Mothers of Invention

Thought for the day:  To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk. [Thomas Edison]

Thomas Edison is kinda the quintessential inventor, along with a long list of other men you can probably name. Well, Plato may have said Necessity is the mother of invention, but I'm here to tell you that women, who may or may not have been mothers, can and have come up with some pretty doggone amazing inventions, too... things you may have incorrectly assumed were the brain children of men.

The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot. The guy who invented the other three, he was the genius. [Sid Caesar]

For example, men have been the undisputed leaders in the automotive industry, but it was a woman named Margaret Wilcox, who made riding in an automobile more cozy with her 1893 invention of the car heater. Thanks to her device, which blew air over the top of the hot engine to warm the tootsies of nineteenth century motorists, women no longer got cold feet when it came to taking a spin with their fellas. Alas, her other invention of the combined clothes and dishwasher didn't catch on, possibly because people weren't enthralled with the idea of their soiled undies sharing a basin with their dinner plates. (Picky, picky, picky.) Another innovation that greatly improved motor vehicles was Mary Anderson's 1903 invention of the windshield wiper. True, we no longer have to manipulate a lever by hand to sweep a rubber blade over the windshield, but her ideas cleared the way for motorized versions.

I don't think necessity is the mother of invention. Invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness— to save oneself trouble. [Agatha Christie]

[wikimedia]

To save oneself trouble? Maybe, but what's wrong with creating labor-saving devices? Like the dishwasher, for example. It should come as no surprise that a woman invented that. I mean, really. It was probably much easier for Josephine Cochran to invent the machine in 1887 than it was to get her husband's keister out in the kitchen to lend her a hand. The story has it that she and her husband liked to throw dinner parties, and she was so angry to find her servants had chipped some of her fine china while washing it after one of those parties, she swore they would never handle it again. (Somehow, I don't believe they were terribly upset at the thought of shedding this chore, do you?) That resulted in her spending time with her hands plunged into hot soapy water, a task she disliked so much, she turned her attention toward inventing something that could solve her problem. When other ladies weren't interested in purchasing her amazing machine, (Why should they? That's why they had servants...) she marketed it to hotels and restaurants. Even created a company to keep up with demand, which later became part of Kitchen Aid.

[wikimedia]

A woman is also credited with inventing the first electrical refrigerator. Florence Parpart accomplished this wondrous feat in 1914, and I'm sure her inspired creation had nothing to do with the fact that her ice man may have cometh late one time too many.

If you've read any of the studies about how the opinion of men and women differs when it comes to a comfortable room temperature, you shouldn't be surprised a woman name Alice Parker, who was probably sick and tired of having to wear a sweater in her own house, came up with the idea for gas-powered central heating in 1919. Although her unit was never manufactured, her idea allowed for the use of natural gas to heat homes, leading to the systems still used today. I thought, perhaps, that a menopausal woman might have come up with the first air conditioning unit, but I was wrong. It was a guy named Willis Carrier. ( Inspired by his wife or mother's hot flashes, perhaps...?)

[photo credit: Dupont Corporation]

Let's consider a few inventions made by the fairer sex that addressed some safety concerns, shall we? In this picture is Stephanie Kwolek, the brilliant chemist who discovered kevlar in 1965... the five times stronger than steel material that is used to make bullet-proof vests. Then there's Anna Connelly, who invented the fire escape in 1887, a lifesaver for countless apartment-dwelling people all over the world. Just as important as a means of safe escape from a burning building, so too is the safe escape from a sinking ship. Maria Beasley provided that with her invention of a life raft in 1880. She also invented a foot warmer, a steam generator, an anti-derailment device for trains, and a machine that makes barrels. She bore no responsibility, however, for the idiots who chose to crawl inside of one of those nifty barrels to plunge over Niagara Falls.

[photo credit: Harvard school of design library]

Think solar panels are a recent innovation? Think again. Chemist Dr. Maria Telkes was experimenting with solar energy from 1939 until '53. In addition to her many other accomplishments, her successful and much-acclaimed Dover Sun House, built in 1949, was the first home built that employed her solar heating system. Telkes is on the left, and at right is Eleanor Raymond, the architect who worked with her to make the house a reality.

[wikipedia]

Anybody else remember working with room-sized computers? Yeah, we really have come a long way, baby. In the '40s, Dr. Grace Murray Hopper, who in addition to being a computer scientist, was also a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy, invented COBOL, the first user-friendly computer software for businesses. She is allegedly also the first person to use the word bug in referring to a computer system glitch... and with good reason. She literally found a live bug inside of her computer... to be specific, a moth... which was wreaking havoc with the system.

[wikipedia]

This is a rather romantic-looking portrait of Ada Lovelace, the only legitimate child of Lord Byron. She, too, was a writer, but she was also a mathematician. She worked with Charles Babbage on an early mechanical general-purpose computer called the Analytical Engine, and her notes revealed the first algorithm intended to be carried out by machine, making her the world's first known computer programmer. (circa 1842)

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world– those who understand binary, and those who don't. 

[wikipedia]

The Analytical Engine, which is currently housed in London's Science Museum.

[wikipedia ]

Old movie buffs may recognize the oh-so glamorous Hedy Lamarr from this 1940 photo of her from MGM. But she was far from being just a pretty face. During WWII, she devised a jam-proof radio guidance system for torpedoes. Based on spread spectrum frequency-hopping, this innovative technology paved the way for everything from WiFi to GPS.

Here's another invention you might be surprised to know came from a woman. Closed circuit TV. In the sixties, Marie Van Brittain Brown worked as a New York nurse, and often worked the night shift, leaving her home alone during the day in a neighborhood riddled with crime and a notoriously slow police response time. With her husband Albert, she devised a device in 1969 comprised of a movable camera that could peer through any of  four peepholes in the front door, and sent the images to a monitor in her bedroom. Not only could she move the camera to see who was at the door, she could communicate with them verbally, remotely unlock the door, and hit an alarm button, if need be.

[wikipedia]

Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson has been at the forefront of an impressive number of innovations in telecommunications technology. Things like portable fax machines, touchtone telephones, solar cells, fiber optic cables, and the technology behind caller ID and call-waiting. This nuclear physicist has done research with the Fermi National Accelerator Labs, was a visiting scientist at CERN, worked at Bell Laboratories, and taught at Rutgers University. She also chaired the Nuclear Regulation Commission, and has been the president of the Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute since 1999. (whew!)

[wikicommons]

This game board remind you of anything? It's The Landlord's Game, created by Elizabeth Magio in 1904 as a tool to teach about the injustices of unchecked capitalism. She was denied a patent when she first applied for it, on the basis that the game was too complicated. Didn't stop others from building on her idea to create their own versions of it... including Charles Darrow, who successfully sold his game to Parker Brothers as Monopoly in 1934, and allegedly made millions of dollars. As for Ms. Magio, the company later compensated her, too, to the tune of five hundred bucks.

Another gal who almost had her idea stolen is Margaret Knight, who invented a machine in 1871 that folded and glued paper to make square-bottomed bags. The cad who tried to steal her idea claimed that no woman could invent something so brilliant. Luckily for her, not only was she brilliant enough to invent the machine, she was also brilliant enough to be able to prove it. Not only was she the first woman to get a patent in the United States, she became the holder of 87 of them in her lifetime, including one for a safety device for cotton mills, which she invented at the age of twelve, and which is still used today. Yep, when it came to her smarts, she had it... in the bag.

Ninkasi, Sumerian goddess of brewing and beer [wikipedia]

Women are also credited with some rather fun creations, too. Like an ice cream maker! Nancy Johnson came up with that one in 1843, and thanks to her, we can all enjoy a gallon pint nice little dessert dish of ice cream whenever we'd like.

Okay, if you men aren't duly impressed with any of the items mentioned thus far, maybe this one will make you sit up and take notice. According to beer historians, (Who even knew there was such a thing?!) Mesopotamian women were the first to develop, sell, and drink... beer.

Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.  [Dave Barry]


                                       Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

Thanks to Mr. Whyatt for graciously granting permission to post his cartoons on my blog from time to time.

Feeling Groovy

Thought for the day: The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.  [Mark Twain]

Well, if you want to be technical, nobody actually said I was dead... but the lovely Mary Pax did tag my toe. So to speak. If you don't know Mary, you should. Not only is she a very sweet gal, she's also a very talented writer. Science fiction kinda stuff. Stuff I didn't think I liked... until I read her books. Really. Good stuff. You should check it out.

So anyhow, this meme she tagged me with is fairly simple. She said I didn't have to participate, but then bless her sneaky little heart, she said she hoped I was...  groovy. 

Can you beat that? Me? Groovy? Hell yes. That's me... one of the grooviest little ol' ladies in the whole state of Georgia, so what can I say? I had no choice but to participate, right? I'm no square, dude.

I'd be happy to tell you where this pic came from... if I remembered.

So what's this tag all about, anyway? Well, Mary provided nine questions related to writing, and said I only had to answer four. Actually, that's quite considerate, if you think about it. Less chance that I'll bore you so badly that you need a toe tag.

Anyhow, here's the full gamut of questions:

1. What are you working on right now?

2. How does it differ from other works in its genre? 

3. What experiences have influenced you? 

4. Why do you write what you do?

5. How does your writing process work?

6. What is the hardest part about writing?

7. What would you like to try as a writer that you haven't yet?

8. Who are the authors you most admire?

9. What scares you? 

source

So, ya ready for my groovy answers?

1. What am I working on right now? 

This blogpost. (Sheesh.) Oh, you mean other than blogging, huh? My current WIP, on which I've done very little work and made very little progress, will be more mainstream than my recent release, and will have some delicious twists at the end. The tentative title is Blast Rites. So far, the research process has taught me how to make my own explosives and what it was like to live in a girls' reform school in the early '60s. Fun stuff!

3.  What experiences have influenced me?

All of 'em. Really, I'm not trying to be a smart ass here. (No trying needed... it comes naturally.) I think each of us is the sum product of all our experiences, good, bad, or indifferent. You a one-big-experience kinda person, or would you rather graze leisurely at life's all-you-can-eat buffet? I'm old. I get more bang for my buck at the buffet. Especially if I carry a suitcase-sized purse.

4. Why do I write what I do?

Because I'm the only one who can. Again, not trying to be a smart ass. Each of us is unique, with a unique set of life experiences, and a unique outlook, so that unique voice and outlook is gonna be reflected in our writing. Universal slice-of-life stories about how families and friends interact intrigue me. Quirky characters that can make a reader laugh, cringe, and nod with self-recognition delight me. Unexpected twists make me want to stand up and cheer. In essence, I try to write the kind of story I want to read. I make myself laugh, and make myself cry, and hope readers will have the same reactions when they read it. Heck, who am I kidding? I'm not proud. I hope they read it, period.

7. What would I like to try as a writer that I haven't tried yet?

A Pulitzer would be nice. But I'll settle for overhearing two strangers talking about my book, and how much they loved it.

********************************

That was fairly painless. At least for me. I shouldn't assume for you guys. Thank you so much for thinking of me, Mary.

Now I'm supposed to tag the toes of four other bloggers. So to speak.

Decisions, decisions, decisions. Some of you guys are serious writers, some of you aren't. Some of you like doing this sort of thing; others hate it.

So tell ya what. If you want to take all nine questions back to your blog for  an easy peasy almost writes itself post  the enjoyment of your readers, take it. With my blessings. Enjoy! And if ya wanta be extra sweet, include a link in that post back to my little ol' blog, and pass the meme on to four other bloggers. Okay?

OR you can pick and choose some of the questions and answer them right here in the comments. How's that?

What's that? You're not a writer? Okay, then, here's a question for you non-writer types to consider: Who put the bop in the bop she bop she bop? 

Just kidding. On a serious note, do you get sick to death (darned near need that toe tag again!) of seeing blog post after blog post about writing, new book releases, new book cover reveals, etc.? I must admit, I kinda do. That's why I didn't put any effort into trying to promote my book on a bazillion different blogs. (HA! As if!) Sometimes, having something shoved down my throat makes me wanta...  Let me rephrase that. Overexposure to any product makes me less likely to purchase it. You too? Or is it just me?

Oh yeah! Before I forget, a non-blogfest blogfest of sorts will be taking place next Monday. You avoid bloghops at all cost? Don't see the point of three hundred people all over the world writing about the same topic on a given day and then breaking their necks to visit the other two hundred ninety-nine blogs before the day comes to an end?

You aren't alone. Gary is the KING of anti-blogfest curmudgeons. Not really. He's got a heart of gold and an endless supply of witty puns to fit any occasion, but he does like to poke good-natured fun at the bloghopping crowd. So, HEY! Why not have a blogfest in his honor? Yeah, I know. Brilliant, right? The brainchild of the Aloha kid Mark, this fest will be co-hosted by ninja king Alex, and the three lovelies Tina, Robyn, and Morgan. If you want to join in the fun, you can sign up at any of their blogs. No big drawn-out requirements or term paper to write for this one. All ya have to do is come up with three off-the-wall titles for PG-13 blogfests you would never join, and then add a few descriptive sentences. Here's your chance to show off your creativity, imagination, and sense of humor. See? Easy peasy. How outrageous can you be? See ya Monday. I hope y'all have a groovy weekend.

                    Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

Brewing Up Some Fun

Thought for the day:  Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.  [Mary Lou Cook]

[THEME: Amateur radio]

Today, it's all about HOMEBREW.

Um, not THIS kind.

Well, yeah, I suppose amateur radio operators could brew their own adult beverages, but the kind of homebrew I'm talking about is equipment ... equipment they build with a healthy dollop of ingenuity, odds and ends from their junk boxes, and their own two hands. (Or perhaps with an all-parts-included kit, and a keen ability to follow instructions.)

In the early days of radio, amateurs had little recourse but to build their own stuff. Very little was available commercially, and what was available was too high-dollar for most to afford. So amateur radio enthusiasts started out with a can-do do-it-yourself attitude that remains with many in the hobby today. 

I'm no master builder, but I've even built a few things.

Like this simple crystal set. And I only bloodied my fingers a little bit while unkinking and winding the wire around that piece of PVC pipe, too. (My helpful hubby told me after the fact that I should've fed the wire through a vice.) Anyhow, a crystal set is easy enough for a child to build, and hey! It's "free radio!" (Man, I need to get the "maid" to dust that thing!)

I've also built a 20M CW receiver and matching transmitter. That was a lot of fun, too, because I had to learn how to differentiate the components, and even got to be pretty darned good with a soldering iron. Once they were completed, and we verified that they actually worked (!) I set them aside. Where they are now? Beats me. For me, the fun was in the building. The only other thing I've ever built was a really neat antenna to use for fox hunting. That was fun, too, but I ended up donating it to an auction to raise money for a scholarship. Surprised me. Once the guys learned I was the one who built it, some of them actually WANTED it. How cool is that? A "bidding war" just because their "illustrious" Section Manager built the thing. Still amazes me.

But my husband is the REAL builder in the family. He can build darned near anything, and has an extensive collection of  equipment and parts. (A junk box extraordinaire.) When a visiting South African ham toured our house,  his eyes got bigger and bigger, and he kept saying, "Holy cow!"  Finally he declared, "Radio Shack must send people to YOU!" 

At left is an antenna tuner my hubby built. Cool, huh? That's a shot of it from the front.










                                                  And here's a picture of it from the TOP ...

Yeah, he built it on a wooden toilet seat lid. (He has a wacky sense of humor, too, which is one of the reasons we get along so well.)

This is a less-than-stellar shot of one of the more-than-stellar amplifiers he built. It is B-I-G and with the tubes he put in it, should pretty much last forever.

But amateur radio projects don't have to be B-I-G. Many hams enjoy building tiny CW transmitters inside of Altoids cans, and if you can believe it,  in even smaller containers than that. These little transmitters are for operating QRP, or low power. (around 5 watts) Some transmit on even less power, and that's called  QRPP. (I know. Makes me giggle, too.)

Amateurs love to build and experiment with antennas, too. This picture appeared on our radio club's Facebook page, and the fella who posted it gave me permission to use it. It was taken in the '50s of his wife's uncle, playing with an antenna he'd built and designed.

Today's amateurs have access to all kinds of equipment, both new and used. Some radio clubs even have loaner radios to help new hams get on the air. So, bottom line is, nobody HAS to build his own equipment nowadays. But then again, nobody HAS to make his own wine, either. But for a lot of people, homebrewing is too darned much fun to resist.

Is Originality Overrated?

Thought for the day: Accept it. Some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the windshield.

Still feeling rather heady about finally setting up this blog, I did a Google search on myself (Oh, come ON! You KNOW you've done it!) to see if my blog was easy to find. Much to my chagrin, I found that there are twelve, count 'em, TWELVE! other people in the U.S. with the same name, plus an artist in Canada, and God only KNOWS how many other "mes" there are lurking beyond the web.

Sheesh. The cold sad truth is, I'm just one in a crowd. Not an original at all. (sniff)

But, worse than that, the real crap-a-doodle moment came when I did a search on  I Think; Therefore, I Yam. I was horrified. Would you believe (gasp!) that you can already buy shirts and coffee mugs emblazoned with that saying? As Achmed the Dead Terrorist would say, "Holy crap."

Y'see, I first saw the expression several years ago in a column of "vents" in our local newspaper. Liked it. No, LOVED it. And remembered it. I mean, it's so ME. And it seemed like such a unique and original title to use for this blog. (almost as original as my name, right?)

Turns out, the phrase allegedly originated in a bit of graffiti found in San Francisco in 1980. That makes it anonymous, right? Yeah, right. So, I'm still gonna use it. May not be "original", but like I said, it IS "me". And, you know what?  I may just have to get myself one of those tee shirts. ("I had no idea my blog would take off so quickly!")

Reminds me of a newsletter I used to write. I always ended it by saying, "Take care of yourselves. And each other." For years, that's how I ended it. Then a friend asked, "Did you know Jerry Springer says that at the end of his shows?"

Crap, no.

But, we decided, since I'd been doing it for so long, maybe Jerry Springer got it from ME. (That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.)

So, even though we writers reek of originality and try to avoid the trite at all costs, I do hope you'll forgive me this title. It makes me smile, and that has to count for something.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. I'll be back on Monday, and in the meantime, take care of yourselves. And each other.

++++
Most eyebrow-raising news quote of the week: "People who don't love me don't deserve to live." Nope, that didn't spill from the lips of some egomaniacal actress going in for another round of rehab; it came from the egomaniacal mouth of Moammar Gadhafi. Earlier in the week, he said Libyans were rioting because bin Laden drugged 'em. Tell ya what, he'd make an interesting character in a book, wouldn't he?