Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/928

Rh which netted her over fifty thousand dollars, and an Illinois woman invented a portable house, which can be carried about in a cart or expressed to the seashore, with folding furniture and a complete camping outfit, and from this she gains a good annual income. A woman in Pennsylvania has invented a barrel-hooping machine which brings her twenty thousand dollars a year. Two California girls are the inventors of a snow plow to be attached to the cow catcher of an engine, and the proceeds from this have well repaid the time and ingenuity given to perfecting their patent. A Maryland woman has distinguished herself by many inventions and among them was the eyeless needle now used so largely by surgeons. Though the sewing-machine was invented by a man there have been some fifty improvements made by women, and these have proved very profitable inventions. The geographical distribution of the inventive talent is also interesting. Most of the women inventors of the country live in New England and the middle states, few patents having been taken out by Southern women.

Quite a number have come from the West. Massachusetts has more inventive women than any other part of New England.

While women have been more or less conspicuous in the fields of literature and education of all countries, from the early history to the present day, we can feel an especial pride in our women inventors. It would be impossible, in this work, to give a complete list, we therefore have selected the more promiment, particularly those who have made inventions along unusual lines for women, mechanical devices and improvements on implements which are not for feminine use but for the benefit of man. We also give short biographies of a few of the most conspicuous women in this line.

The last patent extended under the Act of Congress of March 2, 1861, was that of Henrietta H. Cole, fluting machine.

The first patent found granted to a woman was that to Mary Kies, Killingly, Conn., straw weaving with silk and thread.