Technikatörténeti szemle 15. (1985)

TANULMÁNYOK - Amram, M. Fred: Women’s contributions to the history of technology

The final theme to be discussed in this paper is the issue of individual personality. Conceptualizing a new idea involves substantial risk. Sharing the new idea involves a greater risk. Applying for a patent and entering the competetive marketplace again requires the ability to take extraordinary personal and financial risks. Not many human beings have the emotional security needed by the productive/creative individual. Men, however, have a great many more models of daring individuals with whom to identify than do women. That must be changed. A good way to introduce girls and young women to invention as woman's work is by indentifying well known persons as inventors. For example, it is not well known that the famous actress Lillian Russell invented a dresser-trunk which involved several mechanical and electrical innovations. The well known Dorothy Rodgers (wife of composer Richard Rodgers) invented a tpilet mop with disposable swab and trademarked its name, „Jonny Mop". She sold the patent at great profit to the Johnson and Johnson Company which marketed the popular mop for many years. Mrs. Rodgers also invented a method of making dress patterns so they can be altered on a sewing machine and reused. The concept was sold to McCall Patterns from which she collected fees for many years. Mrs. Rodgers alsd patented an educational toy which was sold to the Ideal Toy Company. The currently famous actress Julie Newmar can be a fine model of woman as inventor. She has several successful patents for improvements in bras and pantyhose. Startling or popular products or processes can also be used to call attention to the diversity of technological changes introduced by women. Marguerite Shue-wen Chang has at least eight patents to her credit including one for the device that triggered an underground nuclear explosive in a 1969 Atomic Energy Commission test. Dr. Ruth Benerito helped make modern cotton resistant to creasing, oil, dust, and water. She is recognized as a pioneer in the development of wash-and-wear cotton. The 1979 national Inventor of the Year was the chemist Barbara Askins. The award was for her process of intensifying negatives. The process had application in long distance photography, enhancing old pictures, correcting photography errors, and in X-Ray development. Women need organized efforts to display their innovations. The 1876 Women's Building at the American Centennial Exposition did much to provide models of women inventors. The world had yet another introduction to the creativity of women at the Women's Building of the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. Yet another such opportunity is currently being planned for 1992. Organizations such as The Society of Women Engineers and the Aerospace Women's Committee provide more than support. They introduce the world to women who work in applied science and thereby model to younger women the concept of woman as engineer — even inventor. Taking risks — daring — can be learned if women's self-perception is modified. In her incredibly through history, The Underside of History: A View of Women Through Time, Elise, Boulding writes Women think of things in small scale, and if they have to turn attention to large-scale systems, they have to train for it... women