FAMILY FUN continued
FAMILY FUN continued
Girl Power!
Students from Mrs. Loudermilk’s fifth grade
class participated in this year’s Eastern North
Carolina Society of Women Engineers writing
contest. The goal of this contest is three-fold: to
highlight the contributions and achievements of
women engineers and scientists, to encourage
students to learn more about these women while
polishing their researching and writing skills,
and to improve the image of the engineering
profession as a positive force in world.
The three participants from Sandhills Farm
Life were Charlotte DeForest, Anna Fulkerson,
and Harper Seniff. They chose to research
and write about Margaret E. Knight and Emily
Warren Roebling. This contest was the perfect
opportunity for students to illustrate their
mastery of 21st century skills. As both a history
and science teacher at SFL, Mrs. Loudermilk
thought that the interconnectedness of this essay
contest illuminated the importance of Women’s
History and the astonishing contributions that
women have made to the field of engineering.
Margaret E. Knight
by Anna Fulkersom
Margaret E. Knight was born in York, Maine
1838. She spent her childhood in Manchester,
New Hampshire, where she received a meager
education. At age 12 while observing her
brothers at work in a cloth factory, she saw a
large metal tipped shuttle drop from the loom,
endangering a worker. This made her motivated
to make a stop motion loom. As an adult she
moved to Springfield, Massachusetts. She
worked for a manufacturer of paper bags.
After studying the operation, in 1867, she
devised a paper bag with a square bottom, this
made it easier to function the bag properly,
put more stuff in it, and easier to put stuff in
there. Two years later Margaret took her ideas to
Boston and began putting finishing touches on
the device so that it could be patented.
Another inventor Charles F. Annan copied
her and applied for his own patent, Margaret
went against him in court and won her suit in
1870. She associated with the Knight-Davidson
motor company of New York. She invented
many handy gadgets, including machines that
cut and sew shoes, window sash and frames.
Late in her career Margaret studied engines
and evolved a sleeve valve engine, a horizontal
variation on the vertical poppet valve, which
was originally invented in 1915. In return for
her work, however, brought her small profit; she
died of pneumonia and gallstones in 1914.
Margaret’s bag machine spread throughout
the years, and Queen Victoria decorated her
because of her bag machine and how it made it
easier to put things in it.
Bibliography:
www.madehow.com/inventorbios/7/Margaret-E-Knight.html
www.asme.org/engineering-topics/articles/diversity/margaret-knight
www.britannica.com/biography/Margaret-E-Knight
Emily Warren Roebling
First woman Civil Engineer
by Charlotte DeForest
Introduction
Civil engineering is everywhere, from the
roads we drive, the parks we play at, the bridges
we cross, to the clean water we drink. Emily
Warren Roebling was the first woman Civil
Engineer. Emily’s largest contribution to the
field of Civil Engineering was assessing her
husband in completing the Brooklyn Bridge
when her husband couldn’t. Her success in this
project earned her High Praise of recognition.
What is a civil engineer?
Civil Engineering is a professional
engineering discipline that deals with the design,
construction and maintenance of the physical
and natural built environment. Including works
like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings.
Emily Warren Roebling falls under making the
Brooklyn Bridge.
FAMILY FUN con't next column
Early life
Emily Warren Roebling was born on
September 23rd, 1843 in Cold Spring, New York
to her parents Sylvanus and Phoebe Warren. She
was the second youngest of 12 children. Her
older brother Gouvemerk Warren influenced
her interest in education. Emily later went on
to study engineering at Georgetown Visitation
Convent in Washington DC at age 15.When
visiting her brother at his Civil War command
post of this Army corpse she met Washington
Roebling. He was an engineering officer at her
brother’s staff. The two married January 18, 1865.
The newly married couple went to Europe on
their honeymoon to study the use of caissons,
a large watertight chamber, for the Brooklyn
Bridge. Washington’s father was principal
designer of the Brooklyn Bridge. Unfortunately
his father fell ill and succumbed to tetanus,
leaving Washington to take control of the
Brooklyn Bridge Project. Washington worked
very hard on the Brooklyn Bridge, but he too
became ill with caison disease. This left Emily
with the responsibility of completing the project.
Brooklyn Bridge
Over the next 14 years, Emily was dedicated
to the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge. In
1882, Washington’s title of chief was jeopardized
because of his sickness, so Emily went to many
meetings on behalf of her husband to help retain
his position of Chief. The politicians responded
well to Emily speeches, and Washington was
permitted to remain Chief for the Brooklyn
Bridge. The bridge was completed in 1883; Emily
was the first one to cross the bridge by chariot.
Emily was honored with a speech by Abraham
Stevens Hewitt. Hewitt described her dedication
to the project as, “An everlasting Monument
of sacrifice and devotion of a woman and her
capacity for what higher education from which
she has long despaired.”
Later life
Upon completion of the Bridge, Emily
invested her time in several women’s causes
including: Committee on Statistics of the New
Jersey Board of Lady Managers for the World’s
Columbian Exposition, Committee of Psoriasis,
Daughters of the AmericanRevolution, George
Washington Memorial Association, and Evelyn
College.
Conclusion
In 1876, Emily was presented to Queen
Victoria, and she even published a book,
JOURNAL OF THE REVEREND SILAS. Today
the Brooklyn Bridge is marked with a plaque
dedicated to the memory of Emily, her husband
Washington Roebling, and her father-in-law
John A. Roebling. Emily Warren Roebling passed
away on February 28, 1903; we remember Emily
as a hard worker and appreciate the sacrifices
she made to co plete the Brooklyn Bridge. She’s
an inspiration to many civil engineers.
Bibliography: www.wikipedia.org • www.britannica.com
www.thefamouspeople.com
Margaret E. Knight
by Harper Seniff
Take a look at your lunch today; was it in a flat
bottomed paper bag? This may seem ordinary
and uneventful. However “the most famous
19th-century woman inventor,” Margaret Eloise
Knight created a machine that would easily fold
and glue flat bottomed paper bags just like the
one your lunch is in.
Margaret was born in Maine on February
14, 1838. During her childhood, she was called
Mattie. As a child Mattie did not care for all of
the normal toys, she would rather have her
invention notebook. She had one sister Eliza
and two brothers Charlie and Jim. Their father
sadly passed away when Margaret was young.
After her father passed away, the family moved
to Manchester, New Hampshire. When she
was 12 years old she saw a little girl almost die,
due to one of the shuttles flying off of a textile
mill. This resulted in the creation of her first
real invention. This invention was a device
that would automatically stop a machine if
something got stuck in it. By the time she was
a teenager, mills everywhere were using her
invention to improve safety in mills.
Margaret went to work at a paper bag plant
in Massachusetts. She noticed the struggle
of people trying to use the v-shaped bags.
Someone had to hold the bag upright, while the
other would fill the bag. She thought about how
much easier it would be to have flat bottomed
bags, because they could stand on their own. She
came up with the idea and produced a machine
that would create the flat bottomed paper bags.
Unfortunately, there was a greedy man
named Charles Annan, who wanted to take
credit for Knight’s work. He hired a spy to steal
all of Knight’s ideas and applied for the patent
before she did. Margaret had never gotten a
patent before and decided to sue him. In court
when the judge asked for Annan’s defense, he
said, “No woman could ever create an invention
like this.” But Margaret had all of the original
designs, drawings and papers that she used to
prove that it was her invention. Margaret ended
up getting a patent on July 11,1871. After she got
her patent, she teamed up with a businessman,
and they established the Eastern Paper Bag Co.
She went on to invent many more helpful
gadgets. She created a series of inventions for
rotary engines. One of her most memorable
inventions was the sleeve valve automobile
engine. The sleeve valve automobile engine
created a steady car. However it was quite
expensive to manufacture and gave it a retail
price at about 6,000 dollars!
Margaret Eloise Knight sadly passed away on
October 12, 1914, at age 76, from pneumonia.
Even after she died, her achievements continue
to inspire many other young woman to pursue
careers in the field of science. Her contributions
to society are long lasting as they revolutionized
many things that we use today.
Bibliography:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3-lgR2EHUc
www.britannica.com/biography/Margaret-E-Knight
www.women-inventors.com/Margaret-Knight.asp
p.36 The Pinehurst Gazette, Inc. No. 130 Anna Charlotte Harper
/Margaret-E-Knight.html
/margaret-knight
/Margaret-E-Knight
/Margaret-E-Knight
/www.wikipedia.org
/www.britannica.com
/www.thefamouspeople.com
/watch?v=M3-lgR2EHUc
/Margaret-Knight.asp