Mary Walton facts for kids
Mary Elizabeth Walton was a clever American inventor from the 1800s. She received two special documents called patents for her inventions. These patents showed that she had created new ways to reduce pollution.
In 1881, Mary Walton invented a system to clean up smoke from trains, factories, and homes. Her idea was to send the smoke from chimneys into large water tanks. The dirty parts of the smoke would stay in the water. Then, this dirty water could be sent away through sewers. This system helped clear the air of smoke, bad smells, and harmful pollution. At the time, people didn't fully understand air pollution, but Mary's invention helped make the air cleaner and healthier.
Mary Walton also found a way to make New York City quieter. She lived near the noisy elevated trains that ran high above the streets. She decided to tackle the problem after hearing that even famous inventor Thomas Edison had tried and failed. After doing her own research, she realized that much of the noise came from the wooden boxes that supported the tracks.
To test her ideas, she built a small model of the tracks in her basement. She discovered that lining the wooden boxes with cotton and filling them with sand made the trains much quieter. Her system worked by cushioning the tracks in a wooden box filled with sand and lined with cotton. This absorbed the loud sounds. She received a patent for this invention in 1881. The Metropolitan Railroad bought the rights to her idea for $10,000. Soon, other elevated train companies started using her quiet system too. Mary Walton was truly an innovator. She saw problems in her daily life and found smart ways to solve them, making the world a better place.
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Who Was Mary Walton?
Not much is known about Mary Walton's early life. It was hard for women inventors in the 1880s to get noticed. Because of this, many details about her are a bit of a mystery. However, a statement she made in 1884 gives us a clue about her childhood. She said, "My father had no sons, and believed in educating his daughters. He spared no pains or expense to this end." This suggests she had a good education, even though there are no official records of her studying engineering or science. It was very unusual for women to get such an education back then.
How Mary Walton Solved City Problems
The Industrial Revolution began in the late 1860s after the American Civil War. This period brought many workers and immigrants to cities like New York. They came looking for jobs in factories. Factory chimneys blew out thick smoke, and new elevated trains made a lot of noise and smoke as they carried people around the city.
In 1879, Mary Walton ran a boarding house in New York City. It was right across from the noisy elevated train tracks. She was bothered by the dark smoke and loud sounds from the trains. So, she decided to solve these problems herself.
Cleaning Up Smoke
Mary Walton's first invention (patent #221,880) helped clean up factory smoke. Her system sent the smoke from chimneys into water tanks. The pollution would stay in the water. Then, the dirty water was sent into the city's sewer system. This kept the air cleaner for everyone.
Quieting the Trains
A few years later, Walton tackled the loud rattling and clanging of the elevated trains. New York City had even asked famous inventors like Thomas Edison for help, but they couldn't find a solution. Mary Walton, an everyday woman, experienced the problem daily because she lived so close to the tracks. Her boarding house was right next to the new Gilbert Elevated Railway. She was determined to find a solution because she felt the problem's effects more directly than others.
After riding the trains for several days, Walton realized that the wooden supports under the tracks made the train noise even louder. She set up a small model railroad track in her basement. There, she discovered a great way to reduce the sound. She placed the rails in a wooden box-like frame. This box was painted with tar, lined with cotton, and filled with sand. When the trains ran, the vibrations from the rails were absorbed by the cotton and sand. This made the noise much quieter.
Walton received patent #237,422 for her sound-dampening invention on February 8, 1881. She sold the rights to her idea to the Metropolitan Railroad of New York City for $10,000. Soon, other elevated railway companies also started using her system. This helped them grow because the trains became much more pleasant.
Mary Walton's Lasting Impact
Mary Walton's inventions were very important for solving real problems in her time. After her ideas were used in New York, she even traveled to England. She wanted to share her pollution and noise solutions there, knowing that London also had a lot of smoke from its own Industrial Revolution. British officials praised her invention as one of the greatest of that era.
Most elevated railways have been replaced by underground trains, especially since the 1930s. For example, in New York, the old railway lines have been turned into a green space called the Highline. However, some elevated railways still exist in places like Chicago. Mary Walton's technology has been used both in America and other countries. This means that even today, parts of her patented solutions for pollution and noise are still in use.
Today, we understand much more about how air pollution and constant noise affect our health. Air pollution can cause serious illnesses like cancer. Mary Walton's water tank system helped improve air quality, even before people knew the full dangers. Loud or constant noise can also cause problems like hearing loss, stress, anxiety, and heart issues. Mary Walton helped address these problems, even before scientists fully understood them.
Mary Walton is seen as a role model for women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The Woman's Journal wrote about her twenty years later, saying, "The most noted machinists and inventors of the century [Thomas Edison among them] had given their attention to the subject without being able to provide a solution, when, lo, a woman's brain did the work..." Despite her amazing achievements, Mary Walton's name is not as well-known as it should be. She was truly ahead of her time in engineering, in breaking gender barriers, and in preventing pollution. She deserves much more recognition for her contributions.
