Kate Duval Hughes (born June 15, 1837) was an American author and inventor of two window-sash-security devices.

Early life and family

Hughes was born in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

on June 15, 1837. Her father, French-born Peter Stephen Duval, owned a large lithographic firm in Philadelphia. Her brother was Stephen C. Duval. She married, but the marriage ended in divorce. At the same, the family fortune was lost. She then spent several years in Europe before moving to Washington, D. C. where she took a job with a federal agency. She never remarried and instead concentrated on her career, her inventions and her writing.

Career

Hughes invented two Combined

Window Sash A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

Fasteners and Holders, receiving patents on both of them. Using her inventions, a home owner could lower and raise the upper and lower sashes of their windows to a limited extent, increasing

home security Home security includes both the Security alarm, security hardware placed on a property and individuals' Security of person, personal security practices. Security hardware includes doors, locks, alarm systems, lighting, motion detectors, and secu ...

. In 1890, Hughes discovered how to extract the essential oil of

frankincense Frankincense, also known as olibanum (), is an Aroma compound, aromatic resin used in incense and perfumes, obtained from trees of the genus ''Boswellia'' in the family (biology), family Burseraceae. The word is from Old French ('high-quality in ...

. She incorporated this oil into an

ointment A topical medication is a medication that is applied to a particular place on or in the body. Most often topical medication means application to body surfaces such as the skin or mucous membranes to treat ailments via a large range of classes ...

for skin diseases, which was used in many hospitals.

Writings

Hughes wrote four books for younger readers: ''Little Pearls'' (New York, 1876), ''The Mysterious Castle'' (Baltimore, 1878), ''The Fair Maid of Connaught'' (New York, 1889) and ''Legends and Tales of the Sierras'' (1888). A devout

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, Hughes' books had religious themes. Cardinal

James Gibbons James Cardinal Gibbons (July 23, 1834 – March 24, 1921) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Apostolic Vicar of North Carolina from 1868 to 1872, Bishop of Richmond from 1872 to 1877, and as Archbishop of Baltimore from 1877 unti ...

praised her works.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Kate Duval 1837 births 19th-century American inventors American women writers People from Philadelphia 19th-century American women inventors Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century Year of death missing