Woman in Science Part 30

Since women have come into the possession of greater freedom than they formerly enjoyed, and have been afforded better opportunities of developing their inventive faculties, many of them have taken to invention as an occupation, and with marked success. They find it the easiest and most congenial way of earning a livelihood, and not a few of them have been able thereby to acc.u.mulate comfortable fortunes, besides developing industries that have given employment to thousands of both s.e.xes.

Thus the straw industry in the United States is due to Miss Betsy Metcalf, who, more than a century ago, produced the first straw bonnet ever manufactured in this country. Since then the industry which this woman originated has a.s.sumed immense proportions. The number of straw hats now made in Ma.s.sachusetts alone, not to speak of those annually manufactured elsewhere, runs into the millions.

Scarcely less wonderful is the industry developed by Miss Knight, already mentioned, through her marvelous invention for manufacturing satchel-bottom paper bags. Many men had previously essayed to solve the problem which she attacked with such signal success, but all to no purpose. So valuable was her invention considered by experts that she refused fifty thousand dollars for it shortly after taking out her patent.

Often what are apparently the most trivial inventions prove the most lucrative. Thus, a Chicago woman receives a handsome income for her invention of a paper pail. A woman in San Francisco invented a baby carriage, and received fourteen thousand dollars for her patent. The gimlet-pointed screw, which was the idea of a little girl, has realized to its patentee an independent fortune. Still more remarkable is the Burden horseshoe machine, the invention of a woman, which turns out a complete horseshoe every three seconds and which is said to have effected a saving to the public of tens of millions of dollars.

The cotton gin, one of the most useful and important of American inventions--a machine that effected a complete revolution in the cotton industry throughout the world--is due to a woman, Catherine L. Greene, the wife of General Nathaniel Greene, of Revolutionary fame. After she had fully developed in her own mind a method for separating the cotton from its seed, which was after her husband's death, she intrusted the making of the machine to Eli Whitney, who was then boarding with her, and who had a Yankee's skill in the use of tools. Whitney was several times on the point of abandoning as impossible the task which had been a.s.signed to him, but Mrs. Greene's faith in ultimate success never wavered, and, thanks to her persistence in the work and the putting into execution of her ideas, her great undertaking was finally crowned with success. She did not apply for a patent for her invention in her own name, because so opposed was public opinion to woman's having part in mechanical occupation that she would have exposed herself to general ridicule and to a loss of position in society. The consequence was that Whitney--her employee--got credit for an invention which, in reality, belonged to her. She was, however, subsequently able to retain a subordinate interest in it through her second husband, Mr. Miller.

This is only one of many instances in which patents, taken out in the name of some man, are really due to women. The earliest development of the mower and reaper, as well as the clover cleaner, belongs to Mrs. A.

H. Manning, of Plainfield, New Jersey. The patent on the clover cleaner was issued in the name of her husband; but, as he failed to apply for a patent for the mower and reaper, his wife was, after his death, robbed of the fruit of her brain by a neighbor, whose name appears on the list of patentees of an invention which originated with Mrs. Manning.

A few years ago men of science awoke to the startling fact that the earth's supply of nitrates was being rapidly exhausted. It was then realized that, unless some new store of this essential fertilizer could be found, it would soon be impossible to provide the food requisite for the world's teeming millions. What was to be done? Never was a more important problem presented to science for solution, and never did science more quickly and efficaciously respond. It was soon recognized that the earth's atmosphere was the only available storehouse for the much-needed nitrogen. Forthwith scientists and inventors the world over proceeded to tap this source of supply and to convert its vast stores of nitrogen into the nitrates which are so indispensable to vegetable life.

To form some idea of the importance of the problem and the urgency of its solution, it may be stated that the amount of fertilizer required for the cotton crop alone in the Southern States in 1911 was no less than three million tons. What, then, must have been the total amount used through the world for cereals and other crops that need constant fertilizing? The famous nitrate deposits of Chili could supply only a small fraction of the stupendous amount required, and they, according to recent calculations, cannot continue to meet the present demands on them for more than a hundred years longer, at most.

The process involved, when once conceived, was simple enough, for it merely required the conversion of the nitrogen of the air into nitric acid, which in turn was employed in the production of nitrate of lime.

But, simple as it was, mankind had to wait a long time for its origination, and action was taken only when necessity compelled. At present there are numerous nitrate factories in France, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Norway and the United States, and the output is already enormous and constantly increasing. Electricity, that mysterious force which has so frequently come to man's a.s.sistance during the last few decades, is the agent employed.

But who was the originator of the idea of utilizing the atmosphere for the production of nitrates? Who took out the first patent for a process for making nitrates by using the nitrogen of the air? It was a Frenchwoman--Mme. Lefebre, of Paris--long since forgotten. As early as 1859 she obtained a patent in England for her invention, but, as the need of fertilizers was not so urgent then as it is now, it was allowed to drop into oblivion, and the matter was not again taken up until a half-century later, when others secured the credit for an idea which was first conceived by a woman who happened to have the misfortune to live fifty years in advance of her time.

It were easy to extend the list of important inventions due to women and of patents which were issued in the name of their husbands or other men; to tell of inventions, too, of whose fruits, because they happened to be helpless or inexperienced women, the real patentees were often robbed; but the foregoing instances are quite sufficient to show what woman's keen inventive genius is capable of achieving in spite of all the restrictions put on her s.e.x, and in spite of her lack of training in the mechanic arts.

Had women, since the organization of our Patent Office, enjoyed all the educational opportunities possessed by men; had they received the same encouragement as the lordly s.e.x to develop their inventive faculties; had the laws of the country accorded them the rewards to which their labor and genius ent.i.tled them, they would now have far more inventions to their credit than those indicated in our government reports; and they would, furthermore, be able to point to far more brilliant achievements than have heretofore, under the unfavorable conditions under which they were obliged to work, been possible. But when we recall all the obstacles they have had to overcome and remember also the fact that most of the patents referred to in the preceding pages have been secured by women living in the United States--little being said of the modern inventions of women in foreign countries--we can see that their record is indeed a splendid one, that their achievements are not only worthy of all praise, but also a happy augury for the future. When they shall have the same freedom of action as men in all departments of activity in which they exhibit special apt.i.tude, when they shall have the same advantages of training and equipment and the prospect of the same emoluments as the sterner s.e.x for the products of their brainwork and craftsmanship, then may we expect them to achieve the same distinction in the mechanic arts as has rewarded their efforts in science and literature; and then, too, may we hope to see them once more regain something of that supremacy in invention which was theirs in the early history of our race.

FOOTNOTES:

[227] "On a vu des femmes tres savantes, comme en fut des guerrieres, mais il n'y en eut jamais d'inventrices." _Dictionnaire Philosophique, sub voce Femmes._ Condorcet, in commenting on this statement, remarks that "if men capable of invention were alone to have a place in the world, there would be many a vacant one, even in the academies."

[228] That marvelous structure known as the Taj Mahal--India's n.o.blest tribute to the grace and goodness of Indian womanhood--is sometimes said to be a monument to the memory of Nur Mahal. This is not the case. This matchless gem of architecture--

" ... The proud pa.s.sion of an emperor's love Wrought into living stone, which gleams and soars With body of beauty shrining soul and thought."

is a monument to Nur Mahal's niece and successor as empress, Mumtaz-Mahal--The Crown of the Palace--who, like her aunt, was a woman of rare beauty and talent and endeared herself to her people by her splendid qualities of mind and heart.

[229] The inventor of ca.n.a.ls as well as of bridges over rivers and causeways over mora.s.ses was, according to Greek historians, the famous a.s.syrian queen, Semiramis, the builder of Babylon with its wonderful hanging gardens.

[230] Among the works which treat of the subject-matter of the foregoing pages the reader may consult with profit, _Woman's Share in Primitive Culture_, by O. T. Mason, London, 1895; _Man and Woman_, the introductory chapter, by Havelock Ellis, London, 1898; and _Histoire Nouvelle des Arts et des Sciences_, by A. Renaud, Paris, 1878.

[231] Cf. _Women Inventors to whom patents have been granted by the United States Government, Compiled under the Direction of the Commissioner of Patents_, Washington, 1888. See also subsequent reports of the Patent Office.

[232] To one woman, Mary E. Poupard, of London, England, were granted in a single year no less than three patents for horse-shoes--two of the patents being for sectional and segmental horse-shoes.

CHAPTER XI

WOMEN AS INSPIRERS AND COLLABORATORS IN SCIENCE

One of the most interesting literary figures of the fifth century was Caius Apollinaris Sidonius, who, after holding a number of important civil offices, became the bishop of Clermont. The most valuable of his extant works are his nine books of letters which are a mine of information respecting the history of his age and the manners, customs and ideals of his contemporaries.

In one of these letters, addressed to Hesperius, a young friend of his who exhibited special talent in polite literature, he expresses a sentiment which applies as well to the votary of science as to the man of letters. Referring to the a.s.sistance which women had given to their husbands and friends in their studies, he conjures him to remember that in days of old it was the wont of Martia, Terentia, Calpurnia, Pudentilla and Rusticana to hold the lamp while their husbands, Hortensius, Cicero, Pliny, Apuleius and Symmachus, were reading and meditating.[233]

This picture of women as light-bearers to the great orators and philosophers just named is symbolic of them as the helpmates and inspirers of men in every field of human activity and in every age of the world's history. Always and everywhere, when permitted to occupy the same social plane as men, women have been not only as lamps unto the feet and as lights unto the paths of their male compeers in the ordinary affairs of life, but have also been their guiding stars and ministering angels in the highest spheres of intellectual effort.

For nearly fifteen centuries St. Jerome has had the grat.i.tude of the church for his masterly translation, known as the Vulgate, of the Hebrew Scriptures. But, had it not been for his two n.o.ble friends, Paula and Eustochium, who were as eminent for their intellectual attainments as they were for their descent from the most distinguished families of Rome and Greece, there would have been no Vulgate. For they were not only his inspirers in this colossal undertaking, but they were his active and zealous collaborators as well.

Dante and Petrarch are acclaimed as the morning stars of modern literature, but both of them owed their immortality to the inspiration of two pure-minded and n.o.ble-hearted women.

In the concluding paragraph of his Vita Nuova--the most beautiful love story ever written--Dante records his purpose to say of his inspirer, the gentle, gracious Beatrice Portinari, "what was never said of any woman." The outcome of this exalted purpose was the Divina Commedia, the world's greatest literary masterpiece.

Petrarch, the father of humanism, is the first to give Laura de Noves credit for his attainments as a poet. In one of his poems he sings:

"Blest be the year, the month, the hour, the day, The season and the time, and point of s.p.a.ce, And blest the beauteous country and the place Where first of two eyes I felt the sway."

Elsewhere in one of his prose dialogues with St. Augustine he declares, "Whatever you see in me, be it little or much, is due to her; nor would I ever have attained to this measure of name and fame unless she had cherished by those most n.o.ble influences that my feeble implanting of virtues which nature had placed in this breast."[234]

A no less remarkable inspirer, but in an entirely different sphere of activity, was the devout and spotless Italian maiden, Chiara Schiffi, better known as St. Clara. She was, as is well known, the ardent cooperator of St. Francis a.s.sisi in his great work of social and religious reform which has contributed so much toward the welfare of humanity. But it is not generally known what an important part she had in this great undertaking, and how she sustained the Poverello during long hours of trial and hardship. It was during these periods of care and struggle that we see how courageous and intrepid was "this woman who has always been represented as frail, emaciated, blanched like a flower of the cloister."

"She defended Francis not only against others but also against himself.

In those hours of dark discouragement which so often and so profoundly disturb the n.o.blest souls and sterilize the grandest efforts, she was beside him to show the way. When he doubted his mission and thought of fleeing to the heights of repose and solitary prayer, it was she who showed him the ripening harvest with no reapers to gather it in, men going astray with no shepherd to herd them, and drew him once again into the train of the Galilean, into the number of those who give their lives as a ransom for many."[235]

It is under the shade of the olive trees of St. Damian, with his sister-friend Clara caring for him, "that he composes his finest work, that which Ernest Renan called the most perfect utterance of modern religions sentiment, _The Canticle of the Sun_."[236]

This canticle, however, beautiful as it is, lacks, as has well been remarked, one strophe. "If it was not upon Francis' lips, it was surely in his heart:"

"Be praised, Lord, for Sister Clara; Thou hast made her silent, active, and sagacious, And, by her, thy light shines in our hearts."[237]

It was through the inspiration and influence of Theodora that the famous Church of St. Sophia, that matchless poem in marble and gold, that imperishable monument to the glory of the true G.o.d, came into existence.

It was through her that Justinian conceived the idea of those _Pandects_ and _Inst.i.tutes_ which const.i.tute the greatest glory of his reign, and which are the basis of the _Code Napoleon_ and of all modern jurisprudence.

It was to Vittoria Colonna that Michaelangelo dedicated many of the most exquisite productions of his peerless genius. "He saw," as has been said, "with her eyes and acted by her inspiration."

Almost every one of Chopin's compositions was inspired by women, and a large proportion of them are dedicated to them. The same may be said of Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Beethoven, Weber, Schumann and other ill.u.s.trious composers. All these sons of genius believed with Castiglione that "all inspiration must come from woman;" that she had been expressly created and sent into the world to inspire them with intelligence and creative power.

M. Claviere declares that "There is hardly a philosopher or a poet of the sixteenth century whose pages are not illuminated or gladdened by the smile of some high-born lady."[238]

What the brilliant Frenchman says of the influence of woman on the poets and philosophers of a single century could with equal truth be said of the poets and philosophers of every century from Anacreon and Plato to the present day. And, still more, it can be predicated of woman's inspiration and influence in every department of intellectual effort, in art and architecture, in music and literature, in science in all its departments, whether deductive or inductive.

It has been well said, "Were history to be rewritten, with due regard to women's share in it, many small causes, heretofore disregarded, would be found fully to explain great and unlooked-for results.... For it is not in outward facts, nor great names, nor noisy deeds, nor genealogies of crowned heads, nor in tragic loves, nor ambitious or striking heroism, nor crime, that we find proofs of the constant and secret working whereby woman most effectually a.s.serts herself. Certainly she has played her part in the outward and visible history of the world, but in that history which is told and written, which is buried in archives and revivified in books, woman's part is always small when set beside that of her companion, man. She contributes but little, and at this she may surely rejoice, to the tales of battles and treaties of successions and alliances, of violence, fraud, suspicions and hatreds. But if the inward history of human affairs could be described as fully as the outward facts; if the story of the family could be told together with the story of the nation; if human thoughts could with certainty be divined from human deeds, then the chief figure in this history of sentiment and morals would certainly be that of Woman the Inspirer."[239]

This same statement would hold equally good if applied to the part taken by women in the history of science. Their achievements have, in most cases, been so overshadowed by those of men that their work has been usually regarded as a negligible quant.i.ty. But when one considers the mainsprings of actions, and examines the silent undercurrents which escape the notice of the superficial observer, one finds, as in social and political history, that the most important scientific investigations are often conducted, and the most momentous discoveries are made, in consequence of the promptings of some devoted woman friend, or in virtue of the still, small voice of a cherished wife, or sister, who prefers to remain in the background in order that all the glory of achievement may redound to the man.

There have been, it may safely be a.s.serted, few really eminent men in science, as there have been few really eminent men in art or letters, or in the great reform and religious movements of the world, who have not been a.s.sisted by some woman light-bearer, as were Hortensius by Martia, Tully by Terentia and Pliny by Calpurnia. There have been few that have not, during hours of doubt and discouragement, been sustained and stimulated as was Francis by Clara, and Jerome by Paula and Eustochium.

And there have been still fewer who have not had, like Petrarch and Dante, their Laura or their Beatrice of whom each could say:

"This is the beacon guides to deeds of worth, And urges me to see the glorious goal: This bids me leave behind the vulgar throng."