Beulah Louise Henry is sometimes referred
to with the nickname “Lady Edison.” After reading
why you will understand! She was an American inventor with
over 100 inventions and over 20 patents throughout her lifetime.
She attended Queens College and Elizabeth
College, both in North Carolina where she also received her
first three patents. The first, awarded in 1912, was for a
vacuum ice cream freezer. The following year brought two patents
for a handbag and a parasol, both with detachable cloth covers
in a variety of colors.
She then moved to New York City where she
spent the rest of her adult life. She sold her popular umbrella
through the newly established Henry Umbrella and Parasol Company,
of which she was also President. Henry was issued several
more patents for a spring-limbed doll, and sponges that held
soap in the middle, as well as for the machine that produced
the sponges. Beulah then found a passion for working with
up turning much of machines, particularly improvements to
sewing machines and typewriters.
In the following years she received several
patents for different machines including a protograph, which
produced an original typed document and four copies without
the use of carbon paper, a double-chain stitch sewing machine,
a feeding and aligning device for typewriters, a bobbin-less
sewing machine, a number of children’s toys, and another
typewriter attachment for duplicating documents well before
the time of photocopying.
Having earned a reputation as a professional
inventor of sorts, throughout the 1950´s and 1960´s,
Henry was hired by a number of companies to develop products
for them, which ranged from household devices to envelope
machines. Beulah Henry was different among early women inventors
in that she was able to profit from her inventions, and receive
credit during her lifetime for her great work.
return
to women inventors page
|
