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VOL. 4, 2009 |
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INVENTRESSES AMONG US
MARIE CURIE AND HEDY LAMARR ...both "inventresses," but one won two Nobel prizes |
Do female inventors get enough credit from us?
of TheColumnists.com
Q. Ms. Pat Pending of Eureka. CA writes: “Ever since I graduated from Cal Tech, I have identified myself as an inventress (female inventor). I have several patents on electrical improvements and new devices in my name. Most recently I came up with a winner: a hand held monitor to locate misplaced reading glasses. A major national optical chain was very interested because they are expecting a huge demand for such glasses by the aging baby boomer population. It was easy for me: place a microchip in the earpiece of the glasses and a sleek, easy-to-hold monitor. The monitor beeps with increasing intensity and finally breaks into song (“Ah Sweet Mystery of Life at Last I Found You”) when it is right near the lost glasses. Also, a LED light in the monitor brightens at the same time so that the hearing impaired can use it as well.*
This time, I thought I found my way to
fame and fortune. The optical chain was so interested that they
test-marketed my “Where’s Opto” glasses in the
Midwest. After a few months, I received a rejection letter from
them saying that purchasers still experienced the same problems--but
this time they couldn’t find their monitors.
Which brings me to my question:
Are women second-rate citizens among the world’s great inventors?”*
A. Congratulations Ms. Pending, you have invented a new word! But we are concerned that the supporters of feminine causes would frown upon "inventress," just as they have pressured actresses to call themselves actors.* But why stop at inventress? Go back to the thirties of last century and call yourself a 'inventrix' (Amelia Earhart was a famed 'aviatrix') or worse, an 'inventorette." Stick with 'inventor', and be proud of it.
Don't sell your fair gender short. Had
you been a veteran reader of the Almanac (Almanac VII, 1999)
you would know that around 91,000B.C. an Alpha Neanderthal woman
named Nag developed the concept of the wheel.** Women were, for the most
part, totally suppressed–denied education or training. Nevertheless,
thousands of
innovations in domestic chores–spinning wool and other fabrics,
pottery wheels and cleaning–but beginning in the 19^th Century,
women inventions started to bloom and in the 20th Century, exploded
with ingenious discoveries and scientific breakthroughs.
We all know about the exploits of Marie
Curie, who discovered radioactive elements and was the first
woman to receive a Nobel Prize (for physics)--and another one
eight years later for chemistry. But did you know about other
women Nobel Laureates in the
sciences? Now, there are a dozen others.***
In the USA, women inventors are certainly
not "Janie-come-latelies." The first woman to register
a patent (Mary Dixon Kies) goes back to 1809. She created a method
to weave straw with silk or other threads. First Lady Dolly Madison
took time out from her ice cream business to praise Ms. Kies
for helping to strengthen America's hat
industry. Early on, women were also involved in non-domestic
inventions: a submarine telescope and lamp (1845), pyrotechnic
flares for naval communication (1860-1870), the machinery for
making the flat-bottom paper bag (still in use today!), the windshield
wiper (1903) and the first automatic dishwasher (1889)–her
company later affiliated with KitchenAid. Subsequent years brought
big breakthroughs in women inventors saving thousands of lives
through medical discoveries to improve diagnoses, develop new
medications and techniques to fight disease. Under the category
of saving lives,
let's all doff our caps to American chemist Stephanie Kwolek
who late in the 1960's developed Kevlar–a fiber that is
five times stronger than steel in equivalent weight. Her bullet-proof
vests are standard issue for police and the armed forces–saving
untold lives
over the years.
Women inventors were also on the cusp of the atomic and electronic revolutions that highlighted the past 50 or 60 years. Ever hear about Rear Admiral Grace Hopper? She was a mathematician who invented the computer compiler–essential to translating human instruction to machine code. She and her team developed COBOL, the first user-friendly business programming language. And then there was Madam Chieng-Shiung Wu. No she was not a James Bond movie temptress. She was a Shanghai-born nuclear physicist and member of America's super-secret Manhattan Project during WWII. She is credited with inventions to separate Uranium isotopes and later helped develop more sensitive Geiger counters to detect radiation–but not, we assume for your sake, lost eyeglasses. More recently, we can credit Randice-Lisa Altschul for the invention of the disposable cell phone.****
Let us not forget that one of the most
amazing and storied scientific achievements rests on the silken
shoulders of actress Hedy Lamarr,***** arguably Hollywood's
most beautiful film star of her time. The gorgeous seductress
of the 30s, 40s, 50's–together
with a friend, George Antheill, who was a avant garde composer
and musician-- nvented an electronic radio communication system
that operated with split-second frequency changes to defy detection.
This anti-jamming system, patented in 1942, was probably two
decades ahead of its time. Three years after their patent expired
the Navy was using their system on their vessels and subsequent
patents for frequency changing cknowledge the Lamarr-Antheill
as the base for their improvements. Their anti-jamming concept
is still in use in defense of our country, although the Lamarr-Anteil
team never received a dime in royalty payments.
And so, Ms. Pending, don't despair. If we can now find lost autos, lost kids and lost pets electronically, can spectacles be far behind? There are tens of thousands of female inventors out there ready to help.
____________________________________________________________________________
* Hollywood's studio­philosopher, Oscar Gold, observed recently that women in the film community who like to refer to themselves as "actors,” revert willingly to being actresses when outstanding acting awards are being considered.
**
Nag lived a cave in the foothills of Mt. Carmel in what is now
Israel. She tried to convince the hunting males that they could
save time and energy if they put large game on logs and roll
their kill uphill. But they didn't and wouldn't. She hated her
cave life and despised the tribal males who were all morons with
posture problems. She escaped and found a cave occupied by Homo
Erectus folk. She found a mate, Hulk, and their progeny thrived
ever since. In about 30,000 B.C. a direct descendent of Nag--a
woman named Noodge, together with her mate, Axl, put together
the first crude two-wheel
pushcart.
***
One Laureate, honored in 1977, Dr. Rosalyn Sussman Yalow is being
considered for the Baseball Hall of Fame. She and her colleague,
Dr. Soloman A. Berson, invented a process (RIA) to chemically
analyze human blood to detect drug use, as well as diabetes,
high blood pressure, infertility and countless other conditions
and diseases. Babe Ruth and Roger Maris owe her big time!
Another Laureate, biochemist Gertrude Elion, has 45 patents for
medications that fight herpes infections, leukemia and protecting
patients who had organ transplants./
****
Ms. Altschul, certainly not a household name in most precincts,
but in Mexico the powerful Executive Committee of Drug Cartel
Leaders recently recognized her as “Woman of the Year.”
The spokesman for the Committee, Drug-lord Antonio Leonardo de
Poppiosa-Rosa, known throughout the Americas as “El Snorto,”
declared that Ms. Altschul's disposable cell phone “has
been a boon to our industry in carrying day-to-day transactions
and in ordering the necessary steps to eliminate competitors
and innocent bystanders.”
*****
Hedy really was some piece of work! Hedwick Eva Maria Keisler
was born in Vienna, the daughter of prosperous Jewish parents.
She studied ballet but turned to acting in Europe and starred
in the film 'Ecstasy' (1933), which gained worldwide notoriety
as having the first nude scene in film history. Guess who who
was running
through the woods in the buff? She was known by some detractors
at that time as “Europe's most beautiful whore.” She
conspired with her maid to drug her first husband--a dominating
pro-fascist arms manufacturer–to escape to London where
she was offered a contract by MGM. In the USA she had six other
marriages to feather her cap and bore two children for one of
them.
©2009 by Sid Frigand. The illustration is from IMSI's Master
Clips Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506,
USA. This column first posted June 29, 2009.
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