Beulah Louise Henry

American socialite

• Born: September 28, 1887
• Birthplace: Raleigh, North Carolina
• Died: February 1, 1973
• Place of death: New York, New York

Henry is noted especially for the large number and the diversity of her inventions. She received forty-nine patents and has been credited with approximately 110 inventions. Her inventions include a vacuum ice cream freezer, a number of children’s toys, and improvements to typewriters and sewing machines.

Primary fields: Business management; household products

Primary inventions: Typewriter devices; children’s toys; household devices; parasol improvements; sewing machine improvements

Early Life

Beulah Louise Henry (BYEW-luh LEW-eez HEHN-ree) was a descendant of the Revolutionary War hero Patrick Henry. Her grandfather was William Woods Holden, the governor of North Carolina in the 1860’s. She was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, to artistic parents. Her mother was an artist, her father was an art expert, and her brother was a songwriter. As a child, she sketched out her ideas for inventions and made models from household scraps such as tape, soap, hairpins, buttons, and rocks. She lived in Memphis, Tennessee, for part of her youth, and attended college in North Carolina, at Elizabeth College and Queens College in Charlotte. She apparently received a liberal arts education, as she later described herself as having had no technical training.

Henry had synesthesia, a condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another. For example, the hearing of a sound produces the visualization of a color or a taste. She said that she had a complete picture of each of her inventions in her mind before she tried to construct it or to describe it to someone hired to construct the invention for her. She felt that her ability to create complex mechanical devices without any technical training was due to the same “inner vision” that allowed her to see color and shape for musical notes.

In 1919, Henry moved to were chosen and lived there most of her adult life. She did not marry, and she lived in hotels or hotel apartments all her life. She kept her rooms fairly empty of furnishings in order to allow room for her many models.

Life’s Work

Henry’s first patent was issued on September 3, 1912, while she was living in Charlotte. It was for an ice cream freezer with a vacuum seal. She was issued two more patents in 1913, while still living in Charlotte. One was for a handbag with interchangeable covers, issued on May 27; the other, issued on November 18, was for a parasol with snap-on covers of various colors that allowed the appearance of the parasol to be altered to match one’s outfit. The parasol invention was both a commercial and a financial success for Henry. She earned about $50,000 from the manufacturer, probably Thomas Woodley of Charlotte, who was assigned one-half of the patent (U.S. Patent number 1,079,240). By 1921, Henry had formed the Henry Umbrella and Parasol Company in New York City to manufacture and sell her popular umbrellas and parasols. Her U.S. Patent number 1,492,725, issued May 6, 1924, for improvements to the above parasol was assigned to the Henry Umbrella and Parasol Company. By 1924, she was also president of B. L. Henry Company, her second company.

For the remainder of the 1920’s, Henry was awarded numerous patents. Four were awarded in the year 1927 alone. Some were for additional improvements to the parasol. The majority, however, were for toys and household items, a couple of dolls, a floating soap holder made of a sponge that opened up to hold the soap, a hair curler, and several inflatable toys. Some of these patents were assigned partly or wholly to another individual or to a company, presumably to manufacture the items.

Starting in the 1930’s, Henry began receiving patents for business machines. She was issued numerous patents for improvements to or devices for use with typewriters. She also received a number of patents for improvements to sewing machines. She continued to receive patents for toys, games, and household items. Several of her patents related to typewriters were for methods of producing multiple copies without carbon paper. This was especially important during World War II, because carbon for carbon paper was in short supply. Other typewriter-related inventions were for improved aligning devices, reduction in typing noise, and a key for use with devices such as a typewriter. In addition to her typewriter enhancements, Henry was issued several patents related to envelopes, including construction of envelopes and continuously attached envelopes to aid in addressing them. Her improvements to sewing machines included improved devices for stitching and making seams, and a patent for a method of producing a lockstitch with only one thread, eliminating the need for a bobbin.

Henry began inventing toys early in her career. Several of her inventions made toys seem more realistic, such as a doll whose eyes would close or change colors, dolls with limbs that were movable in a variety of ways, a toy cow that could be milked, toy animals that ate, and dolls that talked. Several of her patents were for inflatable toys and for devices and methods of inflating them.

By the 1930’s, Henry’s prolific inventiveness was recognized, and she was nicknamed “Lady Edison.” In addition to her inventing, she had a wide range of interests, including writing, painting, and membership in the Audubon Society, the League for Animals, and the Museum of Natural History.

Henry was hired by a number of companies in the latter part of her career to develop products for them. She is believed to have had more than one hundred inventions over her lifetime. Her last patent was issued on February 24, 1970, for a method of envelope construction. She died in February, 1973, at the age of eighty-five.

Impact

Henry was a prolific inventor. She was busy creating new inventions for most of her adult life. Her first patent was granted when she was twenty-four years old, and she was awarded her last patent at age eighty-two. She was one of the first female inventors to make a comfortable living from her inventing. She manufactured and sold some of her inventions through her companies, and some were licensed to other people or companies to manufacture. She had an amazing breadth of inventions, including improvements to parasols, her first commercial success; a wide variety of children’s toys and games; household products; and a number of improvements to machines, notably typewriters and sewing machines.

Henry’s early invention of a parasol with snap-on covers became widely used. Parasols and umbrellas were popular at that time, and the ability to change the parasol color in accord with one’s outfit was well liked. Her inventions that allowed multiple typewritten copies to be made without carbon paper were of significance, given the shortage of carbon during World War II.

Bibliography

Camp, Carole Ann. American Women Inventors. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Enslow, 2004. Includes a chapter on each of nine American female inventors. Eight pages are dedicated to Henry, with pictures of her and some of her inventions.

Farquhar, Michael. A Treasury of Foolishly Forgotten Americans. New York: Penguin Books, 2008. Contains a chapter on Henry, with emphasis on her creativity and her ability to invent complex mechanical devices without the benefit of any technical education.

Stanley, Autumn. Mothers and Daughters of Invention: Notes for a Revised History of Technology. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1993. Includes a section on Henry, with information on her early life and her inventions. Includes information from several magazine and newspaper articles from the 1920’s and 1930’s.