Remarkable Woman – Maria E. Beasley

American Entrepreneur and Inventor

Women can be on the move in many ways. Maria Beasley not only moved around at a time when this was not the norm for women, but she certainly was a woman on the move when it came to her inventive mind.

Maria E. Beasley American Entrepreneur and Inventor 1836 – 1913

North Carolina, USA

Her grandfather taught her barrel making which fueled an already strong interest in mechanical work. She already had experience with her father’s watermill and her other grandfather’s distillery. When she was only about 13 years old, she built a small sailboat that was able to safely transport herself and a pet dog safely across water. Between 1878 and 1898 she patented fifteen inventions in the US, including a footwarmer, a bread-making machine, a machine to paste the upper part of shoes, a steam generator, two for improved life rafts, and anti-derailment device for trains, as well as more in barrel-making machines and processes. She licensed a barrel cooping patent to the Standard Oil

Company, exhibited her work, and founded companies for the manufacture of barrels (one later sold for $1.4 million or

$42,222,963 million in 2021 currency).

Her curiosity in all things mechanical drove her to move around, leaving the south for Philadelphia so her children could have better schools. Maria became a frequent visitor to the Centennial International Exposition that was held between May  and  November 1876. She specifically spent a lot of time checking out the exhibits in Machinery Hall, which was the second largest structure at the exposition. These exhibits, featuring a wide range of machines as well as emerging industries, inspired Beasley to pursue a career as an inventor.

She moved to Chicago, where she co-founded the Wabash Avenue Subway Transportation Company. Her family staunchly supported her, with her husband becoming her patent agent and her son Walter managing operations in her Chicago Barrel factory. Despite the then-present laws of coverture (where men had legal rights over their wives’ earnings and possessions), her husband signed away any claims he might have had, so no one could abuse her legal status as a married woman.

In the mid 1890’s she wanted to understand how to use trains to move perishable goods over long distances, using speed and not refrigeration. She built a short track on her property to work on the design, and designed more aerodynamically shaped motors, a telescopic glass (to see further ahead), a device to cool train axles, and more. She was brought on board to help design an elevated electric railway from New York to Chicago through to San Francisco (the Inter- Ocean Electric Railway company.

For more information on Maria E. Beasley, please check out:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_E._Beasley

Nermin K. Ahmad

NFBPWC Women on the Move Committee Chair