As we speak marks the primary day of Nationwide Girls’s Historical past Month.

To rejoice, we’re celebrating ladies whose concepts, tenacity and innovations modified automotive historical past and the best way we drive our automobiles:

Bertha Benz | Brake pads and the primary highway journey

Let’s begin with the lady who put vehicles on the map.

Bertha Benz was born in 1894 in Germany when ladies have been denied entry to larger training. She married younger engineer, Carl Benz, and supported his quite a few profession paths, emotionally and financially, together with the invention of the auto.

Nobody was very interested by his motorcar, till Bertha and their sons took a now-famous highway journey. With out Carl’s information, Bertha and the boys snuck the automotive out of Carl’s workshop and took it on the first-long-distance highway journey, from Mannheim to Pforzheim.

It was a tough trip on roads constructed for horses and carriages. She made a number of repairs throughout her journey and even invented the primary brake pad, product of leather-based, when the automotive’s picket brakes failed.

Her tenacity and determination created the recognition the Motor Automotive wanted to turn out to be the world’s most vital fashionable developments.

Margaret Wilcox | Automotive heater

Margaret Wilcox was a trailblazer. Born in 1839, she was one of many only a few feminine engineers of the time. In 1893, she acquired the patent for the inside automotive heater when she engineered a system that pulled the warmth from the engine into the cab.

Wilcox’s work impressed the air heaters present in right this moment’s automobiles making our chilly winter drives extra pleasing.

Mary Anderson & Charlotte Bridgwood |Windshield wiper

We’ve each Mary Anderson and Charlotte Bridgwood to thank for our windshield wipers that assist us to drive safely in rain and snow.

Anderson’s concept for the windshield wiper got here to her whereas driving on a trolley automotive to New York Metropolis in 1903. As a result of snowy climate, she couldn’t look out the window and benefit from the sights, and the driving force needed to cease always to wipe the snow off the windshield.

Impressed by her less-than-ideal highway journey, she designed a spring-loaded arm with a rubber blade that may wipe throughout the windshield and might be activated from contained in the automotive. Constructing on Anderson’s concept only a few years later, in 1917, Bridgwood upgraded the wiper to be electrically operated, her design used rollers as a substitute of blades to scrub a windshield.

Anderson and Bridgwood have been too sensible for his or her time as a result of their patents expired after not getting sufficient consideration from automakers. Little did they know windshield wipers would finally turn out to be a regular function in all automobiles.

Florence Lawrence | Auto signaling arms

At one level in automotive historical past, brake lights and switch alerts didn’t exist – till silent-film actress Florence Lawrence noticed the necessity.

In 1913, Lawrence invented a tool known as the Auto Signaling Arm that, “when positioned on the again of the fender, might be raised or lowered by electrical push buttons,” she described.

Once you pressed on the brake, the signaling arm would increase, indicating a cease.

Lawrence by no means acquired any patents for her design, however her concept impressed the mandatory flip alerts and brake lights we have now right this moment.

June McCarroll | Highway markings

In 1917, whereas driving her Ford Mannequin T down a California roadway, June McCarroll was impressed to create a security measure that saves lives to at the present time:

“My Mannequin T Ford and I discovered ourselves head to head with a truck on the paved freeway,” she defined. “It didn’t take me lengthy to decide on between a sandy berth to the fitting and a ten-ton truck to the left! Then I had my concept of a white line painted down the middle of the highways of the nation as a security measure.”

McCarroll launched a letter-writing marketing campaign that gained a lot consideration that painted strains grew to become California legislation in 1924. The remainder of the nation rapidly adopted.

Katharine Blodgett | Nonreflective glass

Engineer and scientist Katharine Blodgett is who we have now to thank for creating non-reflective and anti-glare windshields.

Born in Schenectady, New York, in 1898, she obtained her bachelors diploma at Bryn Mawr School and her masters on the College of Chicago. In 1926, at age 21, Blodgett was the primary lady to obtain a PhD in Physics at Cambridge College.

In 1938, she developed a liquid cleaning soap that, when 44 layers have been unfold over glass, would permit 99 p.c of sunshine to cross by way of. Her growth paved the best way for future engineers to create a extra sturdy coating that wouldn’t wipe off.

Hedy Lamarr | Bluetooth

You would possibly acknowledge Hedy Lamarr from the World Warfare II movie The Conspirators, however Lamarr was greater than an actress – she was the inventor who created the expertise in automotive’s Bluetooth options.

Within the Nineteen Forties, Lamarr invented a tool that blocked enemy ships from interrupting torpedo steering alerts. The gadget would take the torpedo alerts and make them bounce from frequency to frequency, making it close to not possible for an enemy to find the message.

It’s this ‘frequency leaping’ expertise we discover within the Bluetooth options in our automotive letting us speak on the cellphone hands-free or stream our favourite music.

Her expertise can be present in cell-phones, Wi-Fi and GPS.

Stephanie Kwolek | Kevlar tires and strengthened brake pads

In 1964 chemist Stephanie Kwolek found the artificial fiber, Kevlar. This polymer fiber is 5 instances stronger than metal however lighter than fiberglass. It’s even bulletproof.

Her discovery has saved numerous lives as Kevlar is now used to make bulletproof vests and armor.

As we speak, we will discover Kevlar in our tires and in strengthened brake pads.

Mimi Vandermolen | Ergonomic controls

In 1970, Ford’s Design Studio welcomed Mimi Vandermolen to the staff as one of many first full-time feminine designers.

After her first venture engaged on the 1974 Mustang II, she led the design staff for the 1986 Taurus inside.

Within the Taurus, Vandermolen created ergonomic controls, dials for local weather perform, buttons with raised bumps, and a curved sprint to make it simpler to succeed in controls. Her work made the automotive extra accessible and accommodating to drivers.

She went on to guide all of Ford’s North American small-car designs and the styling of the 1993 Probe, in and out.

Gladys Mae West | GPS

As a mathematician who labored for the U.S. Naval Weapons Laboratory, Glady Mae West was the venture supervisor for SEASAT, the primary earth-orbiting satellite tv for pc measuring ocean depths.

The work on the 1978 SEASAT venture helped West and her staff construct the GEOSAT satellite tv for pc creating laptop simulations of earth’s surfaces.

Her calculations and work on the SEASAT and GEOSAT helped make the GPS methods in our automobiles – we’d be misplaced with out her.

This text, written by Racheal Colbert, was initially published on ClassicCars.com, an editorial companion of Motor Authority.