Beulah Louise Henry was a self-educated inventor whose
imagination and prolifically earned her the nickname "Lady Edison". Beulah was
granted 49 United States
patents over the course of her life and is responsible for over 100 inventions.
Not technically inclined, she was able to visualize the devices she wished to
make and explain them to mechanical engineers and model makers who then
constructed them. In her own words, "I
cannot make up my mind whether it is a drawback or an advantage to be so
utterly ignorant of mechanics as I am, I know nothing about mechanical terms
and I am afraid I do make it rather difficult for the draftsmen to whom I
explain my ideas, but in the factories where I am known, they are exceedingly
patient with me because they seem to have a lot of faith in my inventions."
Beulah was born September 28th, 1887 in Raleigh, North Carolina. As a child, her family lived for some time in
Memphis, Tennessee
but later moved back to North
Carolina where she spent the rest of her
childhood. Beulah was a descendant of
Patrick Henry ("Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death"). Her father was an authority
on art, her mother was an artist, and her brother was a song writer. Beulah may
have had mild Synesthesia, a condition where the mind will assign sensory
attributes to other senses, for instance associating colors to sounds; this
condition is often found in inventive or artistic people and tends to run in
families. Beulah attended Presbyterian and Elizabeth
Colleges in Charlotte, North Carolina. Although it is said she had invented even as
a child, it was in her 20's when she filed for her first patent.
Beulah Henry's first patented invention was a vacuum ice
freezer in 1911, she was 24 when it was filed. See
Patent Here.
Beulah moved to New
York City in 1919, living in hotel apartments
surrounded by models of her inventions and ideas she had made. An important early invention was an umbrella
with a snap-on cloth cover that allowed the owner to coordinate the umbrella
with clothing (See
Patent Here). The invention was a
huge success and in 1924 she appeared in Scientific American as one of their
"Outstanding Inventors". The rights to the umbrella cover invention sold for
$50,000, enough money for her to set up a laboratory staffed with mechanics,
model makers, and draftsmen to turn her ideas into prototypes.
Over the next 50 years she would continue to invent. One invention was a sponge that held a bar of
soap in the center and was snapped in called the "Latho". Beulah also had to
invent the machine to cut the sponges correctly as it did not exist at that
time. Another invention was the "Miss Illusion" doll, which came with blonde
and brunette wigs and eyes that changed from blue to brown with the push of a
button.
Other inventions by Beulah Louis Henry (Lady Edison) include:
Hair Curler (1925)
Parasol Bag (1925)
Umbrella Runner Shield Attachment (1926)
Water-Sport Apparatus (1927)
Poodle-Dog Doll (1927)
Ball Covering (1927)
Foot Covering (1927)
Sealing Device for Inflatable Bodies (1929)
Valve For Inflatable Articles (1929)
Henry Closure Construction (1930)
Henry Valve for Inflatable Articles (1931)
Duplicating Device for Typewriting Machines (1932)
Duplicating Attachment for Typewriters (1932)
Writing Machine (1936)
Multicopy Attachment for Typewriters (1937)
Movable Eye Structure for figure Toys (1935)
Double Chain Stitch Sewing Machine (1936)
Feeding and Aligning Device (1940)
Seam and Method of Forming Seams (1941)
Sewing Apparatus (1941)
Typewriting Machine (1941)
Device for Producing Articulate Sounds (1941)
Duplex Sound Producer (1944)
Continuously Attached Envelopes (1952)
Can Opener (1956)
Direct and Return Mailing Envelope (1962)
These patents can be viewed from this
link.
Before the end of the 1930s Beulah had earned the nickname
"Lady Edison". She was active in the Audubon Society, the League for Animals,
and the Museum of
Natural History. When
asked once why she was an inventor, she responded "I invent because I cannot help
myself". In 1939, Nicholas Machine Works hired her to work as an inventor and
provided her with a staff and a factory laboratory. Beulah continued inventing
up until her death in 1973, and was responsible for over 100 inventions.
References:
http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/273.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beulah_Louise_Henry
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blbeulah.htm
http://128-167-140-34.hrwweb.com/science/si-science/chemistry/careers/innovative_lives/womeninventors.html
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