African Americans have made extraordinary contributions to the history and culture of the United States as part of the nation and apart from it. This month, Auction Finds presents “28 days (Plus 1)” of this collaborative history. The additional day is intended to break Black history out of the stricture of a month into its rightful place as an equal partner in the history of America. Each day, I will offer artifacts culled from the auction tables and my research, along with the stories they hold.
Feb. 24, 2022
Wringer washing machine leads to Black female inventor
A Black woman named Ellen F. Eglin of Washington, DC, invented a successful version of a clothes wringer in the 1880s (the first wringer had been invented in 1861). She never benefited, though, because she didn’t patent it. Instead, she sold her design to an agent for $18. She told Woman Inventor magazine in 1890 why she sold the patent: “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 into the market.”
Not much is known about Eglin. She was born in 1849, and worked as a housekeeper for a time – that’s probably where she got the idea for the wringer, to help relieve herself of the drudgery. She was a member of the Women’s National Industrial League – a female labor union headed by Charlotte Smith (who founded Woman Inventor magazine) – and worked in the Treasury Department and the Census Bureau.
Eglin apparently was working on another invention in the 1890s that she had planned to show off at the Women’s International Industrial Inventors Congress. It’s not certain if she ever did. Read the full story.
