Portland EE.UU.; 25-10-1840 — 12-01-1922
Period of activity: 1873 — 1915
Geographical classification: America > United States
Socio-cultural movements
Late modern period / Contemporary period
Groups by dedication
Technologists > Engineers
Technologists > Object designers
Technologists > Inventors
Professionals / Other groups > Businesswomen / Executives / Administrative managers
Context of feminine creation
We can link Helen Blanchard's invention of the zig-zag stitch sewing machine to other everyday inventions made by women in the late 19th and 20th centuries: the dishwasher (Josephine Cochrane), the hypodermic syringe (Letitia Geer), the coffee machine (Melitta Bentz), the disposable nappy (Marion Donovan), the lifeboat (Maria Beasley), the ink pen (Bette Nesmith Graham) or the windscreen wiper (Mary Anderson).
She began an ambitious career as an inventor in the emerging industry of mechanised sewing. She is known for inventing the zig-zag stitch sewing machine, which made garments more resistant. For her inventions in the textile industry, she is part of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Realising that her inventions had displaced workers, she devoted the rest of her life to philanthropic work to help these women. She also invented devices tangentially related to the sewing industry, such as a pencil sharpener and surgical needles.
Helen Blanchard was born in Portland, Maine on 25 October 1840 to a wealthy family. Her father was Nathaniel Blanchard, a shipowner and businessman, and her mother was Phoebe Buxton Blanchard. Helen demonstrated an inventive mindset at an early age but did not receive her first patent until she was in her thirties, after the collapse of her father's business. There is no indication that she received any mechanical or technical education, although her patents mainly relate to these subjects.
As a result of the business panic of 1866, Helen Blanchard moved to Boston, Massachusetts, and patented several inventions related to sewing machines in 1873 and 1875, including the Blanchard overstitching machine, which could simultaneously sew and relock knitted fabrics.
After developing zig-zag and overlock sewing techniques, she moved to Philadelphia, where she established the Blanchard Overseaming Company of Philadelphia to market her inventions in the late 1870s or early 1880s. She also founded Blanchard Hosiery Machine Company. She later moved to New York in the early 1890s and continued to patent a variety of inventions, including a pencil sharpener and a hat sewing machine.
Having profited from her business ventures, she was able to buy back the family property in Portland and moved there in 1901. She continued to patent inventions until she suffered a stroke in 1916.
She died in Providence in 1922 and is buried in the family plot in Portland's Evergreen Cemetery. She was included in the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006.
Throughout her life, she continued to work on improvements to needles and sewing machines and obtained 22 patents in the field. She also invented devices tangentially related to the sewing industry, such as a pencil sharpener and surgical needles.
Engineer girl, 17/03/2022, https://www.engineergirl.org/125209/Helen-Augusta-Blanchard
This author can be studied in Technology, in the block of technological problem solving and technical communication in 2nd and 3rd of ESO.