Patent history reveals hits and misses.

• Author: Frey, Thomas

WHAT NAME SPRINGS TO MIND WHEN YOU SEE THE phrase "famous female inventor?" If you're having a tough time answering, you are not alone.

I became interested when I ran across a very curious statistic: In 1980, only 1.7 percent of all patent filings were filed by women. After doing some research I found that the problem started long before that, but not for lack of women inventors.

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In fact, the first U.S. patent was issued in 1809 to Mary Dixon Kies, a Connecticut native who invented a process for weaving straw with silk or thread. First Lady Dolley Madison publicly thanked her for boosting the nation's hat industry. Unfortunately, the historic patent was destroyed in the great Patent Office fire of 1836.

Until about 1840, only 20 other patents were issued to women, all related to apparel, tools, cook stoves and fire-places. From 1855 to 1865, women received an average of 10.1 patents per year while their male counterparts received 3,767.4 patents. During the next decade, from 1865 to 1875, the number of women-issued patents increased to an average 67.3 compared to the men's annual average of 11,918.4 patents. And by 1910 the number of women patents was still only 8,596, just 0.8 per cent of the total patents issued in the United States.

The reasons for the trend fall into four broad categories: legal, economic, social and educational. Legal rights of married women in the early 19th century were virtually nonexistent. Along with women not being able to vote, many women in the past were not allowed equal rights of property ownership. Patents are a form of intellectual property, and for this reason many women patented their inventions under their husband's or father's names.

While legal status may have slowed the number of inventions by women, economic considerations encouraged it. Prospects for making money were a big driver for women in the late 1800s. And for good reason. History tells us that 75 percent of the patents issued to women between 1895 and 1900 were profitable. Profit, was part of the motivation for Beulah Henry of Memphis, who created about 110 inventions and held 49 patents. Henry was considered one of the "Lady Edisons" of her time. Her inventions included the vacuum ice-cream freezer (1912), an umbrella with different colored snapon cloth covers (1924) and, the first bobbin-less sewing machine (1940).

The long-time social appeal of inventing for women perhaps was best expressed in an old issue of...