Episode 83: Alice H. Parker & Florence Parpart
Alice H. Parker
The information on Alice H. Parker is not well confirmed. What we do know for certain is that on December 23, 1919, a patent that was filed by Alice H Parker was approved. The patent was for a central heating system that was powered by natural gas. At the time of the patent being filed, Alice lived in Morristown, New Jersey.
Florence Parpart
Florence Wilhelmina Parpart was born in 1873 in New York City. In 1900, Florence lived in Hoboken with her mother. Her father had passed away and left her an inheritance of $10,000. She told friends she didn’t want to rely on her inheritance, so she got trained as a stenographer and started working at Eastern Sanitary Street Cleaning Company in New Jersey. While working at this company she invented and filed for a patent for a street sweeping machine in 1899. She co-filed with the general manager at her company, Hiram D. Layman. The patent was approved in 1900. In 1901, she and Hiram applied for a second patent for an updated street sweeping machine. It was approved in 1904. In 1903, Hiram and Florence got married at her mother’s house in New York City. In 1913, Florence applied for another patent, this time for a refrigerator it was approved in 1914. Florence went on to market her fridge and sell it to several American companies over the next few years. Hiram and Florence moved to Pittsburgh in the 1910s and Hiram passed away in 1919. Florence moved back to New York City and passed away in 1930 in Brooklyn, New York.
Caryatid: Erin Bowles
Erin Bowles studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan. She worked as an engineer for 6 years before deciding she wanted to get her law degree. She attended Wayne State University in Detroit to get her JD. Today she is a patent attorney and uses her engineering background to help people receive patents for their inventions.
References
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Brooks Kushman. “Erin Bowles.” Brooks Kushman, 24 Mar. 2023, www.brookskushman.com/people/erin-bowles.
Dodd, Amber D. “Brought to You by Howard: Alice H. Parker’s Historic Patent of the Gas Heater Warms the World.” The Dig at Howard University, 8 Feb. 2023, thedig.howard.edu/all-stories/brought-you-howard-alice-h-parkers-historic-patent-gas-heater-warms-world. Accessed 12 July 2023.
“Erin Bowles.” EngineerGirl, www.engineergirl.org/150419/Erin-Bowles.
Henderson, Audrey. “What We Know About Alice Parker, a ‘Hidden Figure’ in Modern Heating.” Energy News Network, Feb. 2022, energynews.us/2022/02/28/what-we-know-about-alice-parker-a-hidden-figure-in-modern-heating.
“Her Business Success Wins Life Partnership: Friends Delighted With Modern Romance of Two New Yorkers.” Utica Herald-Dispatch and Daily Gazette, Utica, New York, 6 July 1903.
Layman, Florence P. “US1090925A - Refrigerator Attachment.” Google Patents, 22 July 1913, patents.google.com/patent/US1090925A/en.
MacDonald, Anne. Feminine Ingenuity: How Women Inventors Changed America. 1st ed., New York : Ballantine Books, 1992, openlibrary.org/books/OL18364649M/Feminine_ingenuity.
“Meet Inventor Alice Parker: The Woman Behind Central Heating - BlackDoctor.org - Where Wellness and Culture Connect.” BlackDoctor, 31 July 2020, blackdoctor.org/meet-inventor-alice-parker-the-woman-behind-central-heating.
Municipal Journal and Engineer. United States, Municipal Journal and Engineer, Incorporated, 1900.
Parker, Alice H. “US1325905A - Heating Furnace.” Google Patents, 23 Dec. 1919, patents.google.com/patent/US1325905A/en?oq=1325905.
Parpart, Florence, and Hiram D. Layman. “US649609A - Street-cleaning Machine.” Google Patents, 6 Mar. 1899, patents.google.com/patent/US649609A/en.
Parpart, Florence, and Hiram D. Layman. “US762241A - Street-sweeping Machine.” Google Patents, 17 July 1901, patents.google.com/patent/US762241A/en.
Swanson, Kara W., Centering Black Women Inventors: Passing and the Patent Archive (2022). 25 Stanford Technology Law Review 305 (2022), Northeastern University School of Law Research Paper No. 419-2022, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4007539
Weber, Erika. “Alice H. Parker (1895-?).” Black Past, 1 Apr. 2018, www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/parker-alice-h-1895. Accessed 12 July 2023.
Wikipedia contributors. “Florence Parpart.” Wikipedia, Apr. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Parpart.
