Of the uncountable evidences of woman's inventive genius, the enumeration
of the following devices and improvements may suffice: a chain elevator;
an appliance for lessening the noise of elevated cars; a lubricating felt
for diminishing friction (very useful for railroad cars); a portable
water-reservoir for extinguishing small fires; an apparatus for weighing
wool (one of the most sensitive machines ever invented, and of
incalculable advantage for the wool industry); a rotary loom (performing
thrice the work of an ordinary one); furthermore, manifold improvements to
the sewing-machine, such as a device for threading the needle while the
machine is in full operation; an appliance for sewing leather--contrived
by a woman in New York who runs a saddlery business there--; and many
others. To the sensational inventions, originated in female brains,
belong--the sea-telescope devised by Mrs. Mather, an instrument for the
purpose of examining the keel of a ship without requiring her being put
into the dry-dock--and a complicated machine for manufacturing paper bags,
a very intricate affair which many eminent mechanicians have made but
unsuccessful efforts to contrive. Since then, Miss Maggie Knight, the
inventress of the machine above mentioned, has found out another; namely
for folding paper-bags.
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