WEBVTT - Salute to Women Inventors 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:06.920 Welcome to stuff you should know a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:14.040 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:17.640 Chuck and Jerry's here too, and we're just gonna play 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:20.639 a rousing version of Yankee to do Old Landy or 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:24.560 something like that in the background of this stirring episode. 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:28.240 You got a. 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:31.080 Picklo, No, I'm just gonna go like this. I'll record 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:33.440 a track of do Do Do Do Do Do Do 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:36.120 Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:39.240 Do Do Do and we'll play that on a loop 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:42.760 underneath us talking. Jerry said she can do it with editning. 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:46.159 I'm sure this would be an all time great Okay. 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:49.199 The reason I want to do that is because as 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:52.919 I was reading this, I was what's the word I'm 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:56.400 looking for? I'm toying with enthused. That's not it. That 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.360 sounds like the opposite of how I feel. It is inspiring, 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:06.360 but also like, it's just cool that there's this un Well, 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:09.000 in a way, it's not cool. It's cool to discover 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:13.000 this whole group, this whole cadre of inventors that just 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:15.800 are overlooked. That's the uncool part. They've been overlooked. For 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:18.520 so long. But there's a bunch of women inventors here 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.480 in America and around the world presumably, but we're just 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:26.920 talking about American ones today that really made some amazing contributions, 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:30.759 and especially at first for the first significant amount of time, 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:34.759 they really had an uphill battle to get their invention 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:38.840 like out there because of just how generally mistreated women were. 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:43.400 Yeah. Absolutely, here's a fairly horrifying stat because it was 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:45.600 not that long ago, but in the late twentieth century, 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:48.600 only about ten percent of all patents were awarded to 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:52.720 women and their inventions. And we're going to talk about 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:56.080 some of the reasons before we get going on highlighting 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:58.240 some of these great inventions and some of these great women. 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:04.360 But one reason is just a lot of times, if 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:06.480 you were a woman and you had an invention, you 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:09.600 had to file it at least the patent under your 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:12.639 husband's name, or your brother's or your father's name, or 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:15.160 any man in your life that was willing to sign 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:18.680 on the dotted line saying yeah, that's my idea, because 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:24.240 you can't. You can't grant intellectual property or a patent 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:27.040 to my sister or wife or daughter. 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:30.640 Yeah, remember in the Widow's episode we talked about coverture, 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:34.920 which was a woman was either essentially an extension of 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:37.720 her father while she lived with her parents or her 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:41.079 husband after she got married and could not she had 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:44.520 no property rights. If you have no property rights, you 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:48.960 can't own intellectual property, and therefore you can't have a 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:53.560 patent on anything, because that, by definition gives you intellectual property. 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:57.080 And that was a huge deal for a while. In 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:01.040 addition to that, because women were just generally treated, they 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:05.160 also didn't have access to schooling or education, especially technical 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:08.399 education that would kind of help those who were already 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:11.880 inventive by nature to actually like blossom. 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:15.400 Yeah, and what an incentive is there too? If you 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:18.040 know that you can't get a patent for something, it's 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:21.840 gonna dull your inspiration to go out and try and 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:25.639 invent something to begin with, because what's the point. I mean, sure, 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:27.720 there's a point to inventing things because you might make 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:29.960 the world better, But I think a lot of the 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:34.120 drive for invention is also to do with like money, 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:36.120 having something in your name and making money on it. 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:39.840 Yeah, absolutely, yeah, But yeah, having something in your name 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:41.760 I think is a more sentimental way to put it, 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:44.360 for sure, But it does deter it, and I'm sure 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:45.840 that was part of the whole thing. I mean, at 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:49.200 the very least, women weren't seen as a group that needed, 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.040 that should be encouraged to pursue these kind of things, 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:56.600 if not actively discouraged, and some women face that. There 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:58.880 was actually I didn't know about this, but at the 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:03.200 Seneca Falls convey and then the suffrage movement that followed, 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:08.520 there were a couple of competing groups that were like, 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:10.720 we really need to put all of our time and 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:13.880 effort behind suffrage, like giving women the right to vote. 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:15.520 That needs to be our focus. We need to say, 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:18.160 laser focus on that, because that's important. That's the one 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:20.839 you think of when you think of the women's rights 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:23.880 movement of the nineteenth century. But there's a other group 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:28.120 economic feminists that were like, hey, you can have all 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:29.920 the voting rights you want in the world, but if 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:34.400 you don't have any means of being self sufficient, if 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:36.960 you need to be it, it doesn't add up to 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:39.120 a hill of beans. I think that was their slogan. 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:43.920 Yeah, there was a woman named Charlotte Smith who, like 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:45.440 you said, she was like, you know, if we want 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:49.040 to make real advances, then how about and she eventually 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:51.599 came to the invention part of it, but how about 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:55.440 property rights and intellectual property rights? And then starting in 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:59.040 eighteen seventy five, she really focused in on inventors and 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:02.560 invention and getting patents and getting the patent Office to 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:07.560 just simply recognize the fact that women were starting to 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:12.000 get patents. Was took nine years. It was in I 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:17.280 believe eighteen seventy nine she moved to DC started hassling 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:19.960 the Patent Office to say, hey, here's all I want. 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:24.760 Just give me a list of women inventors period. I 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:27.560 think it could inspire other women. We could publish it. 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:29.839 So if you could just put together that list, you 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:32.160 got the list, put it together for me, and they 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:37.200 said sure. Nine years later they came back with women 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:40.520 as well. I think she packaged it, but women inventors 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:44.200 to whom patents have been granted, And in eighteen eighty 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:48.039 eight she published it five hundred copies worth, and that 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:50.680 I'm sure was a big game changer as far as like, hey, 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:53.120 look it's happening, it's possible, you can do it. 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:57.120 Yes, And while that did kind of open up the 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:00.920 floodgates two women inventors seeing like I can do this, 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:03.920 there is like a path for me here to take 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:08.280 toward inventing. There were women who did have patents in 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:11.600 their name prior to this. It was just extremely rare. 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:16.720 Oh yeah, I mean, well there were how many were there? 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:18.160 Did it? I thought there was a list here? 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:21.279 Uh yeah, the only one that I've come across. I 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:24.320 never saw the list of women inventors to whom patents 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:28.520 have been granted, but I did see one. I think 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:30.920 the first American woman to earn a patent in her 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:33.440 name was named Mary Dixon keys Ki Ees. 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:36.839 Yeah, she was the first one about ninety years earlier. 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:40.800 But it supposedly took four clerks ten days to put 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:43.840 this list together, So you know, it was a great 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:46.200 thing that Charlotte Smith did. She had a vision that 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:48.680 this could be a game changer, and it seems like 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:49.320 it probably was. 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:52.360 Yeah. She was like, you can't hide the truth any 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:56.520 longer with your Walrus mustaches and your arm guarters. Give 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:58.599 me that list, and they did. 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:00.960 So should we highlight some of these? These are pretty great? 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:01.920 Yes? 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:05.280 All right, Well let's take a break after this first one, 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:08.559 maybe because I want I'm eager to talk about Marie 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:12.120 Van Britton Brown. She was awesome. She was born in 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:16.160 nineteen twenty two in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, an 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:20.840 African American woman who worked as a nurse and oftentimes 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:23.800 was working you know, late night shifts, coming and going 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:29.280 at odd hours. Her husband, Albert Brown, was an electronics technician. 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:33.240 He had odd hours of work too, So how that 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:36.240 shakes out is a lot of times Marie van Britton 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:38.640 Brown would be at home or come home late at night, 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:42.320 be a little worried, and you know, what was a 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:45.320 rough neighborhood at the time as to who may become 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:50.240 a knocking on her door. So she invented along with 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:53.520 her husband's help, but it ended up being kind of 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:57.000 the first closed circuit TV system and home security system 0:07:57.040 --> 0:07:58.080 in the nineteen sixties. 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:02.120 Yeah, it's pretty amazing. It was a bunch of different 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:07.040 systems that they put together to create this one complete 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:09.720 system pretty much out of the box. It was like 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:13.320 a complete security system. But they really had to work 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:17.280 with a lack of technology at the time, Like there 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:20.600 was no way to pan the video camera that the 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:24.480 whole thing was based on. So instead they had four 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:28.120 separate peopoles and you could raise or lower the camera 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:31.200 to the correct peopole depending on the height of the 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:32.560 person on the other side. 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:37.720 I find that ingenius, great idea, I said, CCTV. So 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:41.640 there were television monitors. This camera fed into these monitors. 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:44.200 So the idea is that you didn't actually have to 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:46.840 go to the door. And even looking through a peepole 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:50.040 can be dangerous if someone knows you're just on the 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:53.520 other side of the door at that people, they can 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:53.920 get you. 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.120 That's what it saysn't the patent application, that's what it said. 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:02.800 So she had to a remote control that would let 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:06.040 her unlock the door from a distance away, and an 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:10.079 emergency button a distance away that would alert the police 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:13.959 or security in the apartment building. You had these four 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:18.360 peep holes, this sliding camera, and two way microphones, so 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:21.199 she could actually say, like who's you know, basically what 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:24.160 we have now with like ring doorbells and nest doorbells. Yeah, 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:26.840 she thought of this idea and her husband helped her 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:29.200 pull it off in nineteen sixty six. 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:33.360 Yeah, and the idea of just how ubiquitous this has become. 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:37.360 This is like such a commonplace everyday thing now is 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:41.200 kind of a testament to what she invented because at 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:46.360 the time This was completely revolutionary. There was nothing like 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:48.800 this at the time, and she and her husband just 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:52.120 invented it from whole cloth. And I think they got 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:55.240 patent number three million, four hundred and eighty two thousand 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:58.480 and thirty seven. That was the US patent for their 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:01.360 closed circuit television security system. 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:04.079 That's right. She also got an award from the National 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:08.000 Scientist Committee. She was recognized in The Times, the paper 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:11.320 of record. Sadly she passed away in nineteen ninety nine 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:13.920 at the age of seventy six. But it was such 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:19.120 a good idea that thirty two subsequent patent applications referenced 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:23.880 her original invention and their patent application. So, in other words, 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:24.640 great idea. 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:29.320 Yes, indeed, you want to take that break, now, let's 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:31.720 do it. Okay, we'll be right back. 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:36.839 And in things. 0:10:37.160 --> 0:11:04.680 Job in job, okay, chuck. So up next, we're going 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:09.240 to talk about a woman named Josephine Cochrane who kind 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:12.760 of bucked the trend of inventors and was a wealthy 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:17.560 socialite and supposedly the origin of her invention, the dishwasher, 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:25.719 the first actual useful dishwasher, came from dismay that her 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:29.080 servants washing her fine china that had been in her 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:32.560 family since the seventeenth century, that it was getting chipped, 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:35.000 and so at first she's like, give me that, I'll 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:37.079 do this, And then she was like, oh, doing the 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:39.760 dishes really sucks. There's got to be a better way. 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:42.440 And she put it off to the side for a while. 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:45.440 But then her husband died and left her and her 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.080 family in debt, and she decided to bring that idea 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:50.360 off of the shelf and invent her way out of debt. 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:51.679 And that's exactly what she did. 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:55.120 Yeah, for sure, you mentioned this was the first sort 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:58.800 of really practical usable dishwasher. There had been other attempts, 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:02.080 but you know, there litle clunky literally clunky. They were 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:03.960 the kind of thing where like you turn a crank 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:08.360 on the side and the dishes are jumbling around. Yeah, 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:10.680 well they would break and chip. And she was like, well, listen, 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:13.240 this is my original problem is that I have chip 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:18.199 dishes here, So why don't we do something mechanical that 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:22.600 you don't crank and move those dishes around. She very smartly, 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:26.240 at least for her, because she was making something for herself. 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:29.800 She measured her dishes and made sure that each compartment 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:34.120 fit the dishes very well and stayed in place. Like 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:35.920 I said, I don't know that she had the idea 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:38.360 that this is going to be a big mass marketed product. 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.240 Yet she's just trying to solve her problem. And she 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:45.400 had a motor powered wheel above a boiler spring soapy 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:48.680 water on dishes and got it patent on December twenty eighth, 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:50.000 eighteen eighty six. 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:54.240 Yes, kids, you just imagine the person who came over 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:56.959 that hand crank dishwasher demonstrating it, and you can just 0:12:57.040 --> 0:13:00.439 hear all the dish yeah, breaking inside, frank in it. 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:02.880 They're like, I'm sure they're fine in there. This is 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:04.720 what it sounds like when they're being washed. 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:06.439 It rarely happens that way. 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:10.679 So the eighteen ninety three World's Fair in Chicago, the 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:14.160 White City where the Devil in the White City is set, 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:20.559 that was a huge kind of like introduction of women 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:24.640 inventors in the United States to the world, and Josephine 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:27.240 Cochrane was one of them. She debuted her dishwasher at 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:30.079 the eighteen ninety three World's Fair and actually won a 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:35.920 World's Fair award. So I abbreviated this and I don't 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:39.079 remember exactly how it goes. But it has to do 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:45.400 with mechanical construction, durability and adapted to its line of work. 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:50.839 Oh great, so she knocked out all four of those boxes. Or, 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:55.920 to put briefly, best mech construct durable and adapt to 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:56.960 its line of work. 0:13:57.160 --> 0:14:01.240 End quote looks strange on a trophy. Hey, she earned it. 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:06.319 She earned it, and this little company that she established 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:10.920 ended up becoming Kitchen Aid. It was after she died 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:14.839 in nineteen thirteen. But hey, pretty big feather in the 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:20.840 old burial cap. I guess hotels and restaurants were the 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:23.640 first ones to use it because even though it was 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:27.600 super handy as a thing, houses didn't have hot water 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:31.200 heaters that could kind of sustain that level of output 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:33.480 at the time, so you had to have these big 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:36.600 giant bowlers and boilers and hotels and stuff that could 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:40.160 handle that. But her time would come by the nineteen 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:44.600 fifties when those hot water heaters got better. The home 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:47.880 dishwasher became a pretty great thing. And I think anyone 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:51.800 whoever has lived in a small apartment or his apartment 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:54.240 searching a dishwasher was always very high at the top 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:56.600 of my list because she didn't always get them. 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:01.120 Yeah, so hats off Josephine Cochrane. 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:03.440 You know you gotta sometimes you run a vacation house. 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:04.720 They got two of those things. 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:09.200 Oh yeah, like two dishwashers, like dish washers. 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:10.440 Yeah, if you were in like a house on the 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:12.640 beach where you know, they want those houses to sleep 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:13.440 like twenty people. 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:14.400 Oh I gotcha. 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:18.240 Sure, they'll have like sometimes two stoves, two dishwashers, or 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:21.760 two sets of washers and dryers and stuff. It's pretty amazing. 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:24.720 We got one of those ones that's like one full 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:28.560 size washer but broken into two drawers so you can 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:31.200 run your dish dishwasher like pretty frequently. 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:32.960 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I like it. 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:33.840 It works really well. 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:34.360 Yeah. 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:39.080 I like them too, And we can thank Josephine Cochrane 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:43.720 for that. It's originated that in a pretty direct way. 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:45.920 I wonder who came up with the drawer style. 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:50.920 I don't know. I just don't know. Yeah, do you 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:51.800 want me to look it up? 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:55.360 No, that's okay, okay, kid, because we're gonna talk about diapers, 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:56.400 right yeah. 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:59.160 We're gonna move on to an inventor named Marion Donovan 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:03.480 who has a bunch of inventions to her name, but 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:08.600 the one that she's most famous for is disposable diapers. 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:12.080 That's right. You know. A lot of times, necessity is 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:15.840 a mother of invention. And at the time Mary and 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:21.480 Donovan was working at home as a homemaker. And this 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:26.000 is after graduating from college and working for Vogue magazine 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:29.720 and after inventing things even as a kid. I think 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:32.720 in elementary school she came up with a toothpowder that 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:35.920 improved dntal hygiene. So Mary and Donovan just had one 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:40.960 of those inventor's brains. But while she was working as 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:45.400 a mom and at home, she was putting her little 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:48.280 babies down right after she changed that diaper for a 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:50.760 little nappy time, and that baby would just be so 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:53.600 happy they would peel over the place. And with those 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:56.480 cloth diapers at the time that you safety pin, that 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:59.360 would leak out onto the bed sheets. So now she's 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:02.680 got a baby or poopy baby, and you've got a 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:04.560 wet or poopy diaper, and then you have wet or 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:07.280 poopy sheets, and that is no good. And she said, 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:08.440 there's got to be a better way. 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:11.480 Yeah, And at the time, there were something called rubber 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:15.720 pants already, which is like a diaper made of really 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:21.160 thick material that didn't breathe, so you would just pee yourself, 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:23.960 and your neglectful parent would leave you to wallow in 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:26.480 your own urine and get diaper rash because that stuff 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:27.280 wouldn't leak out. 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:29.160 Yeah. 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:32.280 I think they went over the diaper. It's like a 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:35.959 little pair of pants exactly. Yeah, but it would keep 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:38.480 it would prevent those leaks from happening. But that didn't 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:40.879 mean you didn't still pee yourself, so you would get 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:42.280 diaper rash as a result. 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:45.639 Yeah. I'd probably cut off some circulation to the calf 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:47.440 and the waistline. 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:49.840 Yeah, and then they would take you out in one 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:53.280 of those death strollers that we were raised in, and 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:55.480 you'd spend some time on the jungle gym. That was 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:59.040 also related to death because not only were there like 0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:01.800 rusty edges, there were also hornets nests in the end 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:03.080 of every single one of those. 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:07.600 That's right, So all you have to do is not 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:09.520 vibrate those things in your Fine, this onen't just going 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:10.120 to stay in place. 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:15.200 Yeah, if you just hang from the monkey bars without moving. 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:18.600 Dead still like a yet, you'll be fine. So she 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:22.879 said nuts to all this, ran and grabbed a shower curtain. 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:26.160 Cut it. Actually two size and was like, this isn't 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:28.840 just a big pair of rubber pants, and sewed it 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:33.280 on the outside of the cloth diaper, added some snaps 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:35.840 so you didn't need those safety pins, and all of 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:38.400 a sudden you had your cloth diaper that could fit 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:43.800 inside of a fitted shower curtain. 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:47.800 Basically, yeah, I think that's what she started out with, 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:51.160 was a shower curtain, but she landed ultimately on something 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:55.320 like nylon parachute material. It could generally keep leaks in, 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:58.440 but it was much more breathable and so this is 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:01.960 not necessarily the dispoper. This is the thing that led 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:05.880 to the disposable diaper. She marketed and called it boaters. 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:09.600 To her, they looked like boats. I looked at these things. 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:11.680 I did not see it, but that's what they were called. 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:14.200 It's a catchy, cute little name. And what it was 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:19.560 was like an improved rubber pants or rubber like diaper cover, 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.280 because you still use the cloth diaper in there, but 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:24.760 it would prevent leaks, but it was breathable enough that 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:28.639 it didn't cause diaper rash. So this called the attention 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:30.760 to a lot of people. Apparently it started being sold 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:34.480 at sax Fifth Avenue in nineteen forty nine, and the 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:37.920 Kiko Corporation came and knocking and said, we'll give you 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:43.000 one million dollars for this idea. And Marion just laughed 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:44.000 all the way to the bank. 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:47.200 Yeah, because she said, you know what, that's nineteen forty nine, 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:50.320 and these two dopes podcast about me in twenty twenty 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:52.560 four h ask me like thirteen million bucks. 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:56.359 Yeah, which is pretty sweet for Yeah, a woman who 0:19:56.480 --> 0:19:58.080 just invented something out of necessity. 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:01.080 Yeah, I mean it meant she was ra immediately. She 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:04.560 got a patent for those boaters nineteen fifty one, and 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:07.000 then went to work on what you were talking about, 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:10.640 the disposable paper diaper, and did that and it worked 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:14.679 pretty well, but it wasn't a big commercial success because 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:19.800 the diaper industry didn't get behind it. They were like, hey, 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:22.720 you know, this is pretty good, but all that really 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:25.840 is doing is keeping you from having to wash cloth 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:28.240 diapers over and over, and we don't see the value 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:28.480 in that. 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:31.120 Right, It's an unnecessary convenience. 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:33.119 Nih get back to work exactly. 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:36.000 It took ten years then finally Procter and Gamble saw 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:40.359 the usefulness in this and came up with Pampers and 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:45.120 the landfills of the world just shuddered in expectation. 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:46.040 That's right. 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:49.520 Some other I said that Mary and Donovan also invented 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:51.680 some other stuff too. She invented something called the Zippity 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:54.440 do you very cool? Very cool? So it's like an 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:57.320 elastic extension that you put onto a zipper so that 0:20:57.400 --> 0:21:00.280 you can zip your own dress much more easily. Yeah, 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:02.760 there's also something called the Big hang Up. 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:03.480 I love that. 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:06.480 It came out in the late sixties or seventies, based 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:10.679 on the font used in the advertisement. But it essentially 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:14.359 took your clothes and turned them the opposite way that 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:17.560 you would normally hang them from a hanger. So you 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:22.159 would hang it at like a rack from the what 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:23.920 is the thing that you hang the hangers on in 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:28.520 a closet, the rail, the pole, rod, the rod, thank you, 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:30.960 And you would take those clothes and turn them the 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:33.440 opposite way so you could fit more clothes front to 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:36.520 back and side to side. It was an enormous space 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:37.639 saving measure. 0:21:38.000 --> 0:21:40.639 Yeah, I mean it was basically a grid, like a 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:45.000 metal grid, and you could hang anything. So it used 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:47.760 paper or not paper clips, clothes pins, right, so you 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:49.840 could hang your belts, you could hang a hat, you 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:51.359 could hang a pair of boots, You could hang whatever 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:54.200 you wanted, what else, and more lots of things. But 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:57.080 the point is this one grid could hold like four 0:21:57.119 --> 0:21:59.320 pair of pants, two pair of boots, seven belts. 0:21:59.880 --> 0:22:01.480 You sure you can hold a pair of boots up 0:22:01.560 --> 0:22:04.800 with some clothes pins, That's what he had said, all right, 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:07.400 They must have been lightweight boots back then. Like maybe 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:09.040 they're talking about like Aladdin shoes. 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:11.560 Yeah, well, I think it speaks to the clothespins too. 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:14.920