Next time you use your windshield wipers, central heat or Wi-Fi, thank these women.
Although they might not receive the same accolades and recognition as male visionaries, women inventors have helped shape the modern world in countless ways. Notable innovators like Ada Lovelace, who is considered the world’s first programmer, have paved the way for today’s technologies. Others, like Stephanie Kwoleck, have improved safety with inventions like Kevlar, which is five times stronger than steel and used to make bulletproof vests and combat helmets.
1. Central Heat Back in Alice H. Parker’s era at the turn of the twentieth century, people still had to sit next to a fireplace in order to warm up on a cold day. Seeking to devise a way of heating up a whole house during chilly winters in her home state of New Jersey, Parker designed a system for using natural gas to bring heat to an entire home. She patented her design in 1919 and it inspired the heating zone system that modern homes use today.
The invention of the sports bra had a tremendous effect: It allowed more women and girls to feel confident engaging in sports, and it signaled to other retailers that there was a massive market for women’s athletic wear. 5. Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator Personality Test Are you an INJF or an ESTP? The fact that we can use these acronyms to discuss our quirky personalities is all thanks to a mother-daughter duo, Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers. The test is meant to determine specific aspects of a person’s personality and assign an acronym to the combination of traits that make us who we are.
8. Coffee Filters If you’re a coffee lover, you can thank Melitta Bentz for keeping those bitter grounds out of your morning cup of joe. From her kitchen in Dresden, Germany, Bentz invented coffee filters using a piece of blotting paper from her son’s notebook and punching holes in a brass pot. Then she put the pot over a cup, which allowed filtered coffee to drip into it. She received the coffee filter patent in 1908 and Melitta coffee filters are still sold today.
11. Windshield Wipers Noticing that streetcar drivers had to open their windows in order to see during inclement weather, sometimes even stopping to manually clear their windshields, inventor Mary Anderson came up with the idea for windshield wipers. Her idea, which she patented in 1903, consisted of a lever inside the vehicle that controlled a spring-loaded arm with a rubber blade. The windshield wiper was eventually adapted for cars as personal vehicles became more popular.
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