Category Archives: women inventors

31 Days of Notable Women-Wendy Steele, woman inventor

Wendy Steele and Bob Root are the founders and inventors of Keys Soap

Keys Soap first announced the introduction of its new line of all-natural, chemical-free therapeutic liquid bath and hand soaps in March 29, 2005. Keys liquid soaps are holistic, soothing, therapeutic soaps for people with sensitive, allergic or affected skin. They contain only pure ingredients with no man-made chemicals or fragrances. Our soaps do not contain skin irritants like SLS, parabens, propylene glycols or DEA.

Source: http://www.keys-soap.com/soapstory.html

31 Days of Notable Women- Charlotte Odlum Smith, writer/freedom fighter

Charlotte Odlum Smith (1840 – 1917) was a reformer, magazine editor, champion of women inventors, and lobbyist for working women, public health, and safety in the nineteenth-century United States.

She also became involved in the fight to win a more equal role for women in the great World’s Columbian Exposition of 1892-3. Specifically, she fought for more recognition of Queen Isabella’s enabling role in Columbus’s discoveries, and for women inventors. In 1892 she founded a third periodical, the Woman Inventor, and crusaded for a permanent exhibition of women’s inventive work in Washington, DC. Her major achievement for women inventors, however, was persuading the Patent Office to issue a list of all female holders of US patents to that date (1883).

In addition to working through legislatures and organizations, Charlotte Smith also took direct action, personally helping many poor women and “underdogs,” and providing housing for poor working girls with her own money. During these years (1880s – early 1890s), she was one of the best-known women in America, with literally hundreds of articles appearing about her in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and smaller newspapers as far away as Montana and Hawaii.

The last chapter of Smith’s life took place in Boston, Massachusetts where she continued to work for her main cause, the welfare and advancement of working women, in the legislatures of Massachusetts and Maryland, as well as in Congress. Her fame diminished in her last years, and when she died in Boston in 1917, she was buried in a pauper’s grave.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Odlum_Smith

31 Days of Notable Women- Sylvia Acevedo, tenacious woman inventor

Sylvia Acevedo, tenacious woman inventor

Before starting her most recent business, CommuniCard™ LLC, Acevedo was a founder and vice president of sales and marketing of REBA Technologies. She has also been an executive at top Fortune 500 companies including IBM, Dell Computer, Apple Computers and Autodesk Inc., where she had a track record of success in creating high growth in both domestic and international markets. For example at Dell Computer, she led the creation of the first Pan-American e-commerce website for Latin America.

Acevedo has a Master’s engineering degree from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s degree from New Mexico State where she graduated with Honors and served on the Board of Regents. Her business is headquartered in Austin, TX. As President and CEO of CommuniCard ™ LLC, Sylvia was recently selected as the Hispanic Business Woman of the Year for the 2004 Hispanic Leadership and Business Excellence Awards by the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) for Region III. The Regional Awards will be presented at the opening breakfast of the USHCC 25th Annual National Convention & Business Expo on September 16, 2004 in Austin, TX.

Acevedo, a bi-lingual industrial engineer, grew up as a first-generation American in a Spanish-speaking home. She saw the need for a product that would cross languages and aid in communication. Her creation, CommuniCards, have been developed to effectively reduce the language barrier between Spanish and English.

Source: http://www.thecommunicard.com/PDF/CommuniCard_Hispanic_Business_Woman_of_the_Year-Award1.pdf

“The Right Sisters- Women Inventors Tell Their Stories”, Julia Rhodes and Patricia Harrelson, Outskirts Press, Inc.2010.

31 Days of Notable Women- Esther Takeuchi, woman inventor

The woman who holds the most US patents (more than 140) is Esther Takeuchi, a prolific energy storage expert. She’s known for developing the battery that made implantable cardiac defibrillators possible, she’s a professor at SUNY’s University at Buffalo. Takeuchi is using her battery knowledge to tackle transport and the power grid.

Source cited: http://www.smartplanet.com/people/blog/pure-genius/battery-expert-and-woman-with-most-us-patents-on-her-next-innovation/3996/

31 Days of Notable Women- Rosalind Franklin & the Discovery of DNA

Rosalind Elsie Franklin (Born: London, England, July 25, 1920- Died: London, England, April 16, 1958) – Pioneer Molecular Biologist

There is probably no other woman scientist with as much controversy surrounding her life and work as Rosalind Franklin. Franklin was responsible for much of the research and discovery work that led to the understanding of the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA. The story of DNA is a tale of competition and intrigue, told one way in James Watson’s book The Double Helix, and quite another in Anne Sayre’s study, Rosalind Franklin and DNA. James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins received a Nobel Prize for the double-helix model of DNA in 1962, four years after Franklin’s death at age 37 from ovarian cancer.
Source: http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/franklin.html

31 Days of Notable Women- Esther Takeuchi, woman inventor

The woman who holds the most US patents (more than 140) is Esther Takeuchi, a prolific energy storage expert. She’s known for developing the battery that made implantable cardiac defibrillators possible, she’s a professor at SUNY’s University at Buffalo. Takeuchi is using her battery knowledge to tackle transport and the power grid.

Source cited: http://www.smartplanet.com/people/blog/pure-genius/battery-expert-and-woman-with-most-us-patents-on-her-next-innovation/3996/

“31 Days of Notable Women” my special blog is coming for Women’s History Month!

Every March I post one blog per day on notable women and their amazing accomplishments. Come join me to learn about women in science, women inventors, politicians and poets, freedom fighters and artists.

Many of these women have been buried in history, their stories ignored or never told…..meet amazing people whose voices have been silenced, but who are finally being given the credit they deserve!

Subscribe to the blog so you won’t miss a single entry,
Diane Tegarden

Looking for modern day women inventors….

As many of you may know, during Women’s History month in March I blog every day about amazing but unheralded women who are inventors, artists, writers, political leaders, scientists, pilots, world leaders, doctors, astronomers and authors. These are women who have made history but not gotten the acclaim they deserve. I call the blog “31 Days of Notable Women”.

Here’s your chance to be glorified! If you are (or know of) a woman whose time has come, please email me at rosefirewalker@aol.com so I can give you the attention you so justly deserve. I’ll need time to research and write your short bio, so let’s get the ball rolling.

Looking forward to getting to know some of you amazing women,
Diane Tegarden

31 Days of Notable Women- Inventor Hedy Lamarr

Silver Screen superstar Hedy Lamarr (Hedwig Kiesler Markey) with the help of composer George Antheil invented a secret communication system in an effort to help the allies defeat the Germans in World War II. The invention, patented in 1941, manipulated radio frequencies between transmission and reception to develop an unbreakable code so that top-secret messages could not be intercepted.

Source cited: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blkidprimer6_12w.htm

31 Days of Notable Women- What you may NOT know about Cat Woman…

Julie Newmar, a living Hollywood film and television legend, is a women inventor. The former Catwoman patented ultra-sheer, ultra-snug pantyhose. Known for her work in films such as Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Slaves of Babylon, Newmar has also appeared recently in Fox Television’s Melrose Place and the hit feature-film To Wong Fu, Thanks for Everything, Love Julie Newmar.

Source:http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blkidprimer6_12w.htm