On This Day in Herstory, August 24th 1852, English inventor Sarah Guppy died at the age of 82.
Sarah Guppy was born in 1770, a time when the Industrial Revolution was sweeping through England, changing way of life from an agricultural focus to a industrial one. She befriended Isambard Kingdom Brunel, engineer responsible for the Clifton Suspension Bridge, and the Great Western Railway (among many other things), and Thomas Telford, who engineered inumerable roads and tunnels.
She quickly became interested in engineering and inventing, a rarity among women at the time. During this time women could not own property in their own name, even intellectual property which included patents or anything else considered to have value. So in 1811, with the help of her husband, Guppy patented a “ New Mode of Constructing and Erecting Bridges and Railroads without Arches,” which proposed the building of a suspension bridge using piling.
Her idea was revolutionary; Brunel didn’t start work on his Clifton Suspension Bridge until 1831. Seven years after the patent of her design Telford started work on a suspension bridge over the Menai Strait; Guppy gave him her design to use free so her knowledge could benefit as many people as possible.
In total Guppy took out ten patents, inducing devices that helped with the caulking of ships and the removal of barnacles from the hulls of ships; these inventions earned her a contract with the Royal Navy for £40,000 (£3m today). Guppy also invented things that had more to do with everyday life, including a bed with built in exercise equipment, a more efficient candle holder, tea makers, egg cookers, and plate warmers as well.
