Sybilla Masters

GB Patent 604, Cleaning and Curing Indian Corn, applied for by Sybilla Masters but granted to her husband Thomas Masters because women could not be legally recognised.

Sybilla Righton Masters (c. 1676 – 23 August 1720) was an American inventor. Masters was the first person residing in the American colonies to be given an English patent, and possibly the first known female machinery inventor in America of European ancestry. Masters was given a patent for a corn mill in 1715 in her husband's name, as women were not allowed to have their own patents. She also patented a process for making hats. It is believed that she was born around 1676, and in 1687 she and her six sisters emigrated from Bermuda to Burlington Township, New Jersey (along the Delaware River) with her Quaker parents Sarah and William Righton. One everyday meal prepared during colonial times was hominy, made from ground-up Indian Corn. Colonial women would prepare this meal by grinding the corn between stones, which was draining and tedious. Sybilla began taking note of how native women would grind the corn by using wooden posts. In the colonies, however, it did well. Medical authorities have dismissed Tuscarora Rice as quackery.

Masters' second patent was awarded for a new process of making hats and bonnets using straw and palmetto leaves. The process was used to create many other woven goods as well, such as baskets, matting and furniture coverings.