5 things you didn't know were invented by women

Can we be honest with ourselves when it comes to inventions? I bet when we talk about inventions in the world we are quick to associate them with men.

This is because the inventions by women are hardly mentioned. But women have contributed to making life easy by inventing things which have stood the test of time. On International Women’s day I bring you five things you did’t know women invented.

Liquid Paper (what is popularly called correction fluid)

We all have this in our office stationary but today meet the woman who invented it- Bette Nesmith Graham. She was just a high school dropout who typed her way to become the executive secretary for the chairman of the board of the Texas Bank and Trust. In the 1950s the electric typewriter was the new thing, but typists had to retype a whole page because of a tiny mistake.

One day Bette watched observed a painter correct a mistake with another layer of paint and thought this could apply to her typing mistakes. So she mixed up tempera paint with dye similar to her companies stationary and used water color brush to correct her errors. Soon it became a sensation as more and more secretaries clamoured for it. She later renamed the product Liquid Paper and patented it in 1958.

Square-bottom paper bag

Margaret Knight is not the one to invent paper bags but she is the one to make it more useful. The paper bags before her invention were not what is now used at the grocery store. Knight new that if the bottom of the paper bag is squared and the weight distributed evenly, it could carry more items.

She created a machine which could cut, fold and glue square bottom to paper bags. Her design was later stolen by a man named Charles Annan. She filed a patent interference suit against Annan who insisted a woman couldn’t have come up with such an idea. But Knight won the suit after she showed her notes and sketches on the invention.

Dishwasher

After having her plates broken on several occasions, Josephine Cochrane had to do something about it. So the socialite invented the dishwasher. The initial idea was to save her expensive plates. The machine relied on a high water pressure directed at a rack of dishes. She received a patent for it in 1886.

Windshield Wiper

In 1903 Mary Anderson received a patent for the Windscreen invention. How did she come up with this invention? She had come to New York and quickly realized that drivers had to stop every couple of minutes to clear the snow on their windscreens.

She went home and attached a squeegee to a spindle which was attached to the inside of the car. In ten years, thousands of cars had her invention.

Kevlar

Stephanie Kwolek originally wanted to go to medical school, but she took a job as a researcher at DuPong Company. She later invented Kevlar a material used in bulletproof vests, bridges etc which was patented in 1966.

Do you know more inventions by women? Share in the comment section.