Ellen F. Eglin (before 1849 – after 1890) was an

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

inventor who invented an improved clothes wringer.

Early life and employment

Eglin was born in 1849 in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, with few details available about her childhood and earlier life. In her younger years, Eglin was a clerk in a local census office and as a housekeeper where she was a servant to Timothy Nooning and his wife Malintha and their son William.

Clothes wringer

Eglin's invention was a clothes wringer, no details are recorded. In 1888, Eglin sold the invention to an agent, for $18. According to Charlotte Smith of ''The Woman Inventor,''''The Woman Inventor'' was a single sheet broadsheet published, edited and largely, if not entirely, written by Smith. It ran to two issues. when questioned why she decided to sell her invention, she replied, "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 in the market, that is the only reason."

Beneficiary

We do not know the name of the agent who bought the invention from Eglin, still less the eventual beneficiary if any. It has been suggested that Cyrenus Wheeler Jr acquired it, and registered it as US patent 459343. Wheeler, who bought a wringer company around this time, is known to have said he had twelve patents for improvements to clothes wringers, nine of his own invention and three that he bought. Shortly after the time of Eglin's invention companies such as American Wringer Co. were buying as many wringer patents as they could and manufacturing them for retail. There is no record showing whether Eglin's patent was acquired by American Wringer Co. Charlotte Smith reported that "The wringer is a great financial success to the present owner."

Later work

After selling her clothes-wringer, Eglin was working another invention and planned to

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

it in her own name. Although she wanted to exhibit the new model at the Women's International Industrial Inventors Congress (WIIIC), where, anyone was invited regardless of race, she never patented it. Eglin never appeared at the WIIIC and the mystery invention was never documented. It is rumored that she went on to work as a clerk in a census office.

Last years

Little is known about the later stages of Eglin's life, including the place or date of her death. Eglin appears to have spent the rest of her life in Washington, DC. In 1890, she was employed by the

United States Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the management and conservation ...

as a

charwoman Charwoman, chargirl, charlady and char are occupational terms referring to a paid part-time worker who comes into a house or other building to clean it for a few hours of a day or week, as opposed to a maid, who usually lives as part of the ho ...

in the

Census Office The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U. ...

She appeared in the local city directories from about 1888 living at 1929 11th Street, N. W. with her brother Charles, a Union Navy veteran who was a

teamster A teamster in American English is a truck driver; a person who drives teams of draft animals; or a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a labor union. In some places, a teamster was called a carter, the name referring to the ...

. Charles Eglin died in July 1896, leaving his estate divided between his three siblings, including Ellen."Will of Charles Eglin," (Washington) ''Post'', August 2, 1896, 2 Ellen Eglin last appears in the Washington city directories in 1916.

Notes

References

External sources

Patent of a Clothes Wringer from 1888
* Women Inventors, New Scientist, 24 May 1984, page 10. {{DEFAULTSORT:Eglin, Ellen 1849 births 19th-century African-American women 19th-century American inventors 19th-century American women inventors 20th-century deaths 19th-century American businesspeople African-American inventors American women in business Inventors from Washington, D.C.