Image of Sarah Guppy: by Stewy [with kind permission of Sheila Hannon, Creative Producer] Sarah Guppy (née Beach), later Mrs. Coote. Baptised 1770, died 1852 Sarah Guppy’s modern reputation rests almost entirely on the mis-interpretation of her 1811 bridge patent. As a result, she has been promoted as the precursor of the modern suspension bridge…
To Build Ships for His Majesty’s Navy – women in shipbuilding
For this year’s Remembrance weekend, I offer some stories about women who ran shipyards or worked in shipyards designing or building warships for the Royal Navy. This weekend we quite rightly remember the men and women who put their lives on the line to protect us in time of conflict, but their service depended…
Miss Benest and Miss Griff – one woman, several names, many talents. Part 2 of a strange tale.
In a previous post a couple of years back, I was marvelling at the multiplicity of names by which this woman lived. Yes, I was able to definitively prove that Cleone de Heveningham Benest, Cleone de Heveningham Griff, Cleone Griff, Miss C. Griff and Miss Clayton Griff were all one and the same person. I…
40% of Engineers in Syria and Turkey are Women. Why so much higher than other countries?
In 2004 I was privileged to be involved in an EU-funded project which took me to Syria several times. I was amazed to find that nearly half their engineers were women. You may share my delight that this hasn’t changed, despite Syria’s tragic war over the past 10 years. Normally these blogs are pretty much…
Remembering Women Who Worked and Died for Their Country: munition workers of WW1, “Canary Girls” and others
As the centenary of the Great War approaches this week, I offer readers not a traditional red poppy but a yellow one – actually a wild, Welsh yellow poppy. I have chose this to represent our failure to remember the hundreds of women who died doing horrible, filthy, toxic work in munitions plants across…
Hilda Lyon – airships, windtunnels and submarines
NEW! Book now available: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B089M6P3VB?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860 Hilda Margaret Lyon MA., MSc., AFRAeS. (1896-1946) Hilda in the 1930s Hilda Margaret Lyon was born in Market Weighton in 1896, into a family of farmers and grocers. She had 4 older siblings but, out of the whole family, she seems to have been the only one to have travelled…
From Toys to Airships – the key role played by the Weinling ladies
Do you know what the early airships used for the gasbags inside the outer envelopes? You will be very surprised, perhaps a little horrified. Do you know how women were the key to the success of all airships made in Britain until the 1920s? Let’s hear it for the ladies of the Weinling family! Image…
Women building London’s transport infrastructure
Does anyone know who this woman is? Santa brought me a fascinating box-set from the BFI’s archives of the British Transport Film Collection: “Experiment Under London“. This is a set of 5 “Reports” on the processes and progress of building the Victoria Line in the 1960s. Although clearly meant for the general public, and presented…
Lest We Forget… … A Remembrance Week Special… … The women who operated the RAF’s radar in WW2
[Picture taken in the 1950’s of women serving in the British Women’s Royal Air Force (WRAF) as radar operators. (Photo -/AFP via Getty Images)] When we read about the history of radar and its role in World War 2, we only ever hear about the scientists (‘boffins’) who invented it, all men. We never hear…
Some Eponymous Women
This blogpost will be a bit of a break from my usual fare of biographical notes about interesting women engineers of the past. Today I want to consider women whose names have become attached to things or concepts: Eponymous Women. A few months ago I wrote in to “Feedback” – the page of humorous oddities…
Margaret Law – Pioneer in Fire Safety Engineering (1928-2017)
Usually, in this blog, I am writing about women of the more distant past, but today I want to introduce you to Margaret Law who died last month. I am embarrassed to say that I hadn’t previously heard of her until the obituary notes popped up on the internet. Born in about 1928, Margaret gained…
Dorothée Pullinger and the Paisley Connection
Dorothée Pullinger, nowadays celebrated for her pioneering work as an engineer, car producer and entrepreneur, has generally been more associated with the Dumfries area of Scotland where she worked after the First World War before moving to London and then Guernsey. However, to understand how she came to be so successful in those later moves…
women engineers' history 