hardware.
Curtain bracket, fixtures.
Curtain weight.
Draperies hanger.
Drawer pull.
Furniture caster, glass.

Picture hanger.
Rug-fastening means.
Picture cover.
Shade fixture.
Shade guide.

L. Cbthes-closet conveniences and garment containers.
Clothes container.
Clothes hook and box.
Collar and cuff bag.
Garment hanger.

Hat hanger and holder.
Rack and shelf.
Tree.
Umbrella holder.
M. Insect and rodent catchers.

Ant trap.
Fly guard.
Fly paper and holder.
Fly screen.

Insecticide.
Mosquito foil.
Trap, mouse.

N. Sewing and knitting containers and conveniences.
Needle holder and threader.
Bodkin.
Pin holder.
Cloth-uniting means.
Quilting frame.
Darning last.
Scissors and cutting guide.
Embroidery equipment.
Sewing accessory.
Eyelet.
Sewing bag.
Garment cast-off.
Sewing table and stand.
Inserting openwork in fabric.
Skein holder and winder.
Needle, carpet.
Tatting shuttle and hook.
Needle, crochet.
Thimble and finger protector.
Needle, knitting.
Thread holder.
Needle, ripping.

YTTI. Inventions covering supplies for use in industry, agriculture, com
merce, and the home.

The longest list of inventions, barring those concerned exclusively
with the home and those covering articles of personal use and wear,
is that which embraces objects used in many spheres of activity, such
as tools and cutlery, electrical apparatus and supplies, glass and
earthenware, sewing machines and parts, stationery equipment,
telephone and telegraph appurtenances, and scores of other devices.
These do not concern exclusively, or even chiefly, industry, com
merce, profession, or the home. They facilitate activity and pro
mote comfort or efficiency in all spheres. In other words, the follow
ing list of inventions patented by women, constituting 7.6 per cent
of the total number of women’s patents recorded in the 10 selected
years, could with justification have been added to manufacture,
trade, or household equipment as they are real contributions to the
"new and useful” facilities in two or more of these spheres of activ
ity. This was not done because such a procedure would have re
sulted in duplicate, and frequently in triplicate, listings of the same

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

inventions, thus obscuring the statistical feature of the report. In
scanning the following detailed tabulations, however, it is important
to keep in mind the multiple service which each type of invention
may render.
A. Cutlery, tools, and hardware.
Barrel-tapping device.
Nail extractor.
Barrel-head releasing implement.
Rivet.
Can receiving and piercing device.
Plug lifter.
Clamp.
Saw.
Combination tool.
'
Sawbuck.
Cotter-pin tool.
Saw sharpener.
Cutlery handle.
Self-locking bolt.
Device for removing valves and their Straight line wire clamp for stretching
seats and cages.
wire.
Drill.
Tack.
Pile.
Tool holder.
_
Lantern.
Wiggler.
Lock nut.
Wrench.
Lock nut and bolt.
B. Electrical equipment,
Air-cooling fan.
Attachment plug.
Automatic circuit controlling mechanism.
Automatic circuit breaker mechanism.
Battery plate and terminal connection
and fastening device.
Burner.
Call service apparatus.
Casing for electric cells.
Circuit lock.
Circuit closer.
Conducting cord holder.
Contact device.
Control of electric motors and apparatus
therefor.
Cross-arms for electrical construction.
Dry battery cell.
Electrical resistance.

apparatus, and supplies.
Float operated circuit closer.
Housing for electrical apparatus.
Impulsion motor.
Incandescent lamp socket.
Insulator.
Magneto controlling device.
Motor control.
Portable motor.
Protective container for dry batteries.
Rheostat.
Safety transportation carrier for electric
incandescent lamps.
Spark plug.
Socket-key extension.
Switch.
Switch box.
Testing device for ignition systems.
Vapor electric apparatus.

C. Glass and earthenware containers and tops therefor.
Bottle.
Bottle, nonrefillable.
Bottle, milk.
Bottle cap or stopper.
Milk bottle cap.
Bottle holder.
Milk bottle case.
Container, liquid.
Container for mucilage.
Container for blacking.
Cording seal.
Cover and brush holder for mucilage *

Dispensing container.
Closure for receptables.
Jar neck and closure.
Jar cap handler.
Milk can cover.
Lid for milk crocks.
Receptacle for liquids.
Stone crock'or jar.
Thermos food container, hygienic.
Thermos bottle attachment.
Soap seal.
Tin shackle.

4
40

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

D. Sewing and embroidery machines and parts.
Connecting and disconnecting mechanism Sewing machine attachments—Contd.
Presser foot.
for embroidery machine.
Lifter for presser foot.
Expanding frame for embroidery ma
Ribbon guide for tucking blade.
chine.
Ruffler.
Plaiting machine.
Spacing attachment.
Portable hand sewing machine.
Spool holder and thread guide.
Sewing machine.
Stocking holding band for darning pur
Sewing machine attachments:
Belt.
poses.
Stopping device.
Braid-applying attachment.
Side guider for sewing on skirt braid.
Bobbin-unwinding attachment.
Tension mechanism.
Bobbin stripper.
Threading attachment.
Cloth guide.
Thread cutter.
Edge guide.
Thread cutter and holder.
Folding attachment.
Thread cutter and hem creaser.
Footrest.
Thread guide and holder.'
Corded tuck attachment.
Tucking guide.
Gauge.
Trimmer.
Guard.
Other attachment.
Head.
Folding receptacle for sewing machine.
Leaf.
Implement holder for sewing machine.
Positive timer for lockstitch machine.
E. Stationery supplies and equipment.
Binder, loose-leaf.
Ring for loose-leaf binders.
Means for retaining book rings in position.
Handle attachment for loose-leaf binders
or books.
Book cover protector.
Book hold.
Book marker.
Book strap.
Book support.
Calendar.
Calendar, perpetual.
Envelope.
Envelope sealer.
Envelope and letter sheet combined.
Fastener mounting.
Foldable blank book.
Ink, indelible.
F. Telephone equipn

Ink bottle.
Ink bottle holder.
Ink stand.
Model slip holder.
Paste holding and applying device.
Pen.
Pen or pencil, luminous.
Penholder.
Penholder, duplex.
Pen or pencil attachment.
Pen wiper.
Post card.
Postalcard or photograph album.
Rubber attachment for pencils.
Seal.
Stationery.
Turning sheet and pad.
Transfer or duplicating pad.
nt and telegraph code.

Optiphone.
Adjustable receiver holder.
Party line ringing key.
Attachment for wall telephones.
Receiver.
Booth.
Call list and memorandum slip attach Sterilizing and muffling shield for 'tele
phones.
ment.
Guard for telephone transmitters.
Telephone set.
Holding device for telephone receivers.
Telephone stand.
Other attachments.
Mouthpiece.
Sanitary mouthpiece covering.
Cable and telegraph code.
Muffler.

■women’s contributions in the FIELD of invention.

G. Wrapping, packing, carrying, or mailing devices.
Adjustable receptacle.
Lunch box.
Bag.
Letter-packaging device.
Basket.
Mail bag catcher.
Basket, foldable.
Mail bag crane.
Barrel, collapsible.
Mail bag holder.
Barrel, closure.
Mail binder.
Barrel stand.
Mail box.
Book carrier.
Mail box, coin container for.
Box strap tightener.
Mailing case.
Box wrapper.
Mail catcher.
Can, sanitary top for.
Mail-dumping device, automatic.
Can.
Mailing frame.
Coin envelope.
Mail-tying device.
Drop end box.
Oil can.
Egg case.
Packing material.
Flexible knockdown container.
Packing ring.
Folding receptacle.
Package tie.
Folding crate.
Pin package.
Garment receptacle.
Portable holder.
Hat box.
Pull or handle.
Handle.
Receptacle, collapsible.
Holding and dispensing device for col Receptacle cover.
lapsible tubes.
Sack holder.
Holder for packing boxes.
Sheet-metal packing case.
Other holder.
Shipping bag.
Ice cream packer.
Strap fastener.
Label holder.
Tank or container.
Load binder for vehicles.

XIV. Scientific instruments (other than surgical), laboratory equipment,
meters, scales, watches, optical and photographic goods, apparatus
and supplies.

Probably no list of inventions patented by women will arouse
more interest than the list of those for use in the field of science.
Some of the inventions involve only a slight technical knowledge,
but others clearly reveal scientific qualities. Such inventions &as
“marine compasses,” “instruments for indicating ship stability,” and
‘ sound recording and producing instruments” are not the creations
of untrained minds.
The list is short, but it should be read also in the light of women’s
comparative opportunities, facilities, and encouragement for scien
tific research.
Apparatus for estimation of vapor pres Holder for mercury preparations.
sure.
Instrument for indicating ship stability.
Bunsen burner.
Light filter.
Calipers.
Marine compass.
Circuit controller for liquid gauges.
Measuring funnel for liquids.
Course finder.
Relay sounder attachment.
Gauge,
Sound recording and producing instru
Gauge glass cleaner.
ment.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

Adjustable measuring and ruling device.
Combined rule, trisquare, and calipers.
Combined rule and adjustable compass.
Drafting tool.
Electric light attachment for levels.
Exposure meter.
Measuring instrument.
Register meter.
Recording apparatus.
Sun dial and compass.
Scales.
Straight edge.
Temple measuring device.
Weighing device, automatic.
Device for improving eyesight.
Eye glass.
Eye glass mounting.
Optical apparatus.
Spectacle pliers
Alarm clock.
Alarm device for clocks.

Escapement adjustment for clocks.
Printing ribbon shifter for time clockn.
Watch roller remover for clocks.
Winding device.
Attachment for motion picture machines.
Automatic controller for camera shutters.
Box with removable slides for packing
pictures.
Camera.
Camera attachment.
Cinematographic film.
Color photography.

Film carrying device.
Machine for treating moving-picture films.
Means for providing border on films.
Motion picture machine.
.
Motion picture making.
Photographic printing apparatus.
Profile recorder.
Shifting camera back.

XV. Ordnance, firearms, and ammunition.

During periods of war, women have always been engaged in the
manufacture of arms and ammunition. It is not surprising, therefore,
that women should have made material contributions to the weapons
and agencies of warfare during the 10 years that spanned the greatest
war in history. The significant thing about the attached list is the
highly technical quality of some of the inventions.
Automatic pistol.
Bomb launching apparatus.
Cane-gun.
Cartridge tube filler.
Flashlight attachment for firearms.
Front sight for firearms.
Incendiary ball.

Loading device.
Ordnance.
Percussion and ignition fuse.

Primer.
Railway torpedo.
Rear sight for guns.
Resilient missile.
Single trigger mechanism.
Submarine mine.
Top for powder cans.
Torpedo guard.
Woven cartridge carrier.

XVI. Inventions concerned with articles of personal wear and use.

Next to inventions that facilitate the business of housekeeping, the
inventions concerned with articles of personal wear and use are by
far the largest group. They account for nearly 22 per cent of the
entire number of patents granted to women in the 10 years selected
for study. The list requires no explanation. It suggests, however,
considerations which should not be ignored. As in the case of house
hold activity, so in the matter of personal wear, women have been
charged quite generally with lack of resourcefulness. The attached

WOMEN S CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE FIELD OF INVENTION.

list is an emphatic contradiction of the assumption. But it is more
than that; it is an evidence that women’s inventive abilities are
having a material effect upon the production of adult’s and children’s
readj-to-wear garments and garment appurtenances, and on the
manufacture of. articles of personal use. One woman said she had
invented a hairpin after walking up the street one day and counting
eighteen hairpins which had dropped on the sidewalk. Others had
patented garments which they had found useful for themselves.
Many of the inventions listed below have been assigned to large
manufacturers; some are familiar articles in quite general use. Of
course, some patents are still dormant and others may be dead because
of superseding devices. Some inventions go through these vicissitudes
whether patented by men or women. But that fact does not annul
the significance of the long list of inventive contributions which
enhance everyday comfort, protect and adorn the persons of young
and old, and expand activity in manufacture and trade.
A. Undergarments.
Bracing garment.
Brassiere.
Corset and part of corset.
Corset, maternity.
Corset cover.

Invalid bed gown and commode.
Kimona.
Pajama; night robe.
Suspender waist.
Undergarment.
B. Outer garments.

Apron.
Child’s dress.
Coat or suit.
Dress or waist.
Hood and cap combined.
Maternity garment.

Scarf or sweater.
Shirt.
Skirt.
Swimming suit.
Trousers and overalls.
C. Headwear.

Bonnet.
Bonnet, collapsible.
Bandeau.
Cap.
Dust cap.
Ear shield.
Fresh-air hood.
Hat.
Hat fastener.

Hat-pin guard.
Hat protector, waterproof.
Hat ventilator.
Hat trimming and lining.
Hood for airplane pilots.
Mosquito and fly protective head gear.
Nurse’s headdress.
Veil.
Veil fastener.
D. Handwear.

Finger shield.
Glove.
Glove fastener.

Hand warmer.
Mitten.
Shield for gloves.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

E. Footwear.
Shoe string fastener.
Shoe fastener.
Shoe protector.

Hosiery.
Slipper.
Shoe or boot.
Sole for boots and shoes.
Sliding sole.
Metal protecting sole for footwear.
Detachable heel pad and fastener therefor.
Shoe lace and tip.
Shoe-lace holder.

Flexible dress overshoe.
Fastening for overshoe.
Protective overshoe.
Boot or shoe tree or last.
Shoe cleaning equipment,
Swimming shoe.

F. Garment appurtenances.
Hook and eye and snap.
Belt or girdle.
Hose supporter and clasp.
Button and buttonhole.
Knee band for knickers.
Buckle
Legging and legging clasp.
Bustle.
Necktie fastener.
Catamenial appliance.
Neck protector.
Chafing shield.
Collar, collar fastener, support, and pro Pin.
Pocket, safety.
tector.
Reversible sash.
Corset stay tip protector.
Skirt and waist and other garment sup
Cuff and wrist band.
Device for holding ribbons and streamers.
porter.
Sleeve protector.
Draw string.
Suspender.
Dress shield
Waist lengthener.
Garment stay.
Watch pocket.
Handkerchief container, sanitary.
G. Baby garments and appurtenances.
Envelope
Feeder.
Mouth guard.
Nipple.
Protector for infant’s hands.
Device for turning nipples.
Protective device.
Soother.

Band.
Bib.
Cap.
Diaper and support.
Ear bandage.
Garment.
Night garment.
Bottle.
Bottle holder and cleaner.

H. Jewelry.
Locket.
Pin.
Pin guard and ornament.
Tokens.
Vanity case.

Cuff link and stud.
Earring.
Finger ring.
Jewelry case.
Jewelry clasp.

I. Toilet articles.
Artificial eyelash.
Chin mask.
Compound for stopping perspiration.
Container for toilet articles.
Cosmetic.
Hairbrush.

Electric hairbrush.
Hairbrush with removable bristles.
Hair comb.
Hair-waving comb.
Comb for drying and straightening hair.

■WOMEN S CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE FIELD OF INVENTION.

I. Toilet articles—Continued.
Combination comb and brush.
Comb cleaner.
Detergent.
Hair curler.
Hair waver.
Hair dressing attachment.
Hair foundation.
Hair drier and sun shade.
Hairpin.
Hair-retaining device.
Hair remover.

Fountain tonic applicator.
Hair tonic and dressing.
Manicuring instrument.
Massage device.
Pincushion.
Powder box and powder puff.
Razor strop.
Toilet article.
Tooth brush.
Rotary tooth brush.
Wash rag and soap bag.

J. Purses, umbrellas, trunks, and other miscellaneous personal furnishings.
Ash receptacle, pocket.
Cigar lighter.
Cigarette-paper holder.
Match box, safety.
Pipe.
Tobacco box fastenings.
Coin holder.
Eyeglass polisher and holder.
Fan.

Key ring.
Novelty.
Purse or hand bag, and safe fastening for
same.
Purse, shoulder.
Traveling bag.
Trunk.
Trunk attachment.
Convertible trunk and cot.
Umbrella and umbrella parts.

XVII. Inventions concerned with beauty parlor and barber supplies.
Barber implement.
Electric needle.
Facial massage implement.
Facial support.
Wrinkle mask.
Appliance for removing facial defects.
Hair-dressing apparatus.
Hair drier.
Hair drying comb.

Hair drying and waving appliance.
Hair-waving implement.
Hair treatment.
Machine for making hair goods.
Shampoo cap.
Shampoo equipment.
Shampoo fountain comb.
Spraying device for hair and scalp.
Manicurist implement.

XVIII-XIX. Inventions facilitating the practice of medicine, surgery,
and dentistry, and those promoting safety and sanitation.

These two groups of inventions patented by women during the
10 selected years reflect clearly the expanded and intensified activity
of women in the field of health restoration and health preservation,
together they constitute, in number, a group of inventions as im
portant as that concerned with manufacture, agriculture, or trans
portation. Measured in terms of service to humanity, they are more
important. The lists will furnish interesting reading and require no
comment other than to call attention again to the need of keeping in
mind the comparative opportunities for scientific research when judg
ing the comparative achievements in this field of science.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

XVIII. Medical, surgical, and dental equipment.
A. Instruments and apparatus.
Anfesthetic frame.
Apparatus by means of which heat, light
rays, and jets of water act upon the
body.
Aseptic appliance.
Atomizer.
Breast evacuator.
Eleetrotherapeutic apparatus.
Electrothermal blanket.
Foreign body localizer for X-ray work.
Holder for instruments.
Holder for mercury preparation.
Infusion device.
Medical battery electrode.
Medical implement.

Nose shaper and surgical support.
Obstretrical appliance.
Sterilized rack.
Surgical appliance.
Surgical basin.
Surgical instrument.
Surgical chair.
Surgical table.
Syringe.
Syringe bidet.
Tongue depressor.
Vapor bath apparatus.
Veterinary medicine spoon.
Umbilical cord tie.

B. Sick-room equipment.
Bed, invalid.
Bed, mattress holder for.
Sanitary mattress.
Bed tub.
Bed attachment.
Pneumatic pillow.
Bedpan.
Cushioned bedpan.
Elastic bedpan.
Bed attachment for bedpan.
Cushion for invalids.
Disinfecting device.
Douche tip.
C. Bandages,

Heating pad.
Hot-water bottle.
Hot-water bottle heater.
Tube attachment for hot-water bottles.
Ice bag.
Invalid chair.
Invalid bed support and rest.
Limb rest.
Medicine dispenser.
Mercury vapor lamp.
Safety medicine bottle.
Sputum cup.
Sterilizer.
i, belts, and supports.

Moistening apparatus for absorbent mate
Arm support.
rials.
Bandage.
Wrapping for hydrotherapeutic purposes.
Bandage and splint.
Bandage, ear.
Abdominal support.
Bandage, foot.
Animal truss.
Bandage, hot water.
Shoulder brace.
Bandage, strap for.
Gentleman’s braces.
Artificial breast.
Pessary.
Dust protector for nose.
Supports.
Knee cushion.
Supporting belt.
Surgical dressing.
Apparatus for folding gauze for surgical Suspensory.
Truss pad.
dressings.
Gauze roller.
D. Stretchers ar invalid carriers.
Ambulance.
Field hospital.

Lifter and conveyor.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

E. Defective foot and limb correctives and aids.
Arch support.
Artificial limb.
Corn shield.
Crutch.
Crutch attachment.

Elastic hose.
Heel protecting device.
Leg protector and support.
Orthopedic appliance for ankle treatment.
Dog’s foot brace and support.

I. Manipulating and flesh reducing mechanism and equipment.
Exerciser.
Flesh-reducing garment.
Manipulating machine.

Portable adjustable table for chiropractic
use.
Thigh reducer.
.
G. Dental equipment.

Crown.
Dental instrument.
Dental casting appliance.
Dentimeter.

Denture.
Filling material.
Tooth mold.

XIX. Safety and sanitation.
A. Life and limb
Car-door safety device.
Safety bar.
Safety appliance for railroads.
Safety device for occupants of vehicles.
Hatchway guard.
Lifeboat, noncapsizing.
Life buoy.
Life preserver.
Life-saving raft.
Parachute garment for aviators.
Signal attachment for life preservers.
Ship, adjustable safety staircase for.
Ship protector.
Swimming belt.
Unsinkable ship.
*
Automatic elevator-door closer.

protection devices.
Safety device for elevators.
Safety equipment for elevator shafts.
Safety-door trap.
Fire escape.
Safety indicator and alarm.
.
Safety device for bathtubs.
Safety guard for gas stoves.
Safety appliance for high chairs.
Guard for printing presses.
Guard.
Heat screen for steam closets.
Portable balcony for window cleaners.
Safety control for power presses.
Ventilating apparatus for chemical desks.

B. Property protection devices.
Auto theft detector.
Fireproof material.
Bank-note tester.
Protected conductor.
Burglar alarm.
Making fireproof conductor.
Door latch and lock, secret.
Ring guard.
Lock.
Safety device for valuables.
Fire alarm.
Smoke dispenser.
Fire hydrant.
Thermostatic alarm.
Fireproof wall.
Water-meter protecting box.
Fireproof wire.
C. Sanitary equipment.
Antiseptic drinking cup.
Disinfecting device.
Apparatus for purifying and filtering
Filtering drinking cup.
water.
Garbage incinerating plant.
Apparatus for sterilizing liquids.
Refuse disposal apparatus.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

C. Sanitary equipment—Continued.
Sterilizer for milk and fruit cars.
Sanitary container cap.
Street sweeper.
Sanitary cuspidor.
Toilet receptacle.
Sanitary toilet scat or cover therefor.
Towel rack and dispenser.
Snow plow.
Ventilating conduit for garbage closets.
Soap-dispensing device.
Water-cooling device.
Spark and soot collector.

XX, XXI, XXII, and XXIII. Inventions concerned with education, arts
and crafts, amusements, and miscellaneous activities.

The four remaining groups of inventions patented by women con
stitute only about 7 per cent of the total number, the largest of the
four embracing inventions designed to enhance the amusement of
young and old. In the list of patented devices constructed to
facilitate play the activity of the mother interests is striking, over
four-fifths of the inventions being concerned with child play. The
activities of teachers also find no small representation among the
inventions listed here. It was particularly interesting to find by
correspondence the number of teaching devices which had been tried
out and patented by women who were themselves engaged in the
teaching profession. One teacher wrote:
My work in school and the great need of interesting, profitable handwork for half
of my little folks at their seats while I gave personal attention to the other half, and
experiments I irifl.de with simil&r deviceSj led. to my invention.

Another woman, a teacher of music, had invented a device for
helping children to learn to read music. This device she was suc
cessfully using in her classes.
_ _
To what extent other devices have been contrived under similar
circumstances, but not patented, it is impossible to estimate; but it
seems likely that in this field particularly, much of women’s inventive
achievement has not been patented and therefore is not a matter of
record.
.
XX. Education.

A. Mechanical aids to teaching.

Applicance or device to be used in teach
ing reading.
Collapsible globe for geography teaching.
Inflatable globe for geography teaching.
Counting apparatus.
Device for teaching fundamental opera
tion with numbers.
Device for teaching number work.
Drill device for facilitating visual in
struction of very young children.
Means of teaching the alphabet.
Means of aiding teaching of spelling.
Means for producing a correct writing
habit.

Educational device.
Arithmetic card game.
Educational game.
Educational playing cards.
Educational toy.
Geographical game.
Kindergarten educational device.
Kindergarten loom.
Method and apparatus for teaching
manuscript forms.

women’s contributions in the held of invention.

B. School furniture and equipment.
Adjustable holder for chalk.
Black board.
Educational board.
Combined book-rack and carrier.
Drawing appliance.

Map.
Other educational apparatus.
School desk.
School register.

C. Musical instruction aids.
Chart.
Rhythm chart.
Device for teaching value of musical
charts.
Combined pitch gauge.
Device for teaching music.
Finger bar.
Individual finger developer.

Indicator for musical instruction.
Key guide.
Musical demonstration board.
Musical notation indicator.
Note reading device.
Staff and key symbol for musical notation.
Tone guide for singers.

XXI. Arts and crafts.
A. Musical instruments and pi
Comet mute.
Hammer action for musical instruments.
Musical instrument.
Piano.
Piano pedal guard.
Stringed musical instrument.
Automatic violin player.
Automatic stop for victrolas.
Attachment for self-playing musical in
struments.
Electric orchestration.

ts and musical mechanical aids.
Illumination means for phonograph
music.
Music roll for piano player.
Player piano and phonograph.
Tone clarifying attachment for sound
reproducing and transmitting instru
ments.
Leaf turner.
Page marker and leaf turner.
Orchestral transposition chart.

B. Artists’and sculptors’ evices and equipment.
Adjustable artist’s desk and easel.
Artist's bottle.
Bas-relief design and making same.
Drawing table.
Etching apparatus.
Folding sketch pad.

Making models in plaster.
Molding device.
Picture and design made from dry earths.
Process of coloring intaglios or molds.
Reproducing outlines of a form.

C. Equipment and devices for. abric and other craft work.
Apparatus for hand weaving.
.
Hand loom.
Rug or carpet loom.
Tension for warp reels and hand looms.
Lace work.
Ornamental work similar to lace or drawn
work.
Lace fastening device.

Lace making holder.
Teneriffe-lace wheel.
Teneriffe disk.
Stenciling device.
Ornamental leather work.
Device for decorating china.
Method of ornamenting china.

women’s contributions in the field of invention.

D. Theater apparatus.
Apparatus for producing illuminated Producing color effects and apparatus
therefor.
motion effects as of rain, snow, fire, or
Production of lighting effect on stage by
smoke.
means of high-tension currents of high
Cannon for acrobatic performance.
Device for producing stage rain.
frequency.
Scenic mechanism.
Fire illusion apparatus.
Notation for indicating lighting effects to Theater stage.
Theater-seat hat holder.
accompany musical sounds
E. Miscellaneous or amentation devices.
Preserving plants, leaves, flowers, and
Flag display device.
butterflies.
Floral canopy.
Landscape made of birds, feathers, and Means for preserving and exhibiting
flowers.
down.
Plate-glass plant.

XXII. Amusement.

A. Children's playthings.
Toys:
Aerial.
Animal.
Buzz ball.
Building.
Camera.
Musical blocks.
Musical instruments.
Printing blocks.
Railway.
Savings bank.
Theater.
Other toys.
Sand box.
Sled.
Slide.
Swing.,

Christmas tree, artificial.
Christmas tree decoration.
Coaster.
Doll.
Doll, paper.
Doll’s head, ear, or eye.
Doll furniture and furnishings.
Game, musical.
Magnetic basket ball game.
Table football.
Game.
Hobby horse.
Holder for sparklers.
Hoop.
House, portable infant’s.
Ice creeper.
Puzzle.

B. Apparatus for adult amusement.
Card game.
.
Playing cards.
Card support for dummy hands.

Score register.
Checker board.
Fortune telling device.

C. Athletic equipment.
Exercising apparatus for children.
Physical culture appliance.
Punching bag apparatus.
Swimming device.
I).

Bedding and bedding roll.
Canopy.
Cooking kit.
Folding camp outfit.
Folding table and lunch kit.

Support for golf bags.
Suspending ring.
Tennis net.
Camping equipment.
Stove and oven, portable.
Table.
Tent pole.
Trailer.

WOMEN S CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE FIELD OE INVENTION.

XXIIL Miscellaneous.
A. Election and registration conveniences.
Folding booth.
Voting booth.

I Voting machine.
| Pocket ballot.
B. Church equipment.

Silencer for communion cup racks.
C. Burial equipment.
Burial garment.
Burial receptacle.
Funeral car.

Hand grasp.
Monument.
Artificial monument.

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PUBLICATIONS OF THE WOMEN’S BUREAU.
BULLETINS.

No. 1. Proposed Employment of Women During the War in the Industries of
Niagara Falls, N. Y. 16 pp. 1918.
No. 2. Labor Laws for Women in Industry in Indiana. 29 pp. 1918.
No. 3. Standards for the Employment of Women in Industry. 7 pp. 1919.
No. 4. Wages of Candy Makers in Philadelphia in 1919. 46 pp. 1919.
No. 5. The Eight Hour Day in Federal and State Legislation. 19 pp. 1919.
No. 6. The Employment of Women in Hazardous Industries in the United States
8 pp. 1919.
No. 7. Night-Work Laws in the United States. 4 pp. 1919.
No. 8. Women in the Government Service. 37 pp. 1920.
No. 9. Home Work in Bridgeport, Connecticut. 35 pp. 1920.
No. 10. Hours and Conditions of Work for Women in Industry in Virginia 32 tin
1920.
6
"
'
No. 11. Women Street Car Conductors and Ticket Agente. 90 pp. 1920.
No. 12. The New Position of Women in American Industry. 158 pp. 1920.
No. 13. Industrial Opportunities and Training for Women and Girls. 48 pp. 1920.
No. 14. A Physiological Basis for the Shorter Working Day for Women. 20 pp. 1921.
No. 15. Some Effects of Legislation Limiting Hours of Work for Women 26 dd
1921.
J1
No. 16. State Laws Affecting Working Women. 1920. 104 pp. 1921.
No. 17. Women’s Wages in Kansas. 1920. 104 pp. 1921.
No. 18. Health Problems of Women in Industry. 11 pp. 1921.
No. 19. Iowa Women in Industry. 73 pp. 1921.
No. 20. Negro Women in Industry. 65 pp. 1921.
No. 21. Women in Rhode Island Industries. 73 pp. 1922.
No. 22. Women in Georgia Industries. 89 pp. 1922.
No. 23. The Family Status of Breadwinning Women. 43 pp. 1922.
No. 24. Women in Maryland Industries. 96 pp. 1922.
No. 25. Women in the Candy Industry in Chicago and St. Louis. 72 pp. 1923.
No. 26. Women in Arkansas Industries. 86 pp. 1922.
No. 27. The Occupational Progress of Women. 37 pp. 1923.
No. 28. Women’s Contributions in the Field of Invention.
No. 29. Women in Kentucky Industries. (In press.)
No. 30. The Share of Wage-Earning Women in Family Support. (In press.)
No. 31. What Industry Means to Women Workers. (In press.)
First Annual Report of the Director. (Out of print.)
Second Annual Report of the Director.
Third Annual Report of the Director.
Fourth Annual Report.

Full text of Women's Contributions in the Field of Invention: A Study of the Records of the United States Patent Office : Women's Bureau Bulletin, No. 28

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