盘点由女性发明的10件东西(下)

Square-bottomed Paper Bag

5.方底纸袋

Margaret Knight didn't invent the paper bag, but those first paper bags weren't all that useful for carrying things. They were more like envelopes, so there was no way they'd become the grocery store staple that they are today. For that, we have to thank Knight. Knight realized that paper bags should have a square bottom; when weight was distributed across the base in this way, the bags could carry more things. In 1870, she created a wooden machine that would cut, fold and glue the square bottoms to paper bags. While she was working on an iron prototype of the machine to use for her patent application, she discovered that her design had been stolen by a man named Charles Annan, who had seen her wooden machine a few months earlier. She filed a patent interference suit against Annan, who claimed that there was no way that a woman could have developed such a complex machine. Knight used her notes and sketches to prove otherwise, and she was granted the patent for the device in 1871. That was hardly Knight's first patent, though. At the age of 12, Knight had developed a stop-motion device that would automatically bring industrial machines to a halt if something was caught on them, which prevented many injuries; all told, Knight was awarded more than 20 patents.

纸袋不是玛格丽特·奈特发明的，而最初用这些纸袋装东西并不是那么有用。它们更像信封，所以它们没有办法像今天这样成为杂货店的主要商品。为此，我们必须要感谢奈特。她意识到纸袋应该采用方形底；当重量通过这种方法分散在底部各部分时，纸袋可以携带更多的东西。在1870年，她发明了可以为纸袋剪裁、折叠和粘合方形底部木头机器。当她正在制造这样的一台铁制机器用于申请专利时，却发现一个叫查尔斯·安南的男人盗用了她的设计。安南曾在几个月前看过她的木头机器，他宣称一个女人不可能研制出这么复杂的机器。于是奈特对安南提出了诉讼，用笔记和草图证明了自己，最后她在1871年获得该设备的专利。然而这并不是奈特的第一个专利。在12岁的时候，奈特研制了一个自停装置。如果一些东西阻碍了工业机器，自停装置会让它们自动停止，这预防了很多事故。奈特总共获得了20多项专利。

washer

4.洗碗机

You might think that the first dishwasher was invented by someone who spent years washing dishes, bemoaning the wasted time and the dishpan hands. Actually, Josephine Cochrane, who received the patent for the first working dishwasher, didn't spend that much time washing dishes. The real impetus for her invention was frustration over her servants breaking her heirloom china after fancy dinners.

你可能会以为世界上第一个洗碗机是由一个洗了好多年碗的人发明的，他抱怨着洗碗浪费时间，而且还使他的手变得粗糙。事实上，第一个获得洗碗机专利的约瑟芬·科克伦并没有在洗碗上花太多时间。她发明洗碗机的真正动力是她的仆人在丰盛的晚餐之后打碎了她的传家宝瓷盘，她因此而感到非常沮丧。

Cochrane was a socialite who loved to entertain, but after her husband died in 1883, she was left with massive debt. Rather than selling off that beloved china, she focused on building a machine that would wash it properly. Her machine relied upon strong water pressure aimed at a wire rack of dishes, and she received a patent for the device in 1886. Cochrane claimed that inventing the machine was nowhere near as hard as promoting it. At first, the Cochrane dishwasher tanked with individual consumers, as many households lacked the hot water heaters necessary to run it, and those that had the capacity balked at paying for something that housewives did for free. Undaunted, Cochrane sought appointments with large hotels and restaurants, selling them on the fact that the dishwasher could do the job they were paying several dozen employees to do. In time, however, more households acquired the device as greater numbers of women entered the workplace.

科克伦是位社交名媛，喜欢宴请宾客，但是1883年她的丈夫去世，给她留下了大笔债务。她没有卖掉心爱的瓷器，反而集中精力发明了一台能够洗碗的机器。她的洗碗机依靠强大的水压冲洗金属架上的碗碟，她因此在1886年获得了洗碗机的专利。刚开始只有个别消费者使用科克伦洗碗机，因为很多家庭没有使之运行的热水器，而且很多人对花钱买洗碗机犹豫不决，毕竟家庭主妇洗碗可是免费的。科克伦并未放弃，她努力寻求与大型酒店和餐馆进行合作，因为洗碗机可以做几十个带薪洗碗工的工作，因此他们很可能会购买洗碗机。然而一段时间之后，很多女性开始参加工作，这使得更多的家庭接受了洗碗机。

shield Wiper

3.雨刮器

At the dawn of the 20th century, Mary Anderson went to New York City for the first time. She saw a much different New York City than the one tourists see today. There were no cabs honking, nor were there thousands of cars vying for position in afternoon traffic. Cars had not yet captured the American imagination and were quite rare when Anderson took that trip, but the woman from Alabama would end up inventing something that has become standard on every automobile. During her trip, Anderson took a tram through the snow-covered city.

在20世纪的一个清晨，玛丽·安德森第一次来到纽约。她当时看到的纽约和今天游客所见的大不相同。街道上没有不停鸣笛的出租车，也不会出现成千上万的汽车在下午的交通高峰期拥堵不堪的状况。汽车还没有引起美国人的重视，还十分稀有。但是这位来自亚拉巴马的女性最后发明的东西竟然成了汽车的标准配件。她在旅程中乘坐电车穿越了这座白雪覆盖的城市。

She noticed that the driver had to stop the tram every few minutes to wipe the snow off his front window. At the time, all drivers had to do so; rain and snow were thought to be things drivers had to deal with, even though they resulted in poor visibility. When she returned home, Anderson developed a squeegee on a spindle that was attached to a handle on the inside of the vehicle. When the driver needed to clear the glass, he simply pulled on the handle and the squeegee wiped the precipitation from the windshield. Anderson received the patent for her device in 1903; just 10 years later, thousands of Americans owned a car with her invention.

她注意到电车驾驶员每隔几分钟就要停下来扫掉挡风玻璃上的雪。那个时候所有的驾驶员都这么做；雨雪是司机们不得不处理的东西，即使处理后司机仍然看不清前方。安德森回家以后发明了一个“橡胶清洁刷”，将刷子固定在细长的杆上，并把这根杆系在车辆内部的一个手柄上。需要清扫挡风玻璃时，司机只需要拉动手柄，清洁刷就会扫掉挡风玻璃上积累的雨雪。1903年安德森获得了雨刮器的专利；仅在10年后，成千上万的美国人都拥有了一辆配有她的发明的汽车。

atin

2.制霉菌素

Long-distance romantic relationships are often troubled, but Rachel Fuller Brown and Elizabeth Lee Hazen proved that long-distance professional relationships can yield productive results. Both Brown and Hazen worked for the New York State Department of Health in the 1940s, but Hazen was stationed in New York City and Brown was in Albany. Despite the miles, Brown and Hazen collaborated on the first successful fungus-fighting drug.

异地恋常常出现问题，但蕾切尔·富勒·布朗和伊丽莎白·李·哈森的故事却证明了相隔较远的职业关系可以带来丰厚的成果。20世纪40年代，布朗和哈森都为纽约州卫生部工作，但是哈森常年在纽约，布朗却在奥尔巴尼。尽管隔着数英里，但是布朗和哈森却在合作，并研制出了第一种抗菌药物。

In New York City, Hazen would test soil samples to see if any of the organisms within would respond to fungi. If there was activity, Hazen would mail the jar of soil to Brown, who would work to extract the agent in the soil that was causing the reaction. Once Brown had found the active ingredient, it went back in the mail to Hazen, who'd check it against the fungi again. If the organism killed the fungi, it would be evaluated for toxicity. Most of the samples proved too toxic for human use, but finally Brown and Hazen happened upon an effective fungus-killing drug in 1950. They named it Nystatin, after New York state. The medication, now sold under a variety of trade names, cures fungal infections that affect the skin, vagina and intestinal system. It's also been used on trees with Dutch elm disease and on artwork affected by mold.

哈森在纽约测试土壤样本，检验里面是否有有机体会对真菌做出反应。如果有反应的，哈森将寄一罐这样的土壤给布朗，布朗则会提取土壤中导致反应的物质。布朗一旦发现了活性成分，就会寄回给哈森，让他再次进行检测。如果有机物杀死了真菌,它的毒性将得到评估。大部分样品毒性太大而不适合人类使用，但最终，布朗和哈森在1950年偶然发现了一种有效的杀菌药物。他们借用纽约州的名字把它命名为制霉菌素，这种药现在有很多商标名称，用于治疗皮肤、阴道和肠道系统的真菌感染。这种药也被用于治疗荷兰榆树病和解决艺术品受到霉菌影响的问题。

ar

1.凯夫拉

It was just supposed to be a temporary job. Stephanie Kwolek took a position at DuPont in 1946 so she could save enough money to go to medical school. In 1964, she was still there, researching how to turn polymers into extra strong synthetic fibers. Kwolek was working with polymers that had rod-like molecules that all lined up in one direction.

这只是斯黛芬妮·克劳莱克的一份临时工作。1946年，斯黛芬妮·克劳莱克在杜邦公司工作，有了这份工作她就可以存下足够的钱去医学院上学。1964年，她依然在那里，研究如何把聚合物变成坚韧的合成纤维。克劳莱研究的聚合物具有棒状分子，并且排列在一个方向。

Compared to the molecules that formed jumbled bundles, Kwolek thought the uniform lines would make the resulting material stronger, though these polymers were very difficult to dissolve into a solution that could be tested. She finally prepared such a solution with the rod-like molecules, but it looked unlike all the other molecular solutions she'd ever made. Her next step was to run it through the spinneret, a machine that would produce the fibers. However, the spinneret operator almost refused to let Kwolek use the machine, so different was this solution from all the others before; he was convinced it would ruin the spinneret. Kwolek persisted, and after the spinneret had done its work, Kwolek had a fiber that was ounce-for-ounce as strong as steel. This material was dubbed Kevlar, and it's been used to manufacture skis, radial tires and brake pads, suspension bridge cables, helmets, and hiking and camping gear. Most notably, Kevlar is used to make bulletproof vests, so even though Kwolek didn't make it to medical school, she still saved plenty of lives.

与混乱的分子束相比，克劳莱克认为方向统一会使生成的材料更坚硬，尽管这些聚合物很难溶解成能够测试的溶液。她最终准备好了这种棒状分子溶液，但是这个看起来与她得到的其他溶液都不一样。下一步就是用能够产生纤维的吐丝器对它进行处理。然而，操作吐丝器的人几乎拒绝克劳莱克使用这台机器，因为这种溶液与之前的相比差别太大，他认为这样做会毁掉机器。克劳莱克坚持这样做，经过这道工序之后，克劳莱克得到了跟钢一样坚韧的纤维。这种材料被称为凯夫拉，广泛用于制造滑雪板、子午线轮胎和刹车垫、吊桥缆线、头盔、远足和野营装备。最值得注意的是，凯夫拉被用于制造防弹背心，所以即使克劳莱克没能去医学院上学，她还是挽救了很多生命。

审校：敖有没 来源：前十网