Idea Design Studio salutes women inventors
throughout history. Here are a few favorite inventions that were created by
women. You may be surprised to learn about some of the origins of these popular
items.
1.
Circular Saw – In 1810, Tabitha
Babbitt, a member of the Shaker community in Massachusetts, created new way to
cut wood. Instead of the pit saw, which required two people, the circular saw
only needed one. Babbitt never applied for a patent, due to her religious
beliefs.
2.
Chocolate Chip Cookies – Ruth
Wakefiled, a dietitian and food lecturer, stumbled across the time-tested
recipe in 1930. Wakefield and her husband had purchased an old toll house
outside of Boston. She used a Nestle chocolate bar, and later Nestle began
selling Toll House Real Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels with Wakefield’s recipe on
the back.
3.
Liquid Paper – Bette Nesmith
Graham was the executive secretary of the Texas Bank and Trust when the
electric typewriter was introduced. As secretaries were having to retype entire
pages due to one error, Graham realized there was a problem. Using paint as
inspiration, she mixed up a water-based paint with dye that matched the
stationary. She was then able to fix mistakes quickly. Later fired for spending
too much time focusing on the product, she received a patent in 1958 for the
product.
4.
Square-bottomed paper bags –
The original paper bag was pretty useless, it was shaped like an envelope and
didn’t have much space. Margaret Knight fixed that and added a square bottom,
allowing more things to be carried when evenly distributing weight. In 1870 she
created a machine to cut, fold, and glue the bottoms to bags. She had to fight
for her patent, but was granted it in 1871. She was awarded more than 20
patents.
Women have proven extremely creative
throughout history and many things we use every day can be attributed to women
inventors. Idea Design Studio is excited to help each and every inventor take
their creation to completion.