Mary Wissinger - Women in Engineering

Building a bridge is a balancing act. It takes many people, lots of equipment, and a talented engineer to put it all together.

Brooklyn Bridge completed in 1883

Emily Warren Roebling didnt set out to be an engineer. She lived in a time when women were discouraged from doing things like expressing opinions and having careers. Emily did both when she helped build the Brooklyn Bridge. It wasnt easy. The suspension bridge was over a mile long, making it the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time.

Emily Warren Roebling
(EM-i-lee war-en ROH-bling)
United States, 18431903

Civil Engineering

Emily took on the role of chief engineer in place of her husband, who had become too sick to do the job. She oversaw bridge construction for more than ten years, from managing workers to coordinating supplies.

She wore a skirt and petticoat because women of the time werent allowed to wear pants. Construction can be dangerous work, especially without the right clothes, but that didnt stop her from visiting the site.

When Emily and her team of workers finally finished the bridge, she rode across it in a carriage. She carried a roostera symbol of victory at the timeto celebrate her success. Emilys engineering work still matters today. Hundreds of thousands of people cross the Brooklyn Bridge every week.

At its heart, engineering is solving problems.

To do this, engineers use science, math, design, creative thinking, and persistence. Engineers do many different types of work, from building bridges to solving health problems. They also create and improve things that we use every single day.

Like the clothes youre wearing right now!

When Huang Daopo was born in the 13th century, making cotton cloth was very difficult. Life was also hard in Huang Daopos town, Songjiang.

The soil couldnt grow crops, and many townspeople struggled to get enough food. In her teens, Huang Daopo ran away and hid on a boat. She journeyed to an island off the coast of China.

There, she learned about cotton and weaving.

Fabric Weaving Loom

When Huang Daopo returned to Songjiang as an adult, she used her knowledge to help the town. She created a machine to clean raw cotton quickly and built a spinning wheel that could spin many threads at once. She invented these revolutionary machines 500 years before anyone else figured out how to make them.

Her town became known for weaving beautiful cotton fabrics, quilts, and mattresses. Huang Daopos inventions brought jobs and security to many people.

Mechanical Engineering

Huang Daopo
(huahng dow-poh)
China, 12451330

Tribikos

Engineers have been inventing for thousands of years.

Mary the Prophetess lived in Egypt nearly 2,000 years ago, and she loved experimenting with metals, liquids, and laboratory equipment. But the tools of the time were not advanced enough for her big ideas, so Mary invented her ownlike the tribikos. Her inventions were important for alchemy, an early study of the natural world that led to modern chemistry.

Marys most famous invention is still used today: the heated water bath. This technology allows scientists to run experiments, helps factories produce food, and is also used in wastewater plants.

People even use heated water baths at home to soften wax for candles, melt chocolate for desserts, and slowly cook things like tasty cheesecakes. This invention is still called the bain-marie, meaning Marys bath.

Mary the Prophetess
(MARE-ee the PRAH-fet-ess)
Egypt, First Century CE

Chemical Engineering

Engineers think creatively.

When movie star Hedy Lamarr wasnt making films, she worked on projects in her laboratory. She had lots of ideas for inventions and experiments, such as making tablets that turned water into soda. Hedy also created designs for a more aerodynamic airplane, based on the smooth shape of fast birds and fish. She even kept a small laboratory in her on-set trailer so she could work between scenes.

Frequency Hopping

Then Hedy learned that important radio messages sent during World War II were being blocked. It wasnt long before she came up with an idea for a secret communication device. Her device could send the radio messages hopping around to different frequencies, making them impossible to find and jam.