Emily E. Tassey facts for kids

Emily Evans Tassey (born Rowland, 1823 – 1899) was an amazing inventor from the 1800s. She created five different inventions, all related to machines that work in or on water. These inventions helped with things like lifting sunken ships and moving water around. Emily Tassey was one of only a few women back then who focused on inventing machines.

Emily Tassey: A Life of Invention

Early Life and Education

Emily Evans Rowland was born on December 15, 1823, in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. She went to school at Steubenville Seminary to become a teacher. Before she got married, she taught at the McKeesport School.

In 1845, Emily married William D. Tassey, who was a lawyer. They had three children together. Sadly, her husband passed away in 1857. After his death, Emily continued teaching in public schools in Pittsburgh and McKeesport. It's thought that she might have started inventing to help support herself and her children.

Her Clever Inventions

Emily Tassey earned patents for five of her inventions between 1860 and 1876. A patent is like a special license that protects an inventor's idea, so no one else can copy it without permission. Her inventions were all about marine technology, which means they had to do with ships, water, and the ocean.

Some of her cool inventions included:

• A better way to lift ships that had sunk underwater.
• Improved siphon propeller-pumps, which are machines that can move water using a special kind of pump.
• A dredging machine, which is used to dig up mud or sand from the bottom of rivers or harbors.

In 1893, Emily showed two of her inventions at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. This was a huge world's fair where people from all over the globe came to see new ideas and technologies. She displayed her siphon propeller-pump inventions from 1876 and 1880.

This is a model of Emily Tassey's invention for improving how vessels move in water, from 1876.

Later Life

Emily Tassey passed away on November 27, 1899. She is buried in The McKeesport and Versailles Cemetery in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. Her work as an inventor helped to show that women could create important machines and contribute to technology, even in a time when it was less common for them to do so.

Emily Tassey's Patents

Here are the types of inventions Emily Tassey received patents for:

• Better ways to raise sunken ships (1876)
• Improved siphon propeller-pumps (1876)
• Improvements in how vessels move through water (1876)
• Better dredging machines (1876)
• A new siphon propeller-pump design (1880)