UPDATE: The winner is…Beckie!
*~*~*
When I was a kid, my aunt had a round, white washing machine with a wringer on top. Little did I know I was watching Black history unfold before my eyes as my aunt cranked the clothes through the wringer. That system of wringer rollers was patented by Ellen F. Eglin.
Depending on your source, Ellen F. Eglin was born either in Maryland in February 1836 or in Washington, D.C., in 1849. She lived in Washington D.C. with her parents, brother Charles, and two other siblings. There she worked as a housekeeper. Sources believe it was due to this stoop work that necessity, the mother of invention, tapped Ellen on the shoulder. In 1888, she devised a clothes wringer made of two wooden rollers with a crank used to squeeze excess water from laundry. Unfortunately, she never received just compensation for her invention.
Because of race prejudice, Ellen sold her invention for $18 (about $598 in today’s dollars). $18 wasn’t an inconsiderable sum when at the time a loaf of bread cost five cents, a pound of meat was ten, and a gallon of milk was twenty. But giving away the rights to her patent for such a paltry sum was a disgrace. The American Wringer company made huge profits from the sales of its product based on that patent. Her wringer is still in use today to wring out mops.
We wouldn’t even know about Ellen and her invention if not for feminist Charlotte Smith, who interviewed Ellen for Smith’s The Woman Inventor in 1890. Asked why she sold her patent, Ellen’s answer was heartbreakingly simple. “You know I am Black, and if it was known that a negro woman patented the invention, white ladies would not buy the wringer. I was afraid to be known because of my color in having it introduced to the market; that is the only reason.” She hoped to create another invention and exhibit it at an upcoming Women’s International Industrial Inventors Congress, but her plans never came to pass.
Those of you who may be watching Sir Julian Fellowes’ The Gilded Age will have heard this truth echoed in the situation of the character Peggy Scott. Wanting to be a writer, Peggy is told by the publisher interested in her work that if they don’t hide the fact that she’s black they’ll lose white subscribers in the South.
The year Charlotte Smith interviewed her, Ellen was working as a charwoman for the Department of the Interior. Records show she was still living in Washington D.C. in 1916, and that is the year assigned to her death.
I like to think that by sharing these blogposts I’m following in the footsteps of women like Charlotte Smith and Hallie Q. Brown (featured in my Oct. 2023 and Feb. 2024 D.D. blogposts) lifting up the lives and achievements of women so they won’t be forgotten.
For a chance at a $10 Amazon gift card, share your thoughts in the comments.
Her Heavenly Phantom
by Michal Scott
Forced into a marriage of convenience neither wants, a mild-mannered banker with an intriguing secret discovers his reluctant bride has a secret, too.
Excerpt:
Unwed and pregnant, Emily Hampton needed a husband. Newly freed and hungry for a foothold among the ranks of the Black elite in 1880s Brooklyn, William Broadman had the answer.
His son Harold.
The warmth shared between the two men stood in stark contrast to the cold chaste kiss Harold and his bride shared. Their coolness continued as they walked up the aisle. Guests, oblivious to their shared contempt, showered them with hugs and handshakes. Harold shivered even more as his father and father-in-law back-patted themselves and toasted the couple’s future happiness at the wedding reception. No doubt the arctic chill between the couple would extend to their first lay as man and wife, too.
If they had to that is. Emily Hampton hated this arrangement as much as he did. Therein lay his salvation. If she wanted as little to do with him as he wanted to do with her, his life didn’t have to change at all. Milquetoast straightlaced banker by day. Virile promiscuous masked singer by night.
The lady of the balcony numbered among his many admirers. Her missives of gratitude roiled with cock-stirring heat.
Your singing ravishes my body.
My core weeps for you.
Oh, for a coupling I know would thrust me into a heaven far beyond my grasp.
The last message had reached him after an exhausting browbeating from his father. He’d come to the theater in need of an escape that even singing couldn’t provide. She’d accepted the invite to join him backstage conveyed by way of his manager. In the dark windowless privacy of his dressing room, they’d thrust their way to a heaven beyond both their grasps.
He looked forward to what she’d write to him tonight. He’d need it as he lay alone on his wedding night.
Buylinks:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DBJ47ND6/
B&N https://shorturl.at/B0NLA
KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/secret-identities-8
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I love secret identities, I had a friend years ago that got her are caught up in a ringer washer, she was OK thankfully, and interesting trivia information
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Hi Dana, so glad your friend’s arm was okay. You wouldn’t think so but watching those rollers is mesmerizing. Thanks for commenting.
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Thanks as always for making room for my love of African American women’s history.
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useful invention
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Very useful, BN. Ellen was among a number of African American women whose inventions were practical things that made domestic work easier. Thanks for commenting.
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We had a wringer washing machine when I was a child. You had to watch out for your fingers.
Good to know the history.
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There have been, and unfortunately still are, many people that have been taken advantage of by others and have not gotten their due. It’s important to remember that and hear about specific cases like these ones.
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Thanks for commenting, Mary.
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So true, Diane. Thanks for commenting.
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History is filled with men who take credit for women’s inventions and/or scientific work. The reasons vary but some for what Anna said.
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So true, Debra. Thanks for commenting.
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Thank you for sharing another hidden moment in history. I love learning something new everyday.
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My grandma had one I remember helping her do laundry with if.
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My pleasure, Beckie.
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That’s cool, Janelle. I wonder where my aunt got her washer since I never saw one like it at my grandmother’s.
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I was always frightened I would get caught in my grandmother’s wringer washer machine.
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I know what you mean, Mary. Watching those rollers was really mesmerizing.
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I love finding out how many inventions were actually created by women.
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It really is cool how many there are, when they got them and for what, Colleen. Thanks for commenting.
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Growing up we had a wringer washer. I once got my arm caught in the wringer yo to my elbow. It wasn’t just something you could pull back out of. Had to Reverse it to remove my arm. I was sore for a few days but ok. From that day on I was very careful when helping my Mom.
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That was always my nightmare. Glad you got it out okay. Thanks for commenting, Beverly.
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I still have a wringer washer AND the detached rinse tubs. It needs to be greased now, but there never was a better washer!
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How cool to have a piece of practical history in your home, Cindy. Thanks for commenting.
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Thank you for sharing this and your other columns, Anna–what a remarkable woman Ellen was, and so many other women of color whose accomplishments would otherwise go sadly unremarked or misattributed to others. So many lives changed because of these unsung heroines.
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Thanks for your comment, flchen. These stories I’m discovering make we wonder what modern day heroines are experiencing the same thing as Ellen.
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Thanks go to Anna for another wonderful, edifying post!
The winner of the GC is…Beckie!