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Mothers of Invention

In his 1957 book Inventors and Inventions, C.D. Tuska wrote, "The good Lord intended [women] to be mothers. They produce the inventors and help rear them, and that should be sufficient." Quite obviously, the sadly misguided Tuska never heard of Marion Donovan, Ann Moore, Bette Nesmith Graham or the myriad other women who were equally proficient as mothers and as inventors. From the windshield wiper to the Mars Rover to the first common business language for computers, history is filled with the monumental breakthroughs of these "mothers of invention."

Marion Donovan

Facing yet another sleepless night in 1946, Connecticut housewife and mother of two Marion Donovan decided that she had had enough. Frustrated by the thankless, repetitive task of changing her youngest child's soiled cloth diapers, bed sheets and clothing, she resolved to craft a diaper cover to keep her baby – and the surrounding area – dry. Donovan sat down at her sewing machine with a shower curtain and, after several attempts, she completed the first waterproof diaper cover.

Unlike the rubber baby pants that were already on the market, Donovan's design did not cause diaper rash and did not pinch the child's skin. The creative mother subsequently perfected her invention, adding snap fasteners in place of the dangerous safety pins that were commonly used. Donovan named her diaper cover the "Boater," explaining that "it helped keep babies afloat."

When no manufacturers would even consider her invention, Donovan struck out on her own, and the Boater was an unqualified success from the day it debuted at Saks Fifth Avenue in 1949. Donovan received a patent in 1951 and promptly sold the rights to Keko Corporation.

Her next project was a fully disposable diaper, for which she had to fashion a special type of paper that was not only strong and absorbent, but also conveyed water away from the baby's skin. Donovan took her finished product to every large manufacturer in the country, but once again she found no takers. Incredulously, everyone she talked to told her that the idea was superfluous and impractical. It was not until nearly a decade later, in 1961, that Victor Mills drew upon Donovan's vision to create Pampers®.

But although her discovery of the first convenient disposable diaper may go largely unnoticed, Marion Donovan deserves the undying gratitude of new parents around the globe.

Bette Nesmith Graham

Did you know that the mother of a popular musician was responsible for one of the most widely used office products of the 20th century? Bette Nesmith Graham – whose son, Michael Nesmith, became famous as a member of "The Monkees" – created Liquid Paper as a result of job-related difficulties.

In 1951, while Graham was working as executive secretary for the Chairman of the Board of the Texas Bank and Trust, she and her colleagues began experiencing trouble with the recently developed IBM electric typewriters. The new machines did make typing easier, but their carbon-film ribbons made it impossible to correct mistakes neatly with a pencil eraser. Tired of having to retype entire pages because of one small error, Graham determined to find a more efficient alternative.

The impetus for Graham's breakthrough came as she observed painters decorating the bank windows for the holidays. Rather than remove their mistakes entirely, the painters simply covered any imperfections with an additional layer. The quick-thinking Graham mimicked their technique by using a white, water-based tempera paint to cover her typing errors.

When the other secretaries realized how well the invention worked, they flooded Graham with requests for their own supplies. Graham sold her first batch of "Mistake Out" in 1956, and soon she was working full-time to produce and bottle it from her North Dallas home. Her son Michael and his friends helped to fill the growing number of orders for Mistake Out.

Graham continued experimenting with the makeup of the substance until she achieved the perfect combination of paint and several other chemicals. The refined product was renamed "Liquid Paper" in 1958 and, amid soaring demand, Graham applied for a patent and a trademark that same year. By 1967, her Liquid Paper company had its own corporate headquarters and automated production plant, and sales were in excess of one million units per year.

Ann Moore

As a Peace Corps nurse during the 1960s in Togo, West Africa, Ann Moore saw African mothers do something that she found very interesting: they carried their babies in fabric slings tied securely on their backs. Moore liked the closeness between babies and their mothers when carried in this way. She observed how the babies seemed so calm because they felt secure and near to their mothers.

When Moore came back home to the United States and decided to have her own child, she wanted to carry her baby in the same manner. After her daughter Mandela was born, Moore attempted to secure the baby on her back just as she had seen in Africa, but the child kept slipping. Starting from a simple backpack and then refining it to their needs, Moore and her mother designed a carrier similar to the ones used by the women in Togo. Together, they came up with the original soft baby carrier, the Snugli®, as well as other kinds of specialized carrying cases.

Due to this invention, mothers and fathers all over the world are able to ride bikes, cook and run errands while carrying their babies close to them. Here is a picture of Moore with the Snugli®.

We at InventHelp® hope that you find these "Mothers of Invention" stories as fascinating as we do. InventHelp® salutes Marion Donovan, Bette Nesmith Graham, Ann Moore and the many other mothers who have made their marks on the history of inventing.

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