[0:06]Hello, and welcome to Science Now. When we think of famous inventors, we often think of men like Alexander Graham Bell, Guglielmo Marconi, and Thomas Edison. But many of the things which make our lives easier or safer today were invented by women. And on today's show, we're going to look at six of them.
[0:33]One invention that definitely improved the lives of millions of people was the disposable nappy. They were invented by a woman called Marion Donovan. Her father and uncle were inventors, and when she had young children, she invented a nappy that you could use and then throw away.
[0:57]Before her invention, babies wore nappies made of cotton like these. And this meant a lot of washing.
[1:10]Although she invented the disposable nappy in the 1940s, it wasn't until 1951 that an American company bought Donovan's idea. Today, millions of disposable nappies are used every day, and Donovan's invention is now more eco-friendly. You can buy biodegradable nappies.
[1:37]And now another invention which has made life easier. The dishwasher was invented by a woman called Josephine Cochrane in 1886. She was a rich American who gave a lot of dinner parties. But she was annoyed that her servants often broke plates and glasses when they were washing up after a party.
[2:02]Oops.
[2:05]So, Cochrane decided to invent a machine which could wash a lot of plates and glasses safely. She said, if nobody else is going to invent a dishwasher, then I will.
[2:20]She designed the machine and then she found a company to make it.
[2:28]At first, only hotels and restaurants bought Cochrane's new machine, but today, the dishwasher is used in homes all over the world.
[2:45]The car was invented by a man, but it was a woman, Mary Anderson, who solved one of the biggest problems of driving. On a trip to New York in 1903, Anderson noticed that drivers had to open their windows to see where they were going when it was raining.
[3:07]When she returned to her home in Alabama, she invented windscreen wipers which made driving a lot safer.
[3:22]Our fourth invention made life safer for people living in flats or apartments. Video entry phones. They were invented in 1966 by Marie Van Brittan Brown, a nurse who lived in New York. Her neighborhood was quite dangerous and Brown was often at home alone. So she decided to invent something that would make her feel safer. With the help of her husband, an electrician, she developed a camera that you could put by the front door. This camera sent a picture of the person at the door to a screen inside the flat. And there was also a microphone so you could talk to the person outside. If the person was a welcome visitor, you pushed a button to let them in. If not, you could push another button to contact a security company. This system is now common all over the world.
[4:37]And now an invention that has saved a lot of lives, the modern life raft was invented by Maria Beasley in 1880 and then improved in 1882. Before her invention, life rafts were just wooden platforms and many people died in accidents at sea. Four of her life rafts were used on the Titanic, alongside the ship's normal lifeboats. When the Titanic sank in 1912, only 706 people survived and nearly 200 of them were in the life rafts designed by Beasley.
[5:25]Our last invention is one of today's most important green technologies. Maria Telkes, a Hungarian-American scientist, worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States in the 1940s. She was so interested in the power of the sun that her nickname was 'the Sun Queen'. In 1948, she designed the first house which was heated completely by the sun. The system worked for three years. The solar technology we use today is very different from Telkes's invention, but, like all our female inventors, she showed the world what was possible. And today, solar technology has the power to change our lives and save our environment.
