5 Revolutionary Inventions by Women You Don’t Know

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

When you think of 19th century innovation, names like Thomas Edison or Alexander Graham Bell likely spring to mind. But what about the smart, innovative women who made groundbreaking contributions? Many female inventors of this time were overlooked or underappreciated, even though their creations had a lasting impact on the world.

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

If you enjoy the luxury of a dishwasher (and really, who doesn’t?), you can thank Ms. Josephine Cochran, who lived from 1839 to 1913. Frustrated by servants chipping her fine china (the woooorst…), Cochran took matters into her own hands and invented the first commercially-viable mechanical dishwasher in 1886. Using 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. It was able to clean 200 dishes in two minutes, which honestly seems a little suspicious given 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 i, but it looks like both variations may have been used. Who really cares if a woman’s name is spelled right?

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 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.

This awesome lady was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006.

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 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 two-person wood saws common in that time, which only cut 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. I also read that two men read of her design and later patented it themselves.

…No comment…

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

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

The next time you carry 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, 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 letters but useless for carrying your potatoes home from the store.

Here’s the part that’s not shocking. 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 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 called the "Mother of the grocery bag." I honestly can’t decide how I feel about that moniker, but at least she got some recognition. Her invention laid the groundwork for the bags we still use today, 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 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 that women are “not machines” and have “minds, desires, hopes and ambitions”. Scandalous.

Magie’s work ultimately inspired the board game we all know today, which was later mass-produced by a man I shall not name, because he falsely claimed to have invented it.

What the fuckety fuck?? I’m starting to get a little salty 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 how injections were administered. Previously, syringes required two hands to operate, which made the process difficult and inefficient, particularly if the patient needed to inject themselves. Original syringes were 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, Geer launched the Geer Manufacturing Company to commercialize her invention. The going was tough, though. She found that many doctors and hospitals were resistant to change, and she quickly found competition with others copying her design.

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