We all know that women are, quite literally, the reason we're all here, but this International Women's Day we wanted to share some of the essential every day things, that exist thanks to a woman's touch....and hard work.
Dr. Özlem Türeci is half of the husband and wife team that's changing the world. She is one of the brains behind the COVID-19 vaccine presently giving hope for a better future to people all over the world. Oh and did we mention Katalin Karikó’s mRNA research helped pave way for Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna’s successful work too!
Lillian Gilbreth improved more than 1 existing invention with small, but ingenious, tweaks. For example, In the early 1900s, she designed the shelves inside refrigerator doors, made the can opener easier to use, and tidied up cleaning up with foot pedal trash can. Gilbreth is most famous for her pioneering work in efficiency management and ergonomics with her husband, Frank. Two of their 12 children, Frank Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth, humorously wrote about their home/work collaborations in the book Cheaper by the Dozen.
Drivers were skeptical when Mary Anderson invented the first manual windshield wipers in 1903, while Another woman inventor, Charlotte Bridgwood, invented an automatic version with an electric roller in 1917. Neither initially took off, but by the time Anderson's patent expired in 1920, windshield wipers were cleaning up. Cadillac was the first to include them in every car model, and every other company soon followed.
America got a brand new paper bag when cotton mill worker Margaret Knight invented a machine to make them with a flat square bottom in 1868. (Paper bags originally looked more like envelopes.) A man named Charles Annan saw her design and tried to patent the idea first. Knight filed a lawsuit and won the patent fair and square in 1871.
Women in computer science have a role model in Grace Hopper. She and Howard Aiken designed Harvard's Mark I computer, a five-ton, room-sized machine in 1944. Hopper invented the compiler that translated written language into computer code and coined the terms "bug" and "debugging" when she had to remove moths from the device. In 1959, Hopper was part of the team that developed COBOL, one of the first modern programming languages.
Biophysicist Maria Telkes's place was in the house—the very first 100 percent solar house. In 1947, the Hungarian scientist invented the thermoelectric power generator to provide heat for Dover House, a wedge-shaped structure she conceived with architect Eleanor Raymond. Telkes used Glauber's salt, the sodium salt of sulfuric acid, to store heat in preparation for sunless days. Dover House survived nearly three Massachusetts winters before the system failed.
Last but not least in our round up, women are responsible for the discovery of beer! A little more than 7,000 years ago, beer brewing began its development in Mesopotamia, and to no surprise it was women putting the graft in to mix the grains of cereal with water and herbs. They cooked them, and from that intuitive mixture, driven by the need for nutrition, came a fermented brew we enjoy today. So next time you crack open a bottle, you've got a woman to thank for that. Cheers!
We hope you've enjoyed discovering these fun facts as much as we've enjoyed putting them together for you!
