North Idaho Alliance Women of Impact: Women inventors of everyday items
Marilee Wallace
I love coffee. I really do. That first sip in the morning brings me comfort and starts my daily routine of reading the paper, journaling and plotting out my day. The other day I discovered (to my dismay) that the 3,000,000 white coffee filters I bought at Costco were all used up. I had to have my coffee so I “invented” a filter from a paper towel which worked OK, but not the best and I thought, who invented the much ignored but absolute necessity in my life the coffee filter? Turns out a woman did (of course), so here’s some summer fun on women inventors on everyday items we can’t live without from facts I found written by Katie Wolber:
Melitta Bentz, a German entrepreneur, invented the coffee filter in 1908. Bentz was often bothered by the coffee grounds in her cup of coffee. To remedy this, she used a piece of blotting paper from her son’s notebook as a filter. In June 1908, Bentz was granted a patent for her innovation, the “coffee filter.” Shortly afterward, she started a business to sell this product on a larger scale.
WI-FI — Hedy Lamarr was both an inventor and a Hollywood actress. In 1941, Lamarr filed a patent for frequency-hopping technology, and although she has been acknowledged for her contributions, she never received any compensation for it. This frequency-hopping technology was the predecessor to what we now know as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. These inventions are now used globally every day.
REFRIGERATOR — Florence Parpart was an inventor who created the modern electric refrigerator in 1914, as well as a new and improved street cleaning machine. Following these inventions, Parpart was largely successful in marketing and selling her refrigerators to the public.
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES — Ruth Wakefield purchased an old toll house in Massachusetts that she turned into a lodge called the Toll House Inn. One day while making cookies for her guests at the inn, she ran out of baker’s chocolate and substituted it with bits from a chocolate bar. She expected the chocolate would melt into the dough in the oven, but instead was surprised to find that the chocolate mostly held its shape and softened into a creamy texture. Her chocolate chip cookie recipe became very popular at her inn and was published in Boston newspapers. Soon after, she made a deal with the Nestle Chocolate Company, allowing them to print her recipe on their products in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate.
DISHWASHER — Josephine Cochrane enjoyed having lots of guests over for dinner parties at her house, but realized that her plates kept getting chipped when they were scrubbed too hard. In 1886, she received a design that used water jets to spray the dishes and had a dish rack to hold the tableware in place. Other people had attempted to design similar machines at the time but none before hers had been commercially successful for use in people’s houses. Cochrane’s company eventually became KitchenAid, part of the Whirlpool Corporation that makes many of today's modern dishwashers.
And yes, a chocolate chip cookie is an everyday necessity I can’t live without. Enjoy the rest of your summer.
The Women of Impact Leadership Roundtable meets once a month for a nine-month series beginning each September through May. Our details are at www.theniallaince.com or join https://www.facebook.com/groups/972216519983800
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Marilee Wallace, IOM, president/CEO of the North Idaho Alliance Women of Impact.
