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Inventions By Women
6 Articles

Check articles you have read:

Saving Lives!
163 words

Lyda Newman, Inventor and Fighter

123 words

Cookie Accident
109 words

Solving a Dish Problem

110 words

Wipe that Rain Away!

142 words

I Scream for Ice Cream!

141 words

A Sticky Idea
77 words

Ticktock, Meet This Clock

83 words

Great Ideas!
266 words

Patricia Bath
241 words

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Page 1 of 17
 Saving Lives!

Saving Lives!
by ReadWorks

This is what a life raft looks like

today.

A life raft is kind of like a small boat. People keep life rafts on big
ships. In emergencies, people use life rafts for safety. If a ship is in
danger, the people on it can escape on the life rafts. Today, life rafts
are inflatable. That means they can be filled with air. This helps
them float.

This is what a life raft looked like

before Maria's invention.

Life rafts used to be made of just wood. So they could catch on fire
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Page 2 of 17
 Saving Lives!

easily. They also did not have safety rails.

Maria Beasley changed that. Maria loved thinking of new ideas.

She invented many things. Her best invention was a new life raft.
Her life raft had safety rails. It was easy to use. It was also less
likely to catch on fire.

Some people saw her as only a housewife. But Maria proved them
wrong! Her life rafts saved many people's lives.

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Page 3 of 17
 Lyda Newman, Inventor and Fighter

Lyda Newman, Inventor and Fighter

by ReadWorks

This is a drawing of Lyda's

hairbrush.

Lyda Newman was an African American hairdresser. But that's not

all she was. She was also an inventor! She created the modern
hairbrush. Her hairbrush could get dust and dirt out of hair. It also
was easy to clean. Lyda was a great inventor. But she did even
more!

This photo shows women fighting

for women's rights in the United
States in 1912.

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Page 4 of 17
 Lyda Newman, Inventor and Fighter

Lyda Newman also fought for women's rights in the United States.
Many years ago, women couldn't vote. Lyda would go and talk
about this problem. She got many people to support the cause! She
kept fighting for these rights all her life.

Lyda was a strong woman who fought for change. Go Lyda!

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Page 5 of 17
 Cookie Accident

Cookie Accident
by ReadWorks

chocolate chip cookies

Have you ever tasted a delicious chocolate chip cookie? If so, you
should thank Ruth Wakefield!

Ruth Wakefield baked a lot. One day, Ruth Wakefield was baking
cookies for her friends. She was trying to make chocolate cookies.
But she was out of the chocolate she always used. That chocolate
would melt to make a chocolate cookie.

She used a different kind of chocolate bar instead. She baked the
cookies, but the chocolate did not fully melt. She created chocolate
chip cookies by accident!

Chocolate chip cookies were very popular. They are now the most
popular cookies in the United States. Thank goodness for Ruth's
accident!

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Page 6 of 17
 Solving a Dish Problem

Solving a Dish Problem

by ReadWorks

This is what a dishwasher looks like

today.

Have you helped your parents wash dishes? It helps to have a

dishwasher! Dishwashers make washing dishes much faster. A
dishwasher is a machine that sprays water and soap on plates and
cups to clean them.

Josephine Cochran used to wash dishes by hand. But some dishes

would break. So she solved the problem! She invented the first
dishwasher.

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Page 7 of 17
 Solving a Dish Problem

This photo shows a boy washing

dishes.

Josephine made sure her machine could fit plates, cups, and
bowls. She showed her dishwasher at the Chicago World's Fair.
The Fair gave many people the chance to show their inventions.
The dishwasher was a success!

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Page 8 of 17
 Wipe that Rain Away!

Wipe that Rain Away!

by ReadWorks

This photo shows windshield wipers

wiping rain off a car's front window.

Mary Anderson invented the windshield wiper. Windshield wipers

help drivers stay safe on the road. They are the blades that wipe
rain and snow off the front window of a car. They do that so the
driver can see clearly.

How did Mary Anderson think of the windshield wiper? Many years
ago, she was in New York City. She was in a car, and it was
snowing. Every now and then, the driver had to get out of the car.
He had to wipe off the snow so that he could see. Mary thought that
was silly. Then, she thought of a windshield wiper!

She did not get any credit for her invention until much later. But now
we know who thought of this helpful invention. Thank you, Mary
Anderson!

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Page 9 of 17
 I Scream for Ice Cream!

I Scream for Ice Cream!

by ReadWorks

This is a picture of Nancy Johnson.

Imagine eating cold ice cream on a hot summer day. What a nice
treat! Many years ago, there were no modern freezers. So it used
to take hours and hours to make ice cream. But, Nancy Johnson
changed that!

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Page 10 of 17
 I Scream for Ice Cream!

Bengt Oberger (CC BY-SA 3.0)

This is the kind of ice cream maker

invented by Nancy Johnson.

Nancy Johnson thought of a way to freeze ice cream much quicker.

She put a lot of ice and salt in a wooden bucket. Then, she put a tin
can inside the bucket. The can had ice cream mix inside it. The
bucket had a handle. She would turn the handle to move the ice
cream around. After only 30 minutes, the ice cream would freeze!

Now, freezers make it easy to make and store ice cream!

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Page 11 of 17
 Great Ideas!

Great Ideas!

bandaid
traffic light

chocolate chip cookies

Amazing Inventions
Learn about some bright ideas.
What would life be like without inventions? It's hard to imagine. An invention is a new thing or idea. It can
change the way people live. Some inventions solve problems and make life easier. Other inventions make
life more fun (or tastier!). Read about some great inventions.

An Idea That Stuck

The next time you stick on a Band-Aid, you can thank Earle Dickson. He invented the ready-made
bandage in 1920. He wanted to help his wife who often cut her fingers while cooking.

At the time, people had to cut pieces of gauze and tape to make bandages. They were hard to use.
Dickson's simple idea was a big success. Today, ready-made bandages come in many shapes, sizes, and
colors.

A Tasty Invention
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Page 12 of 17
 Great Ideas!

Did you know that chocolate chip cookies were a mistake? Ruth Graves Wakefield created them in the
1930s. She was mixing a batch of chocolate cookies and was out of baking chocolate. She decided to
chop up a bar of semisweet chocolate instead. When the cookies were done, the pieces of chocolate had
not melted! They had kept their chip form in each cookie.

Safety First
Before the 1920s, people often got into traffic accidents. One day, Garrett Morgan saw a bad accident
between a car and a horse-drawn carriage. He decided to solve the problem by inventing a traffic signal. It
was a pole with signs saying when to stop and go. Today's red, yellow, and green traffic lights are based
on Morgan's idea.

ReadWorks.org
Copyright © 2009 Weekly Reader Corporation. All rights reserved. Used by permission.Weekly
Reader is a registered trademark of Weekly Reader Corporation.
Page 13 of 17
 Patricia Bath

Patricia Bath
by ReadWorks

National Institute of Medicine

Photo of Patricia Bath

Vision is one of your five senses. It is an important way you take in

information about the world around you. But as people get older,
they can sometimes start to lose their eyesight. One thing that can
cause this is a cataract. A cataract is when part of a person's eye
that is supposed to be clear gets cloudy. This makes it harder for
the person to see well.
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Page 14 of 17
 Patricia Bath

One important inventor created a tool that helps get rid of people's
cataracts. Her name is Patricia Bath.

Patricia is an eye doctor. She has spent a lot of time studying

eyesight in different people. As a doctor, she found that some
people were more likely than others to have eye problems. For
example, she found that African Americans were more likely to
become blind than other patients. Patricia thought it was important
to help treat people's eye problems. She thought everyone had a
right to sight.

In the 1980s, she invented the tool that helps get rid of people's
cataracts. It used a laser. Before her invention, getting rid of a
cataract was tough. It did not always have good end results. And it
could be painful for the patient. But Patricia's tool was better. It was
more accurate because of the laser. And it was more comfortable
for the patient!

Thanks to Patricia's invention, many people have gotten their

eyesight back!

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Page 15 of 17
 A Sticky Idea

A Sticky Idea
by ReadWorks

Have you ever put a sticky bandage on a cut? The best-known

sticky bandages are called Band-Aids. They were invented in 1920.

A man named Earle Dickson invented Band-Aids. Earle wanted to

help his wife. She often cut her fingers when she cooked.

At the time, people had to make their own bandages. They cut
pieces of gauze and tape. Those bandages were hard to use.
Earle's idea was easy to use. Thanks, Earle!

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Page 16 of 17
 Ticktock, Meet This Clock

Ticktock, Meet This Clock

by ReadWorks

Some people find it hard to wake up in the morning. That is a

problem. A woman had an idea. She made a special wake-up clock.
Here is how it works. The clock beeps to wake you. You still want to
sleep. You try to turn it off. The clock does not go off. It keeps
beeping. It uses its wheels to move. It moves around your room.
You must get up to find the clock. That wakes you up. Good
morning!

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Page 17 of 17