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10 mind-blowing products that women invented
Time and again, women have proved their mettle in whatever field they stepped into. Be it reigning supreme in tech industry currently, or appearing in the world's most powerful CEOs list, the fairer sex has done it all.
Here we bring to you a list of ten incredible products that women invented.
Invisible glass
Year of invention: 1935
Who invented it: Katherine Blodgett
After completing her Ph. D, Blodgett started her research on the impact of a single molecule coating on a glass.
During her research, she discovered that a coating of a thin film can completely free the glass from any kind of reflection.
And this is how after months of research, she invented transparent glass, popularly known as the ‘invisible glass’ which can be used in cameras and telescopes for limiting reflection.
Interestingly, she was the first woman to be awarded the doctorate degree by the CambridgeUniversity.
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10 mind-blowing products that women invented
Windshield Wipers
Year of invention: 1903
Who invented it: Mary Anderson
Mary Anderson was an American real estate developer and always had the urge to invent something that could improve vision while driving.
With this thought in mind, she invented a swinging arm device with a rubber blade that could be operated from within the car.
In November 1903 Anderson was granted her first patent for a window cleaning device called the windshield wiper.
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10 mind-blowing products that women invented
White correction fluid
Year of invention: 1956
Who invented it: Bette Nesmith Graham
Bette Nesmith Graham was an employee at the Texas Bank and Trust in Dallas during the 1950’s.
In those days, she worked on an electric type writer and found it extremely difficult to erase mistakes.
One day, while returning home from office, she came across a painter who was erasing his errors with white colour paint.
After observing the artist and his work for a while, Graham realised that even she can use this technique while typing.
And, hence she decided to put some tempera water-based paint in a bottle and started using it with the help of a paint brush to erase mistakes while typing.
Graham secretly used her white correction paint for five years and eventually began marketing her typewriter correction fluid as "Mistake Out" in 1956.
The name was later changed to ‘Liquid Paper’ when she began her own company.
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10 mind-blowing products that women invented
Fire escape
Year of invention: 1887
Who invented it: Anna Connelly
Anna Connelly patented the first fire escape in 1887. Though other fire escapes had been invented before, hers was the basis for modern fire escapes since it had an exterior staircase.
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10 mind-blowing products that women invented
Circular Saw
Year of invention: 1813
Who invented it: Tabitha Babbitt
Tabitha Babbitt was an American tool maker. She invented the circular saw after observing two labourers trying to cut wood with a long two-handled tool standing in opposite directions. The procedure looked very tedious to Babbitt.
Being an efficient tool maker, she realised that a round blade could have been more efficient.
After few months, she invented the first circular saw which was used in a saw mill in 1813.
The saw was hooked up to a water powered machine to reduce efforts while cutting wood.
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10 mind-blowing products that women invented
COBOL computer language
Year of invention: 1950s
Who invented it: Admiral Grace Murray Hopper
Admiral Hopper joined the military in 1943 and was sent to Harvard University, where she worked on IBM's Harvard Mark I computer.
She was the third person to program this computer, and she wrote a manual of operations that helped her juniors too.
Hopper invented the compiler, which translated English commands into computer code. This device helped programmers create codes more easily.
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10 mind-blowing products that women invented
Monopoly
Year of invention: 1906
Who invented it: Elizabeth J Magie Phillips
Philips created the Monopoly game through which she hoped to explain the single tax theory of American economist Henry George.
Later, a series of variant board games based on her concept were developed which involved buying, selling and development of land.
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10 mind-blowing products that women invented
Coloured flares
Year of invention: 1859
Who invented it: Martha Jane Coston
Martha Coston first perfected and later patented her late husband’s idea for developing pyrotechnic flare.
Her husband, a former naval scientist, passed away leaving behind only a rough sketch of plans for the flares.
The US Navy bought the patent rights to the flares.
Coston credited her late husband with the first patent for the flares, but in 1871 she received a patent for an improvement exclusively her own.
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10 mind-blowing products that women invented
Chocolate chip cookies
Year of invention: 1930
Who invented it: Ruth Graves Wakefield
Wakefield developed chocolate cookies accidentally.
While making chocolate cookies, Wakefield ran out of regular baker's chocolate and instead substituted broken pieces of semi-sweet chocolate thinking that they would melt and mix into the batter but it did not and this is how chocolate chip cookie was born.
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10 mind-blowing products that women invented
Dishwasher
Year of invention: 1886
Who invented it: Josephine Cochranemade
Cochrane was a popular rich woman who hosted parties frequently. She often hoped to create a machine which could wash plates for her.
One day, she just measured the dishes, then built wire compartments, each specially designed to fit either plates, cups, or saucers.
The compartments were placed inside a wheel that lay flat inside a copper boiler. A motor turned the wheel while hot soapy water squirted up from the bottom of the boiler and rained down on the dishes.
After this invention, Cochrane became so famous that she started getting orders for her dish washing machine from restaurants in Illinois. She later patented her invention.