From the electric battery of Alessandro Volta on the radio of Guglielmo Marconi passing by the phone of Meucci It seems that revolutionary inventions have been created only by men … and women? We take advantage of March, the Women's Month, to give a touch more to the clichés and remind us that different scientific discoveries or technological innovations have been conceived by the intelligence of brilliant women. Scientists or scholars, but also housewives, who have positively changed our daily lives through their visionary approach. Women who have influenced progress thanks to great ideas are many, many, simply less known: like the windshield wipers Mary Anderson or the first computer software of Grace Murray Hopper. Girl power, wit and brain are the special ingredients that have allowed unique women to have the right intuition to make everyday life easier, especially in the kitchen.
Josephine Cochrane's dishwasher
Every night when we come back tired from work or after a happy convivial Sunday, the dishwasher is the small domestic miracle that saves us. We have to thank Josephine Garis Cochrane which in 1886 patented the first dishwasher consisting of a manually operated pump system. After about seven years of tests and improvements, the machine is exposed to the World's Columbian Exposition of Chicago achieving such a success as to induce the inventor to open his factory, the Garis-Cochran Dish-Washing Machine Company, then acquired by the Whirlpool Corporation. We do not think of her as one desperate housewife At the turn of the century, Josephine Cochrane was a rich one socialite American who liked to organize dinners and stove to see his precious dishes washed coarsely in large containers of water or break into the hands of clumsy domestic, he put to use his need. Santa right away.
Margaret Knight's paper bag
Sometimes there are everyday objects that we take for granted, just like paper bags. Then there is that fancy genius in more that sees beyond: just as he did Margaret Knight in 1860, designing a machine to produce flat-bottomed paper bags, very useful and timeless. A (pre) see the importance of the invention is Charles Annan, who runs to deposit the patent before the original inventor, who is forced to sue. The man, strong in the misogyny of time, supports his reason by stating that no woman could have conceived something so complex. Fortunately, Margaret Knight was able to prove that the prototype was her own by lawyers, tests and sketches. It certainly did not stop: in the American registers there are as many as 87 patents in its name and is part of the National Inventors Hall of Fame since 2006.
The pedal bin and the electric blender by Lillian Gilbreth
Let's start from the end: Lillian Gilbreth she is the first woman to enter the National Academy of Engineering, or the prestigious national engineering academy of the United States of America. Also called the Lady Of Engineering, employs psychology studies to improve management productivity, even at home. Mother of 12 children and brilliant mind, she studies the essential gestures of everyday life and then applies them to engineering and invent important tools such as the pedal bin and the electric blender. Every time we manage to throw something despite occupied hands or prepare one smoothie, it is she who we must thank!
The modern Florence Parpart refrigerator
The use of cold for food storage has been a well-established practice for centuries, but the transition from ice to refrigerator as we know it today is relatively recent. The first patent of the refrigerating machine dates back to 1851 and is registered by the US John Gorrie, then outclassed in the 10th century from the first domestic refrigerator built in 1915 by Alfred Mellowes. Even Albert Einstein, together with Leó Szilárd, he deals with it by inventing a refrigerator with no moving parts in 1930. Fortunately, from the census records and from the patent applications of the US government, a feminine name is given: Florence Parpart. It is his 1914 patent for the modern refrigerator, which makes the icebox obsolete for those who can use electricity. She seems to be engaged to a good electrician, who assists her in the design of the first prototype. Then it will be thanks to its pioneering marketing vision between advertising campaigns and participation in fairs, to realize the dream.
Nancy Johnson's ice cream maker
Imagine how hard and laborious it would be to work with the hand trowel in old ice-cold sorbets with the mixture of ice and salt. Just insert a crank over the container of the sorbettiera to turn the mixture and the fatigue disappears: this is the brilliant thought of Nancy Johnson, American of Philadelphia. The patent is filed September 9, 1843 and still absolutely current, even after the advent of electric ice cream makers.
The mop of Joy Mangano
Interpreted by Jennifer Lawrence in the film that they dedicated to her in 2015, Joy Mangano it is the perfect embodiment of the American dream. Born in 1956, New Yorker born of Italian-American parents, single mother with three children, now a successful entrepreneur. Thanks to his pragmatism (and his degree in business administration), in 1990 he invented the Miracle Mop, known in Italy as the floor mop with bucket that allows it to be squeezed without getting your hands wet. A brilliant intuition driven by enterprising activities such as teleshopping that made Joy Mangano a millionaire. "San inventor. When I'm designing a product, all I have in mind is, how can you simplify your life? I guess it's just the way I look at things", Simplify her.
