5 Revolutionary 19th-Century Inventions by Women You Don’t Know

These women changed the world with their innovative creations, but you don’t know it.

When you think of innovation, names like Thomas Edison or Alexander Graham Bell likely spring to mind. But what about the smart, innovative women who also made groundbreaking contributions during this period? Many female inventors of this time were overlooked or underappreciated, even though their creations had a lasting impact on the world.

From everyday items to revolutionary machinery, here are five inventions by women of the 19th century that you’ve probably never even heard of. I hadn’t, before.

1. Josephine Cochran: Inventor of the Dishwasher (1886)

If you enjoy the luxury of a dishwasher that cleans your dishes and silverware with just the push of a button (and really, who doesn’t?), you can thank Ms. Josephine Cochran, who lived from 1839 to 1913. Frustrated by servants chipping her fine china (I know, the wo-o-o-o-rst…), Cochran took matters into her own hands and invented the first commercially-viable mechanical dishwasher in 1886. Leveraging the power of water pressure, her machine was far more efficient than washing by hand.

Her invention was creatively called the Garis-Cochran Dishwashing Machine. This machine was able to clean 200 dishes in two minutes, which honestly seems a little suspicious given the fact that my own dishwasher, made in the 2020s, struggles to clean a fraction of that in something like 300 minutes. But I digress.

Garis was Cochran’s maiden name, which is awesome. She came from a line of innovators, with her grandfather having invented and patented the first US steamship.

Side note: I am consistently seeing Cochran’s name written both with and without a final E (Cochrane), often within the same source. I’m going without the E because it looks like that’s more commonly used in more “official” sources, but it looks like both variations may have been used.

Things weren’t easy for Cochran as a female inventor in a time when women didn’t even have the right to vote. But she managed to patent her design and later even founded her own company, which eventually became part of Whirlpool Corporation, which is all seriously impressive. Her invention revolutionized domestic work and paved the way for one of the most common appliances in use today.

Fun fact: Cochran’s invention wasn’t just for homes. In fact, her dishwasher was first popularized in public venues like hotels and restaurants before it eventually became a household staple.

This awesome lady was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006. Go, Josephine!

2. Tabitha Babbitt: Inventor of the Circular Saw (1813)

Tabitha Babbitt, who lived from 1790 to 1853, invented the circular saw in 1813. She was a member of the then-still-new Shaker community in Massachusetts, an offshoot of the Quakers who believed in gender and racial equality, where women often did the same work as the men.

This is your typical story of a woman creatively solving for male inefficiencies. Babbitt watched the men of her community struggling with the inefficient, two-person wood saws common in that time, which only cut when the blade was pushed in one direction, meaning the return pull was wasted energy. Babbitt realized that a circular blade attached to a spinning wheel could make sawing wood easier and faster.

Early versions of the circular saw were connected to machines run on water power, again increasing efficiency as it no longer required any human effort to operate.

Although Babbitt never sought a patent for her invention, her circular saw design became widespread and remains in use today in sawmills and construction. I also read that two men read of her design and later patented it themselves. One of them claimed to know that the saw was invented earlier, by a different Shaker man. 

…No comment…

Babbitt has also been credited with other inventions over her lifetime. In 2015, a man named Sam Asano made the case to the National Inventors Hall of Fame that Babbitt deserved their recognition. They declined, due to the lack of a patent.

3. Margaret Knight: Inventor of the Flat-Bottomed Paper Bag (1868)

The next time you carry your groceries in a paper bag, take a moment to think of Margaret Knight, who lived from 1838 to 1914. In 1868, Knight invented a machine that would manufacture flat-bottomed paper bags, allowing the bags to stand upright and hold more. Her invention enabled mass production of these bags, including cutting, folding and gluing, which replaced the work of thirty people with a single machine.

Before Knight’s innovation, paper bags were essentially envelopes, which as we all know, are great for small things, but pretty useless for carrying your potatoes home from the store.

Here’s the part that’s not shocking but way beyond infuriating. Knight was forced to defend her own invention in court when a man who worked in the machine shop where her device was created tried to claim it as his own. He said that a woman couldn’t possibly have invented such a machine. 

To which Knight effectively said, “hold my beer”. She whipped out her original blueprints, a diary and a couple of witnesses, because of course she did, won the case and secured her patent.

Knight held over 20 patents and was often called the "Mother of the grocery bag." I honestly can’t decide how I feel about that particular moniker, but at least she got some recognition. Her invention laid the groundwork for the bags we still use today in stores around the world, and that’s pretty awesome.

4. Elizabeth Magie: Inventor of The Landlord's Game (1904)

Before Monopoly, there was The Landlord’s Game, created by Elizabeth Magie (1866-1948) in 1904. Designed to highlight the injustices of land monopolies, Magie’s game was meant to be a lesson in economic inequality. Which might just be the most bad-ass thing I’ve ever learned.

And it gets even better. She was an advocate for women’s rights and became frustrated that she couldn’t make a living on her own as a single working woman. She hilariously placed an ad for marriage in the newspaper, offering herself as a “young woman American slave” offered up to the highest bidder.

She told reporters at the time that women are “not machines” and have “minds, desires, hopes and ambitions”. Scandalous.

Magie’s work ultimately inspired the board game we all know and love (or hate) today, which was later mass-produced by a man I shall not name, because he falsely claimed to have invented it. I’m starting to get a little pissed by now.

Magie patented her game 30 years before it was rebranded as Monopoly. Though she has been largely forgotten by history, her original invention remains a symbol of activism and innovation.

5. Letitia Geer: Inventor of the One-Handed Syringe (1899)

In 1899, nurse Letitia Geer (1852-1935) invented the one-handed medical syringe, a tool that revolutionized the way injections were administered. Prior to her invention, syringes required two hands to operate, which made the process difficult and often inefficient, particularly if the patient needed to inject themselves. Original syringes were also more prone to infection.

Geer’s design, with a detachable needle, was more sterile and allowed doctors and nurses to administer injections safely and quickly using just one hand, improving the ease and speed of patient care. 

Once her patent was granted in 1904, Greer launched the Geer Manufacturing Company to commercialize her invention. The going was tough, though. She found that many doctors and hospitals were hesitant to change, and she quickly found competition among others copying her design or selling competing options.

She went on to invent the nasal speculum and surgical retractor as well. But it was her syringe invention that played a pivotal role in making medical procedures more efficient and less time-consuming, and its influence can still be seen in modern syringes today.

Women’s Impact on Innovation

While the contributions of these 19th-century women inventors were often overshadowed and sometimes outright stolen from them, their inventions continue to impact our daily lives over a century later. From the conveniences of a dishwasher to the flat-bottomed paper bag, these women paved the way for future innovations, proving that true ingenuity knows no gender.

The stories of Josephine Cochran, Tabitha Babbitt, Margaret Knight, Elizabeth Magie and Letitia Geer remind us that women have always played a vital role in shaping the world around us, even when history fails to acknowledge their contributions.