Two Important Inventions That Would Not Exist Without Black Women

This is the final week and first part of our biweekly series that focuses on black women who changed the world with their inventions

Margaret knight

Margaret Eloise Knight, also known as the female Edison, was born on February 14, 1838, in York Main, United States, to Hanna Teal and James Knight.

At a tender age, she had an apparent fascination with woodwork and tinkering. She rarely spent time with other girls and toys, choosing instead to be surrounded by wood and metals.

This interest in machines led to her first invention when she was 12. She was visiting her brother, who worked at a textile mill. One of the loom machines spoiled, and its shuttle hit a worker. Margaret then created a device to prevent the shuttle from falling off. This eventually became the first of many technical innovations in the textile mills industry and the standard fixture on looms.

However, this invention was never patented because of her age and because of the lack of financial resources, she never finished school and began to work in a textile mill to help her mother. She also took up menial jobs like engraving, photography, upholstery etc.

In 1867, while working for the Columbia Paper Bag Company, she discovered that folding paper bag was problematic and then thought of an easier way to do it. She thought of a bag folding machine that would be able to cut, glue, and fold paper to form the flat bottom paper bags, which are still widely used today.

She then made a wooden model of her machine and took it to a machine shop worker, Charles Annan, to make a working iron model. He stole her idea and patented it. On finding out, she filed a lawsuit and regained her idea and got her patent in 1971.

She invented many more devices to make work and life easier. These inventions shoe to dressmaking machines, all of which were patented between 1902 and 1915.

She never married and died on October 12, 1914.

Ellen Eglin

While very little remains known about Ellen’s early life, she was born in Washington, DC, in 1849.

At a young age, she took on jobs as a housekeeper and a clerk in a government firm. Her work as a housekeeper meant having to do laundry ever so often. The time-consuming task of scrubbing on washboards and hand rinsing was back-breaking.

This led to her inventing the wringer in 1888, a highly sought after device that she never patented, received recognition for or received no financial rewards.

In 1891, she had an interview with a magazine that highlighted female inventors; Eglin said, “You know I am Black, and if it were known that a negro woman patented the invention, white ladies would not buy the wringer.” This was the reason she sold her design to a white agent for $18.

Little is also known about her life and her death.

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