When you compile1） a list of the most famous inventions of the past few centuries， few women will show up as the creators of those items. It's not that women lack ingenuity or a creative spirit， though； it's just that women have faced many hurdles in receiving credit2） for their ideas. Laws at the timestipulated3） that women couldn't own property， which included intellectual property like a patent. Such property laws prevented many women from acquiring patents for inventions several centuries ago. Women were also less likely to receive a technical education that would help them turn an ingenious idea into an actual product. Many women faced prejudice and ridicule when they sought help from men in actualizing their idea.

Mary Kies was the first American woman to earn a patent in her own name. In 1809， she developed a way of weaving straw into hats that was an economicboon4） for New England. By receiving that piece of paper with her name on it， Kies led the way for other female inventors to take credit for their ideas. In this article， we'll salute four things invented by women.

當(dāng)你編寫一份清單，列舉過去幾個(gè)世紀(jì)里最廣為人知的發(fā)明時(shí)，沒有幾個(gè)女性會(huì)作為這些東西的發(fā)明者被列入其中。不過這并不是因?yàn)榕匀鄙侏?dú)創(chuàng)性或創(chuàng)造精神，而是因?yàn)榕栽跒樽约旱南敕ň庸@一方面面臨著重重阻礙。那時(shí)的法律規(guī)定了女性不能擁有財(cái)產(chǎn)，專利等知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)也包括在內(nèi)。幾個(gè)世紀(jì)前，這類物權(quán)法使許多女性不能獲得發(fā)明的專利權(quán)。另外，當(dāng)時(shí)的女性也不大可能接受可以幫助她們把奇思妙想變成實(shí)物的技術(shù)教育。許多女性在請(qǐng)求男性幫助她們實(shí)現(xiàn)自己的創(chuàng)意時(shí)遭到的都是歧視和嘲諷。

瑪麗·基斯是第一位以自己的名字獲得專利權(quán)的美國女性。1809年，她發(fā)明了一種把麥稈織成帽子的方法，這對(duì)當(dāng)時(shí)新英格蘭（編注：美國東北部地區(qū)）的經(jīng)濟(jì)可謂一大福音?；沟玫搅藢懹兴值哪菑垖＠C書，由此為其他女性發(fā)明家給自己的創(chuàng)意居功做出了表率。在這篇文章里，我們將會(huì)向四項(xiàng)由女性創(chuàng)造的發(fā)明致敬。

Chocolate Chip Cookies 巧克力奇普餅干

There is no doubt that many treasured recipes came about through accidental invention in the kitchen， but we must single out5） one of the most enduring—and delicious—of these recipes： the chocolate chip cookie.

Ruth Wakefield had worked as a dietitian6） and food lecturer before buying an old toll house7） outside of Boston with her husband. Traditionally， toll houses were places where weary travelers paid their road tolls， grabbed a quick bite and fed their horses. Wakefield and her husband converted the toll house into an inn with a restaurant. One day in 1930， Wakefield was baking up a batch of Butter Drop Do cookies for her guests. The recipe called for melted chocolate， but Wakefield had run out of baker's chocolate. She took a Nestle chocolate bar， crumbled it into pieces and threw it into her batter8）， expecting the chocolate pieces to melt during baking. Instead， the chocolate held its shape， and the chocolate chip cookie was born.

毫無疑問，許多珍貴的食譜都誕生于廚房里的意外發(fā)明，但我們必須要從中選出最長盛不衰——也是最美味——的一份食譜：巧克力奇普餅干。

露絲·韋克菲爾德曾是一位營養(yǎng)學(xué)家和食品講師，后來同丈夫一道在波士頓郊區(qū)買下了一幢舊通行稅征稅所。在過去，通行稅征稅所歷來都是疲憊的旅行者繳納通行稅的地方，他們?cè)谶@里草草吃點(diǎn)東西，再喂喂自己的馬。韋克菲爾德和丈夫?qū)⒄鞫愃脑斐闪藥э埖甑男÷灭^。1930年的一天，韋克菲爾德正在為客人烤制一批黃油餅干，食譜上要求使用融化的巧克力，但是烘焙用巧克力已經(jīng)用完了。韋克菲爾德拿了一個(gè)雀巢巧克力棒，把它弄成碎塊兒后扔到了面糊里，希望巧克力碎塊兒在烘烤的過程中能化掉?？山Y(jié)果卻相反，巧克力碎塊兒還是保持原樣，巧克力奇普餅干也就此誕生。

Liquid Paper 修正液

Bette Nesmith Graham was not a very good typist. Still， the high school dropout worked her way through the secretarial pool to become the executive secretary for the chairman of the board of the Texas Bank and Trust. It was the 1950s， and the electric typewriter had just been introduced. Secretaries often found themselves retyping entire pages because of one tiny mistake， as the new model's carbon ribbon made it difficult to correct errors.

One day， Graham watched workers painting a holiday display on a bank window. She noticed that when they made mistakes， they simply added another layer of paint to cover them up， and she thought she could apply that idea to her typing blunders9）. Using her blender， Graham mixed up a water-based tempera10）paint with dye that matched her company's stationery. She took it to work and， using a fine watercolor brush， she was able to quickly correct her errors. Soon， the other secretaries were clamoring for11） the product， which Graham continued to produce in her kitchen. Graham was fired from her job for spending so much time distributing what she called \"Mistake Out\"， but in her unemployment she was able to tweak12） her mixture， rename the product Liquid Paper and receive a patent in 1958. Even though typewriters have been replaced by computers in many offices， many people still have a bottle or two of that white correction fluid on hand.

貝特·內(nèi)史密斯·格雷厄姆不是一個(gè)很好的打字員。不過，高中退學(xué)的她還是通過努力從眾多秘書中脫穎而出，當(dāng)上了得克薩斯信托銀行董事會(huì)主席的執(zhí)行秘書。那是20世紀(jì)50年代，才剛剛推出電動(dòng)打字機(jī)。秘書們常常不得不因?yàn)橐粋€(gè)細(xì)微的錯(cuò)誤而重新錄入整頁內(nèi)容，因?yàn)樾聶C(jī)型的碳素色帶使修正錯(cuò)誤變得很難。

一天，格雷厄姆看到工人們正在銀行的一個(gè)窗戶上涂畫假日展示的圖案。她注意到工人們出錯(cuò)后就只是在畫錯(cuò)的地方再涂上一層顏料將其覆蓋，于是她想到可以用這一方法修正打字時(shí)出的錯(cuò)。格雷厄姆用攪拌器將一種水溶性的蛋彩畫顏料和一種與她公司用紙顏色相配的染料混合在了一起。格雷厄姆把這種混合液用于工作，再加上一支精細(xì)的水彩畫筆，她就能很快地修正自己的錯(cuò)誤。很快，其他秘書也紛紛向她索求這種產(chǎn)品，而她也在自家廚房里繼續(xù)生產(chǎn)。格雷厄姆花費(fèi)了大量時(shí)間分銷她稱之為“消滅錯(cuò)誤”的產(chǎn)品，因此被公司解雇了，不過在失業(yè)期間，她對(duì)自己的這種混合液稍稍進(jìn)行了改進(jìn)，將其改名為“液體紙”，并于1958年取得了專利。雖然如今在許多辦公室里，打字機(jī)已經(jīng)被電腦取代，但很多人手頭依然備著一兩瓶這種白色的修正液。

Colored Flare^13） System彩彈信號(hào)系統(tǒng)

When Martha Coston was widowed in 1847， she was only 21 years old. She had four children to support， but she hadn't a clue about how to do so. She wasflipping through14） her dead husband's notebooks when she found plans for a flare system that ships could use to communicate at night. Coston requested the system be tested， but it failed.

Coston was undeterred15）. She spent the next 10 years revising and perfecting her husband's design for a colored flare system. She consulted with scientists and military officers， but she couldn't figure out how to produce flares that were bright and long-lasting while remaining easy to use at the spur of the moment. One night she took her children to see a fireworks display， and that's when she hit upon16） the idea of applying some pyrotechnic17）technology to her flare system. The flare system finally worked， and the U.S. Navy bought the rights. The Coston colored flare system was used extensively during the Civil War.

馬莎·科斯頓的丈夫在1847年去世，那時(shí)科斯頓只有21歲。她要撫養(yǎng)四個(gè)孩子，但對(duì)于該怎么把孩子拉扯大卻毫無頭緒。在翻閱亡夫的筆記本時(shí)，科斯頓發(fā)現(xiàn)了許多設(shè)計(jì)圖，它們都是關(guān)于一種可供船只在夜間進(jìn)行交流的信號(hào)彈系統(tǒng)?？扑诡D要求對(duì)該系統(tǒng)進(jìn)行測(cè)試，但測(cè)試結(jié)果并不成功。

科斯頓并沒有灰心。在接下來的十年里她一直改進(jìn)和完善丈夫的彩彈信號(hào)系統(tǒng)設(shè)計(jì)。她咨詢過許多科學(xué)家和軍官，但始終沒弄明白要如何制造出這樣的信號(hào)彈——既明亮持久又易于使用，瞬間即燃。一天晚上，她帶著孩子們?nèi)タ礋熁鸨硌?，就在那時(shí)她想到了可以把一些煙火制造技術(shù)應(yīng)用到她的信號(hào)彈系統(tǒng)。信號(hào)彈系統(tǒng)最終取得了成功，美國海軍買下了其使用權(quán)。在美國內(nèi)戰(zhàn)期間，科斯頓彩彈信號(hào)系統(tǒng)得到了廣泛應(yīng)用。

Windshield Wiper 雨刷

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 honking18）， nor were there thousands of cars vying19） for a 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 tram20） through the snow-covered city.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 squeegee21） on a spindle22） 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 precipitation23） 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.

20世紀(jì)早期，瑪麗·安德森第一次來到紐約城。當(dāng)時(shí)她所看到的紐約與現(xiàn)在游客見到的紐約大不相同。當(dāng)時(shí)的紐約沒有出租車?yán)鹊镍Q響，也沒有成千上萬輛汽車在下午的車流中你爭(zhēng)我搶趕路。在安德森開始這趟旅程時(shí)，汽車還沒引起美國人的興趣，也并不常見，但這個(gè)從亞拉巴馬州來的姑娘最終卻發(fā)明了一件現(xiàn)在業(yè)已成為所有汽車標(biāo)配的東西。

在這趟旅程中，安德森乘坐了一次有軌電車來游覽這座被大雪覆蓋的城市。她注意到電車司機(jī)不得不每隔幾分鐘就停下車把前擋風(fēng)玻璃上的雪擦掉，在那時(shí)，所有的司機(jī)都得這么做。雖然雨雪導(dǎo)致能見度降低，這都被認(rèn)為是司機(jī)們自己必須處理的問題?；丶液?，安德森發(fā)明了一個(gè)帶軸的橡膠擦刷器，并把它連在車內(nèi)的一個(gè)手柄上。當(dāng)司機(jī)需要擦拭玻璃的時(shí)候，他只需要拉一下手柄，擦刷器就會(huì)把擋風(fēng)玻璃上的雨雪擦掉。1903年，安德森獲得了這一發(fā)明的專利。僅僅過了十年，就有成千上萬的美國人擁有了配有這一發(fā)明的汽車。

1. compile [k?m?pa?l] vt. 匯編

2. credit [?kred?t] n. 贊揚(yáng)

3. stipulate [?st?pjule?t] vt. 規(guī)定

4. boon [bu?n] n. 恩惠；及時(shí)的恩賜

5. single out： 挑出；選出

6. dietitian [?da???t??n] n. 營養(yǎng)學(xué)家；飲食學(xué)家

7. toll house： 通行稅征稅所

8. batter [?b?t?（r）] n. （面粉、蛋和牛奶等混合成的）糊

9. blunder [?bl?nd?（r）] n. 愚蠢錯(cuò)誤

10. tempera [?temp?r?] n. 蛋彩畫，一種古老的繪畫技法，把蛋黃或蛋清與顏料調(diào)和，多畫在敷有石膏表面的畫板上。該繪畫技法盛行于14～16世紀(jì)歐洲文藝復(fù)興時(shí)期。

11. clamor for： 強(qiáng)烈要求

12. tweak [twi?k] vt. 稍稍改進(jìn)

13. flare [fle?（r）] n. 閃光信號(hào)；信號(hào)彈

14. flip through： 瀏覽；草草翻閱

15. undeterred [??nd??t??d] adj. 不灰心的

16. hit upon： 想出

17. pyrotechnic [?pa?r??tekn?k] adj. 煙火的；煙火制造術(shù)的

18. honk [h??k] vi. （汽車?yán)龋Q響

19. vie [va?] vi. 競(jìng)爭(zhēng)

20. tram [tr?m] n. 有軌電車

21. squeegee [?skwi?d?i?] n. 橡膠擦刷器

22. spindle [?sp?ndl] n. 軸

23. precipitation [pr??s?p??te??n] n. （降落的）雨、雪、冰雹