Inventors | 1900s

Sankofa Archives > Inventors | 1900s

Women | Inventors Inventors

Women Inventors & Innovators

 of the 20th Century

(1900 - 1999)

Compiled by M. Charlot

A = African |  AE = Afro-European |   (CA) = Canadian  |  Ø = Nationality Not known 

1900s

  • Name: Annie Turnbo Malone
    Invented: Pressing Comb
    Patent No:
    Date:     1900
    Note: Annie Turnbo Malone may have also invented a Pressing Iron.
  • Name: C. J. (Madame) Walker
    Invented: Method of softening hair (year only - exact date uncertain)
    Patent No:
    Date: January 1, 1905
  • Name: Clara C. Frye
    Invented: Surgical appliance
    Patent No: 847,758
    Date: March 19, 1907
  • Name: Madeline M. Turner
    Invented: Fruit Press
    Patent No.: 1,180,959
    Date: April 25, 1916
    Note: Her fruit press was called "ingenious" by a patent review committee member. Her invention was exhibited at the Panama Exposition.
  • Name: Alice H. Parker
    Invented: Heating Furnace
    Patent No.: 1,325,905  
    Date: Dec 23, 1919
    Note: She was the first to use natural gas to heat a building.

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1980s Cont.

1990s

  • Name: Dawn Francis
    Invented: Novel Organic Fertilizer and Production Thereof
    Patent No.: 4,957,534
    Date: September 18, 1990
  • Name: Sharon J. Barnes (Co-Inventors)
    Invented: Process and apparatus for contactless measurement of sample temperature
    Patent No. 4,988,211
    Date:     January 29, 1991
  • Name: Wanda A. Sigur
    Invented: Method of fabricating composite structures
    Patent No: 5,084,219
    Date: January 28, 1992
  • Name: Natalie R. Love
    Invented: T-Top Roof Cover
    Patent No: 5,110,178
    Date: May 5, 1992
    Note: T-top cover for convertible cars
  • Name: Joanna Hardin (Co-inventor)
    Invented: CompuRest Keyboard Stand)
    Patent No.: 5,188,321
    Date: Feb. 23, 1993
  • Name: Brothella Quick
    Invented: Pocketed Underwear
    Patent No: Des. 341,470
    Date: November 23, 1993
  • Name: Sandra K. Johnson (Co-Inventor)
    Invented: An Optimum Write-Back Strategy for Directory-Based Cache Coherence Protocols
    Patent No: 5,313,609
    Date: May 17, 1994
  • Name: Tanya R Allen
    Invented: Undergarment with a pocket for releasably securing an absorbent pad
    Patent No. 5,325,543
    Date: July 5, 1994
  • Name: Valerie Adegbite (Co-Inventor)
    Invented: Electromagnetic Curing Apparatus and Method of Use
    Patent No: 5,406,056
    Date: April 11, 1995
  • Name: Carol C. Randall
    Invented: Portable Holder for Tissues
    Patent No.: 5,544,750
    Date: August 13, 1996
    Note: “A portable holder for tissues to carry full size tissues right from a tissue box. The holder is to be die cut from flexible transparent material such as vinyl.”
  • Name: Sandra K. Johnson (Co-Inventor)
    Invented: Using Virtual Disks for Disk System Checkpointing
    Patent No: 5,634,096
    Date: May 1997
  • Name: Ruane Sharon Jeter (Co-Inventor) Also See: 1987 and 1999
    Invented: Hand-held, multi-functional devices in one housing including a stapler, staple remover, pencil sharpener, hole punch, calculator, tape measure, architectural and engineering scale.
    Patent No: Des. 383,783
    Date: September 16, 1997
  • Name: Patricia S. Cowings
    Invented: Autogenic-Feedback Training Exercise (AFTE) method and system
    Patent No.: 5,694,939
    Date: December 1997
  • Name: Barbara A. Nichols (Co-inventor)
    Invented: Information Repository for Storing Information for Enterprise Computing System
    Patent No.: 5,727,158
    Date: March 10, 1998
  • Name: (AE) Maria Dolapo Adewunmi (Co-inventor)
    Invented: Process for Eliminating Labile Glycohemoglobin from Sample
    Patent No: 5,739,037
    Date: April 14, 1998
  • Name: Sandra K. Johnson (Co-Inventor)
    Invented: Parallel Network Communications Protocol using Token Passing
    Patent No: 5,742,812
    Date: April 21, 1998
  • Name: Diane Nixon Johnson (Look at page 21)
    Invented: African American Headpiece
    Patent No: Des. 395,737
    Date: July 7, 1998
  • Name: (CA) Geraldine Mbamalu (Co-inventor)
    Invented: Oligomerized receptors which affect pathways regulated by transmembrane ligands for elk-related receptor tyrosine kinases
    Patent No: WO1998001548 A1
    Date: January 15, 1998
  • Name: Sandra K. Johnson (Co-Inventor)
    Invented: Invalidation Bus Optimization for Multiprocessors using Directory-Based Cache Coherence Protocols in which an Address of a Line to be Modified is Placed on the Invalidation Bus Simultaneously with Sending a Modify Request to the Directory
    Patent No: 5,778,437
    Date: July 7, 1998
  • Name: Sandra K. Johnson (Co-Inventor) Also See: 21st Century Section)
    Invented: Cache Coherence Protocol for Reducing the Effects of False Sharing in Non-Bus-Based Shared-Memory Multiprocessors
    Patent No: 5,822,763
    Date: October 13, 1998
  • Name: Patricia Bath (Also See: 1988, 1999)
    Invented: Method and apparatus for ablating and removing cataract lenses
    Patent No: 5,843,071
    Date: December 1, 1998
  • Name: Sandra K. Johnson (Co-Inventor) Also See: 21th Century Section)
    Invented: Efficient Method for Providing Fault Tolerance Against Double Device Failures in Multiple Device Systems
    Patent No: 5,862,158
    Date: January 1999
  • Name: Sandra K. Johnson (Co-Inventor)
    Invented: Home Node Migration for Distributed Shared Memory Systems
    Patent No: 5,893,922
    Date: April 13, 1999
  • Name: Diane Nixon Johnson (Look at page 21)
    Invented: African American Headpiece
    Patent No: Des. 408,118
    Date: April 20, 1999
  • Name: Ruane Sharon Jeter (Co-Inventor) Also See: 1987 and 1997
    Invented: Cabinet for housing a medical waste container
    Patent No: Des. 411,008
    Date: June 15, 1999
  • Name: Patricia Bath (Also See: 1988, 1998)
    Invented: Laser apparatus for surgery of Cataractous lenses
    Patent No: 5,919,186
    Date: July 6, 1999
  • Name: Ruane Sharon Jeter (Co-Inventor) Also See: 1987 and 1997
    Invented: Container installing system
    Patent No: 5,918,762
    Date: July 6, 1999
  • Name: Ruane Sharon Jeter (Co-Inventor) Also See: 1987 and 1997
    Invented: Medical waste disposal container
    Patent No: 5,947,285
    Date: September 7, 1999