WOMEN AS INVENTORS 547 



'You women may talk about your rights, but why don't 

 you invent something?' I answered, 'Your horse's feed 

 bag and the shade over his head were both of them in- 

 vented by women.' The old fellow was so taken aback 

 that he was barely able to gasp, ' Do tell ! ' ' 



Had he investigated further he would have found that 

 the flynet on his horse's back, the tugs and other harness 

 trimmings, the shoes on his horse's feet 1 and the buggy 

 seat he then occupied were all the inventions of women. 

 He would, doubtless, also have discovered that the curry- 

 comb he had used before starting out on his drive, as well 

 as the snap hook of the halter and the checkrein and the 

 stall unhitching device were likewise the inventions of 

 members of that sex whose capacity he was so disposed to 

 depreciate ; for women have been awarded patents in some 

 instances several of them for all the articles that have 

 been mentioned. He might furthermore have learned that 

 the fellies in his buggy wheels and his daughter's side 

 saddle had been made under women's patents; and that, 

 to complete his surprise and confusion, the leather used 

 in his harness had been sewn by a machine patented by a 

 woman who was not only an inventor but who was also for 

 many years the manager and proprietor of a large harness 

 factory in New York City. 



What particularly arrests one's attention in reading the 

 Patent Office reports is not only the large number of inven- 

 tions by women, but also the very wide range of the devices 

 which they embrace. It is not surprising to find them 

 inventing and improving culinary utensils, house furniture 

 and furnishings, toilet articles, wearing apparel and sta- 

 tionery, trunks and bags, toys and games, designs for 

 printed and textile fabrics, for boxes and baskets, screens, 

 awnings, baby carriers, musical instruments, appliances for 



i To one woman, Mary E. Poupard, of London, England, were 

 granted in a single year no less than three patents for horse-shoes 

 two of the patents being for sectional and segmental horse-shoes, 



