Category: Culture Site

The Librarian as a Resource

This week I tried to contact a librarian by text and in person.

When I tried to contact a librarian by text I wasn’t particularly pleased because there was no response. I followed the directions on the OSU Library – Ask a Librarian page where they said to text a number with a code and question. I texted a fairly simple question, just asking about help desk hours thinking that it would be more likely to get me a quick response than a complex question would. I still got no response.

In my MB 385 class I actually had a librarian come visit and teach us tricks for the paper we are writing. We got a lesson on finding good articles using EBSCOhost and a computer application called Zotero that can compile sources and create citations. I took advantage of this opportunity to get things done for both of my classes at the same time and had the librarian answer all my questions during the class period. She led us through installing Zotero step by step and I now have it installed on my personal computer. From EBSCOhost (the search engine I found most helpful) I was able to find a few articles she was mentioned in but none that went into complete detail about her or her inventions. The ones that were completely about Bette Nesmith Graham weren’t available to me online.

Bette Nesmith Graham

Bette Nesmith Graham, a woman who never finished high school but still went on to become one of the most famous women inventors of the 20th century. Graham is the woman behind liquid paper, better known as white-out. Back before we had the “backspace” button, we used typewriters and typing mistakes could not just be deleted and redone. From watching the window painters at her bank, she observed that instead of removing chunks of paint when they messed up, that they just put another layer of paint over top. Graham found a way to apply this strategy to her typewriting. This saved people the trouble of having to retype whole papers due to typing mistakes.

When people started to learn about Graham’s invention, they flooded her with requests to get some for themselves. Graham started producing and packaging the product from her home. She worked to perfect her mixture and then applied for and received a patent for her product. Within ten years her “liquid paper” had it’s own headquarters and production plant, selling over a million orders each year. Soon after the factory was producing over 25 million bottles of liquid paper a year and employed 200 people. In 1979 Bette Nesmith Graham sold Liquid Paper to Gilette for $47.5 million. She died the next year at 56, so unfortunately a interview with Bette Nesmith Graham would not be possible.

The Famous Women Inventors page led me to discover this amazing woman inventor.

Hedy Lamarr (No longer my topic)

Hedy Lamarr who was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna, Austria was a worldwide beauty icon who had a lot more to offer the world than her looks. She was an actress who went on to sign with MGM but not only was she talented, she was brilliant also. Hedy Lamarr is a pioneer in spread spectrum technology. She patented something called the “Secret Communication System,” which went on to be the beginning of military communication as well as mobile phone technology.

Hedy’s idea involved changing radio frequencies while communicating in order to stop enemy countries from being able to block signals and detect frequencies. While they patented their idea in 1942, the technology at the time made it hard for them to actually create what they had thought of and the military was not open to outside ideas. Finally, in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis a form of their idea started appearing on ships.

Hedy and her partner George Antheil went on to win the Electric Frontier Foundation Inventor Award, the BULBIE Gnass Spirit of Achievement Bronze Award, and were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.

The Famous Women Inventors page led me to discover this amazing woman who was beautiful, talented, and brilliant. Unfortunately Hedy Lamarr passed away in January of 2000 so an interview would not be possible although there seems to be interviews of her on the Science Channel and Discovery Channel.