Mary Walton

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The Bowery, New York Times, 1896.JPG

Mary Elizabeth Walton was a nineteenth-century American inventor who was awarded two patents for pollution-reducing devices. In 1881, Walton created a method for reducing the environmental hazards of the smoke emitted from locomotive, industrial and residential chimneys. Her system deflected the emissions being produced by factory smokestacks into water tanks, where the pollutants were retained and later flushed "into the sewer, or into other suitable channels for conducting them to a distant or any desired locality".[1]

Mary Walton also invented a system for reducing the noise produced by the elevated railway systems that were rapidly expanding in New York City, where she lived near the Sixth Avenue Line. Walton had chosen to pursue a solution after hearing that young Thomas Edison had tried and failed. After experimentation and research, she was able to narrow down that much of the sound was a result of amplification from wooden support boxes. To test various solutions, she built a model of the tracks in her basement. From these tests, she determined that lining the boxes with cotton and filling them with sand served to effectively dampen the sound of the trains.[2] Her system deadened the noise caused by trains running over the tracks by cradling the tracks in a wooden box lined with cotton and filled with sand.[3][4] U.S. Patent 237,422, filed January 7, 1879 and issued February 8, 1881, retrieved 23 October 2012</ref> The rights to her invention, patented in 1881, were sold to the Metropolitan Railroad for $10,000 and the system was soon adopted by other elevated railway companies.[2] Her idea of using sand to dampen sound pollution in New York was inspired by the use of sand to dampen the clanging of anvils near her home[5]

Early life[]

Due to the lack of recognition women received during this time period, there is little documentation concerning Mary Walton's life. However, a statement made in 1884 and published in the Weekly Transcript of Lexington, Kentucky, provides some crucial information about her youth. Walton is quoted as saying, “My father had no sons, and believed in educating his daughters. He spared no pains or expense to this end".[6]

Innovations[]

The Industrial Revolution, which began in the late 1860s after the Civil War, drove workers and immigrants to cities like New York in search of industrial jobs.[7] Smokestacks billowed heavy plumes of smoke into the air, while factory jobs improved livelihoods. Aside from manufacturing pollution, new elevated trains that transported employees into and out of cities produced loud noise and emitted poisonous smoke along the rails.[6] Mary Walton ran a boarding house in New York City in 1879, which was right across from the elevated train. Walton decided to handle the problems herself, disgusted by the dark smoke and roar of the railway engines.[6]

Walton's invention (patent #221,880) diverted smokestack pollutants into water tanks, where they were kept until they were discharged into the city's sewage system.[6] Walton went on to address the rattling and clanging noises from the elevated trains a few years later. New York City even enlisted the help of America's most famous inventors, including Thomas Edison, to find a solution.[8]

Walton realized after several days of riding the trains that the tracks enhanced the train's noise due to the basic timber supports they went through.[7] In her basement, Walton set up a miniature railroad track and discovered an outstanding sound-dampening device. She cradled the rails in a box-like framework of wood that was tar-painted, cotton-lined, and sand-filled.[7] The sound was absorbed by the surrounding materials as the vibrations from the rails were absorbed.[6]

Walton got patent #237,422 on February 8, 1881, after successful trials.[6] She sold the rights to the Metropolitan Railroad of Innovative York City for $10,000 and the system was soon adopted by other elevated railway companies, which thrived as a result of Walton's new, environmentally friendly system.[2]

Legacy[]

Walton is hailed as a STEM feminist and role model. "The most noted machinists and inventors of the century [Thomas Edison among them] had given their attention to the subject without being able to provide a solution, when, lo, a woman's brain did the work..." the Woman's Journal wrote twenty years later.[7]

References[]

  1. ^ Walton, Mary E. (1879). Improvement in Locomotive and Other Chimneys. U.S. Patent 221,880, filed October 6, 1879 and issued November 18, 1879, retrieved 17 October 2012
  2. ^ a b c Stanley, Autumn (1995). Mothers and Daughters of Invention: Notes for a Revised History of Technology. Rutgers University Press. p. 334. ISBN 978-0-8135-2197-8. Retrieved 7 October 2012.
  3. ^ Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Nov 1996). "Mary Walton". Inventor of the Week. Archived from the original on 2003-03-02. Retrieved 23 Oct 2012.
  4. ^ "U.S. Patent 237,422". USPTO. US Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
  5. ^ Segal, Elysia (2018). Mary Walton: Mother of Invention. Retrieved 2020, from http://imtal-us.org/insights-articles/5877523
  6. ^ a b c d e f "Mary Walton | Lemelson". lemelson.mit.edu. Retrieved 2021-06-17.
  7. ^ a b c d S, Author; Levins, y (2018-05-30). "Mary Walton: Female Inventor Who Succeeded Where Edison Failed". WednesdaysWomen. Retrieved 2021-06-17. {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  8. ^ "Mary Walton". EngineerGirl. Retrieved 2021-06-17.

External links[]

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