Out of frustration, Josephine Cochrane invented the dishwasher. She'd been angry that hired domestic help continually broke and chipped her fine china. Cochrane's dishwasher used high water pressure aimed at a wire rack of dishes, she received a patent for it in 1886.
During this era, most houses didn't have the technology of a hot water system to run such a machine, but Cochrane persisted and sold her idea to hotels and restaurants. Eventually dishwashers moved into households as more and more women entered the workplace.
#2 Mary Phelps Jacob: The Modern Brassiere
Jacobs was awarded a US patent in 1914 for a Brassiere that supported the breasts up from the shoulders and separated them into two individual shapes. People had experimented with making Brassieres before, but it was the idea of "separating the breasts," that made her design unique.
Prior to Brassieres (or bras) women’s undergarments were uncomfortable. Containing whalebones and steel rods, they virtually squeezed the wearer into "shape". Jacobs' design was in contrast, soft and light, conforming to the wearer’s anatomy.
During WWI her bra design became popular when the U.S. government requested that women stop purchasing corsets in order to conserve metal. Although by this time Jacobs had sold the patent to Warner Brothers Corset Company.
#3 Grace Hopper: BM-Harvard Mark 1
Admiral Dr. Grace Murray Hopper is known as the "mother of computers"! After WWII, Hopper was stationed at Harvard, where she worked on the development of the IBM-Harvard Mark 1, the first large-scale computer in the U.S.
Dr. Hopper also invented the compiler, which translates written language into computer code. She coined the term "bug" for a computer problem, and co-developed COBOL, the first user-friendly business computer software program.
As a woman inventor, she won numerous awards, including the National Medal of Technology in 1991. By the time she passed away, Dr. Hopper had received honorary degrees from 30 universities.
#4 Mary Anderson: The Windshield Wiper
Can you imagine, in the early 1900s if it was raining or snowing, drivers had to stop every few blocks to wipe their windshields?! Mary Anderson solved that. Although cars were rare at the time, Anderson took a notice to the situation and by 1903 she invented the wipers. It was the ingenious squeegee on a spindle attached to a handle inside the car. All the driver had to do to clear the windshield was pull down on a handle.
People were initially leery of Anderson's windshield wiper, thinking it would distract drivers, but 10 years after she patented the device, virtually every car used her invention. Also did you know, it was a woman inventor who first patented the automatic windshield wiper in 1917? It was Charlotte Bridgwood and her, "Storm Windshield Cleaner".
#5 Hedy Lamarr: Secret Communications System
The patented "Secret Communications Systems" in 1941, manipulated radio frequencies with an unbreakable code to prevent classified messages from being intercepted by enemy.
Lamarr was raised in Austria and married a millionaire, who was a Nazi sympathizer and arms dealer to Hitler during WWII. While married, she learned about advanced weaponry as she accompanied her husband to business meetings.
She grew to despise the Nazis as well as her husband and eventually escaped to London and then to the U.S. The device she invented with Anthiel was meant to be used against the Nazis in WWII, but in actuality it came into use 20 years later.
#6 Margaret Knight: The "Queen" of Paper Bags
Before the paper bag, the 1st version was shaped like an envelope, with no flat bottom. How were you supposed to fit your sandwich into that? Knight solved this by creating a machine to cut, fold, and glue square bottoms to paper bags!
She gained a patent for it in 1871, but not without a lawsuit against a fellow who stole her idea. His defense was "a woman could never design such an innovative machine," but she had the drawings to prove the invention was in fact hers and she won the case.
Knight's career with inventions started at age 12, when she developed a stop-motion device that immediately brought industrial machines to a halt if something was caught in them. Over the course of her lifetime, she was awarded over 26 patents.
#7 Tabitha Babbitt: The Circular Saw
In the early 1800s, two men were required to work a lumber saw by pulling and pushing, back and forth. But thanks to a woman, the process became much simpler. In 1813, Tabitha Babbitt created the circular saw!
Babbitt's saw was circular so that the teeth would continue cutting, unlike the straight saws that only cut on the pull, and not the push motion. We also commonly use her other building innovations, like machine-cut nails instead of individually hand-crafted nails.
As a Massachusetts Shaker community member, she helped create tool innovations for furniture making. It's said that while she lived a simple Shaker life, Babbitt never applied for patents.
#8 Stephanie Kwolek: Bullet Proof Vests
Stephanie Kwolek invented Kevlar, a tough durable material now used to make bulletproof vests. For years she'd worked on the process at DuPont and in 1963, she got the polymers or rod-like molecules in fibers to line up in one direction.
This made the material stronger than others, where molecules were arranged in bundles. In fact, the new material was as strong as steel! Kwolek's technology also went on to be used for making suspension bridge cables, helmets, brake pads, skis, and camping gear.
#9 Rachel Zimmerman: The Blissymbol Printer
What is the Blissymbol Printer? It's a software program invented by a Canadian 12-year-old in the mid-1980s. Zimmerman's printer enables those with severe physical disabilities like cerebral palsy, to communicate.
The user records their thoughts by touching symbols on a page or board through the use of a special touch pad, the printer then translates the symbols into a written language.
Zimmerman's system started as a project for a school science fair, but ended up competing and winning a silver medal in a nationwide contest, as well as gaining her the YTV Television Youth Achievement Award.
#10 Bette Nesmith Graham: Liquid Paper
The inventor of "Liquid Paper" or as we may know it, "White-Out" was Betty Nesmith Graham.
Graham got an idea she'd seen done by sign painters, which was to add another layer of paint to cover-up mistakes. She used a kitchen blender to mix-up her first batch of substance to cover-up over mistakes made on paper at work. After much experimenting and then being fired for spending so much time distributing her product as a trial, she received a patent in 1958. Wow!
