Geographical classification

America > United States

Socio-cultural movements

Groups by dedication

Technologists > Engineers

Technologists > Inventors

Character
Retrato

Mary Elizabeth Walton

Nueva York 1827 ‖ Unknown c. 1900

Period of activity: From 1879 until 1900

Geographical classification: America > United States

Socio-cultural movements

Groups by dedication

Technologists > Engineers

Technologists > Inventors

Context of feminine creation

Mary Waton (1827- c.1900) was a pioneering engineer and inventor in the fight for the environment, atmospheric pollution and noise pollution, who invented various systems to alleviate pollution in large cities. She was a contemporary of Eunice Foote (1819-1888) who, from her kitchen, was the first scientist to theorise about the relationship between the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) and significant global warming.

Her predecessors in the field of computer science and engineering include Ada Lovelace (1815-1857), a mathematician and writer who is considered to be the first computer programmer. Mary Anderson (1866-1953), inventor of the windscreen wiper and many other inventions such as the washing machine, flares and central heating, as well as great female scientists such as Maire Curie and Eleanor Ormerod, Nettie Stevens and Ellen Swallow Richards. 

Her predecessors were: the naturalist Maria Sybilla Merian (1647-1717), the anatomy teacher Anna Morandi Manzolini (1716-1774).  Laura Bassi (1711-1778) promoted the constitution of a network of experimenters that connected Italy with the scientific culture of France and England.

Heirs to this work in engineering and environmental awareness is the Hungarian scientist Mária Telkes (1900-1995), considered the pioneer of solar energy. She designed the first solar-heated house, the Dover Solar House in Massachusetts (USA). Also Ruzena Bajcsy (1933- ) PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, a leading researcher in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision. In the 21st century, the young Greta Thunberg (2003- ) a Swedish activist, focused on the risks posed by global warming and environmental activism, has been at the forefront of environmental activism.

Review

American environmental engineer who invented different systems to alleviate pollution in large cities. In 1789, she developed a system that minimized the effects of smoke from industries by diverting emissions to water tanks where pollutants were retained and then discharged into the sewer. 
Later, Mary Walton also invented a method to reduce the noise pollution produced by the railway, which some therapists blamed for nervous breakdowns in American cities during the 1980s. 

Activities

English

  • Climate Summits
    • Spain > Biology and geology > 1st ESO > Ecology and sustainability
    • Spain > Biology and geology > 3rd ESO > Ecology and sustainability

Spanish

  • Cumbres del Clima
    • Spain > Biology and geology > 1st ESO > Ecology and sustainability
    • Spain > Biology and geology > 3rd ESO > Ecology and sustainability

Justifications

  • Inventor and engineer.
  • Pioneer in the fight for the environment, air pollution and noise pollution.
  • She invented different systems to alleviate pollution in large cities.

Biography

Mary Elizabeth Walton was born in the United States in 1829, being the only descendant of her family, and she was what we would call, in the 21st century, a pioneer in the fight for the environment.
Her inventions in the field of engineering, a discipline which was overwhelmingly dominated by men, made her one of the few women of her time who received some social and economic recognition for her efforts to improve society.

Mary Elizabeth Walton's patent on smoke emissions from chimneys. 
Ruido ambiental 

Walton lived at a time when the industrial revolution had spawned countless factories in the United States. As the industry prospered, so did a new problem on a scale never seen before: pollution.
The intelligent and creative Mary was concerned about the smoke emitted by the factories that had arisen as a result of the unstoppable industrialization, a concern that prompted her to achieve the development of a system to reduce the environmental risks caused by the emission of smoke, which until then spilled uncontrollably throughout the country.
The device prevented the direct emission into the environment of fumes from the chimneys of locomotives, industry and residential buildings that were diverted to water tanks, where the pollutants were retained to be later expelled by the city's sewage system.
The Walton method was patented on November 18, 1879, under number 221,880.

Ambient noise
Just two years later, Mary Walton patented her second great invention.
In the late 19th century, the elevated train became the solution to New York City's transportation problems. At first, it was speculated on the possibility of using horse-drawn carriages as the best system to move the inhabitants from one place to another, but they must have thought that some of the residuals of the horses were worse than the ashes and the smoke that fell from the elevated trains.

NYC_Bowery_Elevated_Railroad

Bowery Elevated Railroad  
This novel possibility, the elevated train that began operating on 2 July 1878, was rapidly spreading to other large cities in the United States and, as in the case of Watt's steam engine, with consequences that, at that time, had not been accurately measured yet. Sociologists even blamed the noise of the trains for the nervous breakdowns and neuroses of some urbanites.
In 1880, most Manhattanites lived within a ten-minute walk of one of these lines, so it is not hard to imagine Mary Walton enduring the noise of the passing train, as we have seen so many times in movie scenes, speaking loudly or interrupting a conversation every time one of those convoys circulated on the track.
(…....)
 
https://mujeresconciencia.com/2017/01/26/mary-walton-la-dama-del-silencio-la-sociedad-del-ruido/ 

Works

Bibliography

Didactic approach

-Biology-geology of 4th of ESO.

Documents