Maria Beasley

Maria E. Beasley (née Hauser; c. 1836–1913) was an American entrepreneur and inventor. Born in North Carolina, Beasley grew up with a strong interest in mechanical work and learned about the profession of barrel-making from her grandfather. Between 1878 and 1898, she patented fifteen inventions in the United States: these included a footwarmer, an improved life raft, and an anti-derailment device for trains; however, her primary success as an inventor rose from a specialty in barrel-making machines and processes. Beasley licensed a patent to the Standard Oil Company, exhibited her work at the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition and the World's Columbian Exposition, and founded two companies for the design and manufacture of barrels (one of which later sold for $1.4 million, the ).

Early life Maria Hauser was born in about 1836 in North Carolina to a wealthy family. Refn|Stanley At the age of thirteen, she built a small sailboat that was capable of safely transporting her and her dog. Additionally, she was known to create several functioning watermills on her own without assistance from anyone else. One of her grandfathers, Jacob Hauser, was a distillery owner in Kentucky, and when Maria visited him and his business she learned about the work of barrel-making and her grandfather's desperate need for a better method, which he had been known to travel as far as 1,000 miles in search of. Around 1861, just as the Civil War was beginning, John Q. became unwell. Maria Beasley moved the family to her grandfather's home in Kentucky (which he later bequeathed to her). They lived there for at least ten years. Beasley then decided there would be better educational opportunities for their sons further north, so she sold the land in Kentucky and moved the family again, this time to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. but in 1876, when the Centennial Exposition opened in Philadelphia, Beasley became a frequent visitor to the exhibits in Machinery Hall. She patented a barrel-hooping machine in 1881 As she continued to patent her inventions, she secured funding assistance by transferring partial rights to business partners. Beasley's innovations were exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, and her family was staunchly supporting her work: John Q. had become a patent agent to help market her designs, while their son Walter managed operations in her factory.

During the mid 1890s, Beasley became involved with studying the problem of how to successfully transport perishable goods across long distances by train. She believed the answer rested on improving the speed of trains through electrification, rather than relying on refrigerator cars to keep goods cool. She built a short experimental rail line around her property and began working out ways in which a train could be redesigned to support and withstand speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. In March 1895, James G. Hulse, Parker Crittenden and John W. Hill incorporated the Inter Ocean Electric Railway company with $200 million of capital (the largest capitalized stock incorporated in the West at the time), and the company announced its intention of building an elevated electric railway between New York, Chicago and San Francisco, with Beasley presented as the primary designer and motivational force behind a new and improved train. Her listed contributions included designing a more aerodynamically-shaped motor, a "telescopic glass" to assist train engineers in seeing further down the line, and a device to circulate cold water and air around the train axles, thus decreasing the risk of overheating incidents. a steam generator (1886), and a bread-making machine.

Inventions Footwarmer In 1878, Beasley patented her first innovation, a footwarmer.

Barrel-hooping machine

Previously, all barrels were made by hand in a manual process. In 1880, after observing widespread advertisement for businesses desperately in search of barrel coopers, she asked her son, Oscar, whether there was any available machine that would make barrels and remove the need for coopers. After hearing that there wasn't, she became determined to create a solution and began brainstorming designs for a barrel-hooping machine capable of reliably and efficiently hooping wood together to create barrels. followed by a second version of the patent (including one filed in the United Kingdom) in 1882. Her machine is designed to fit hoops tightly onto both sides of the barrel simultaneously, using two reciprocating heads, firmly-secured "hooping-toes" to guide the hoops, and a combination of springs, screws and levers. two barrel-making machines (1884 and 1888), a machine for setting up barrels (1888), and a process for notching and cutting hoops (1891).

Life raft design alt=Specs for a collapsible life raft, viewed from above and from the side, with hollow metal floats and mesh sidings. Beasley was awarded two patents for an improved life raft, one in 1880 and the other in 1882. Beasley’s raft uses a base of collapsible metal floats that is more flexible and makes storage on board a ship easier, also including airtight containers to protect perishable provisions. author David H. Cropley challenges the credibility of this claim. The Titanic carried lifeboats, not life rafts. While four of the ship's lifeboats used collapsible canvas designs, they do not appear to be based on Beasley's design, and, regardless, the small number of collapsible lifeboats would not have been enough to save the hundreds of passengers cited in the stories. The collapsible lifeboats on board Titanic could be more accurately compared to the Berthon Boat which was designed by Edward Lyon Berthon after he survived the sinking of the PS Orion (1847) in 1850.

Anti-derailment device for trains

In 1898, Beasley was awarded a patent for a "Means for preventing derailment of railroad-cars".

Death Beasley died in 1913.