Women's History Month - Ruth Rogan Benerito

In recognition of Women’s History Month, Smithtown Matters is proud to recognize the accomplishments of women.  It is fascinating to learn the wonderful and interesting ways women have made their mark on the world.  Throughout March, SmithtownMatters will give a brief history of women who made a difference. 

Day 20 - RUTH ROGAN BENERITO - PHD, Educator Chemist, Inventor

“Easy-Care Cotton”

Over more than fifty years, and through more than fifty patents, Ruth Rogan Benerito has used her broad scientific training to transform the cotton, wood and paper industries. The most noteworthy benefit for consumers has been easy-care clothing.

Benerito was born in New http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/benerito.html in 1916. Her mother, a prototypical feminist, encouraged her daughter in her love of science, in spite of the rampant sexism she would encounter. Benerito rose to the occasion, earning scholarships to Newcomb College (BS in Chemistry, 1935), Bryn Mawr College (Graduate Scholar, 1935-36), Tulane University (MS in Physics, 1938), and the University of Chicago (PHD in Physical Chemistry, 1948).

Upon earning her doctorate, Benerito became an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Newcomb College. Her teaching and research included advanced quantitative analysis and physical chemistry, organic chemistry, kinetics, and thermodynamics. Her specialty became the use of cellulose chemistry to solve practical problems in the cotton, wood and paper industries. In 1953, Benerito began a prolific 33-year career at the Southern Regional Research Center of the US Department of Agriculture. First, she led a project, sponsored by the Surgeon General, to develop a fat emulsion for intravenous feeding of long-term medical patients (1953-58). Then Benerito moved on to her best known work, the invention of the “easy-care cotton” process, which resulted in “wash and wear” clothing. Rejecting the industry-standard reagents for cotton fibers, Benerito found a way to use certain long-chain, mono-basic acid chlorides as reagents, creating a new method of crosslinking cellulose chains in cotton. This work led to patented processes, which eventually spread throughout the industry, for manufacturing wrinkle-, stain-, and flame-resistant cotton fabrics.

In 1959, Benerito became Research Leader of the lab’s Natural Polymers division, a post she held until retiring in 1986. Her other innovations in textiles include the use of radiofrequency cold plasmas to clean cotton and ready it for treatment with film or dye. This method, which has been adopted by the textile industry in Japan, takes the place of mercerization (the pretreatment of cotton with sodium hydroxide), thereby eliminating a serious environmental hazard. Benerito has also invented and patented processes that create (and etch) “glassy” polymeric cellulosic materials. These, resembling “petrified cotton,” resist both acids and alkalis; they can be used as conductive, reflective, adhesive, or even ornamental coatings.

Many of Benerito’s inventions have applications beyond the cotton industry. For example, her work in the synthesis of chemically modified cottons has been adopted for the development of new wood products and epoxy resins. Overall, Benerito has earned 55 US patents and a glowing reputation within the cotton, wood and paper industries. She has won numerous awards, including the USDA’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, and the American Chemical Society’s Garvan Award (both in 1970).

After retiring from the Southern Regional Research Center in 1986 at the age of 70, Benerito taught in the Chemistry Department at the University of New Orleans. Ruth Benerito continues both to inspire beginning students and to guide advanced students in her many realms of expertise. ( Reprint from MIT, Inventor of the Week)

Women's History Month - Sharon Rogone

In recognition of Women’s History Month, Smithtown Matters is proud to recognize the accomplishments of women.  It is fascinating to learn the wonderful and interesting ways women have made their mark on the world.  Throughout March, SmithtownMatters will give a brief history of women who made a difference. 

Day 19 - Sharon Rogone - Nurse, Inventor of the Bili Bonnet, Business woman

When babies are born prematurely, they frequently require days or weeks of special care in hospitals’ neonatal intensive care facilities. These tiny patients present a variety of challenges for the nurses and doctors who care for them; their delicate bodies need both nurturing and protection, and standard equipment can be ill-fitting or otherwise less-than-perfect at doing the job.

Neonatal nurse Sharon Rogone had spent two decades working with preemies when she came up with a way to solve one of these problems. When premature babies with jaundice were treated with ultraviolet lights, it was necessary to protect their eyes from the harsh rays with coverings. But the bilirubin masks that were available were often hard to keep in place for too long.

Rogone began working on a design for a head-hugging but soft and flexible nylon, bilirubin eye mask made specifically to fit a premature infant’s face. She called the mask the Bili Bonnet. The product would take her in a brand new direction in her life that would help thousands of premature babies, and at the same time allow many other health care professionals get their innovations to market.

Rogone was born Mary Sharon Shoffstall on Aug. 8, 1942, in Los Angeles. She was educated at San Bernardino Valley College and at California State University, Santa Barbara, and became a registered nurse. In the 1980s, while working at St. Mary’s Hospital in Apple Valley, Calif., she noticed that nurses in the NICU were always struggling to keep babies’ eyes protected by constantly checking and re-checking their masks. They tried everything from cotton balls to construction paper to get the masks to stay in place, but nothing seemed to work. Using supplies she was able to gather at the hospital, Rogone crafted the Bili Bonnet and showed it to her colleagues. The design won great praise from fellow nurses.

She began looking for ways to bring the Bili Bonnet to market, attending nursing trade shows, seeking out financial backers, and handing out samples and flyers. She had very little success going this route, but she was reluctant to start her own manufacturing company until she talked it over with Andrew Webber, a medical sales representative she’d met at work. Webber convinced her to set out on her own, and offered to become a full partner.

Armed with a patent on the Bili Bonnet, Rogone invested $1,500, as did Webber, and the pair launched Small Beginnings, Inc. They began demonstrating the Bili Bonnet to staff at hospitals, attending trade shows, and sourcing materials to manufacture the goods.  Their hard work paid off; today the Bili Bonnet is used in hospitals around the world, and Small Beginnings keeps warehouses in both Victorville, Calif., and Texas.

Small Beginnings did not stop there, however. Rogone began working more of her own ideas into the company’s product lineup and then she realized that other nurses also needed a place to get their ideas off the ground. She made it the mission of Small Beginnings to expand its product line, capitalizing on the ideas crafted by fellow health-care professionals, specifically those who understand the challenges of caring for premature babies.

Rogone’s husband Phil soon joined the team, along with Ken Croteau, who helped the company grow its distribution network. Today the company’s offerings include pillows, mattresses, blankets, pacifiers and nearly 20 other innovative infant-care products. (Reprinted From Inventor of the Week)

Women's History Month - J.K.Rowling

In recognition of Women’s History Month, Smithtown Matters is proud to recognize the accomplishments of women.  It is fascinating to learn the wonderful and interesting ways women have made their mark on the world.  Throughout March, SmithtownMatters will give a brief history of women who made a difference. 

Day 18 - J. K. Rowling - Author

J.K. Rowling has a rags to riches history.  She is most famous for the Harry Potter series. In a world where technology rules, J.K. Rowling inspired millions of children to read.  

Women's History Month - Eileen Marie Collins

In recognition of Women’s History Month, Smithtown Matters is proud to recognize the accomplishments of women.  It is fascinating to learn the wonderful and interesting ways women have made their mark on the world.  Throughout March, SmithtownMatters will give a brief history of women who made a difference.  

Day 17- EILEEN MARIE COLLINS (COLONEL, USAF, RET.)
NASA ASTRONAUT (FORMER) First Female Shuttle Pilot

PERSONAL DATA: Born November 19, 1956, in Elmira, New York. Married. She enjoys running, golf, hiking, camping, reading, photography, astronomy.

EDUCATION: Graduated from Elmira Free Academy, Elmira, New York, in 1974; received an associate in science degree in mathematics/science from Corning Community College in 1976; a bachelor of arts degree in mathematics and economics from Syracuse University in 1978; a master of science degree in operations research from Stanford University in 1986; and a master of arts degree in space systems management from Webster University in 1989.

SPECIAL HONORS: Defense Superior Service Medal, Distinguished Flying Cross, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Air Force Meritorious Service Medal with one oak leaf cluster, Air Force Commendation Medal with one oak leaf cluster, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for service in Grenada (Operation Urgent Fury, October 1983), French Legion of Honor, NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, NASA Space Flight Medals, Free Spirit Award, and the National Space Trophy.

EXPERIENCE: Collins graduated in 1979 from Air Force Undergraduate Pilot Training at Vance AFB, Oklahoma, where she was a T-38 instructor pilot until 1982. From 1983 to 1985, she was a C-141 aircraft commander and instructor pilot at Travis AFB, California. She spent the following year as a student with the Air Force Institute of Technology. From 1986 to 1989, she was assigned to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, where she was an assistant professor in mathematics and a T-41 instructor pilot. She was selected for the astronaut program while attending the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB, California, from which she graduated in 1990.

She has logged over 6,751 hours in 30 different types of aircraft. Collins retired from the Air Force in January 2005.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Selected by NASA in January 1990, Collins became an astronaut in July 1991. Initially assigned to Orbiter engineering support, Collins has also served on the astronaut support team responsible for Orbiter prelaunch checkout, final launch configuration, crew ingress/egress, landing/recovery, worked in Mission Control as a spacecraft communicator (CAPCOM), served as the Astronaut Office Spacecraft Systems Branch Chief, Chief Information Officer, Shuttle Branch Chief, and Astronaut Safety Branch Chief. Collins served as pilot on STS-63 (February 3-11, 1995) and STS-84 (May 15-24, 1997), and was the commander on STS-93 (July 22-27, 1999) and STS-114 (July 26 to August 9, 2005). A veteran of four space flights, Collins has logged over 872 hours in space. Collins retired from NASA in May 2006.

SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: STS -63 Discovery (February 3-11, 1995) was the first flight of the new joint Russian-American Space Program. Mission highlights included the rendezvous with the Russian Space Station Mir, operation of Spacehab, the deployment and retrieval of an astronomy satellite, and a space walk. Collins was the first woman pilot of a Space Shuttle.

STS -84 Atlantis (May 15-24, 1997) was NASA’s sixth Shuttle mission to rendezvous and dock with the Russian Space Station Mir. During the flight, the crew conducted a number of secondary experiments and transferred nearly 4 tons of supplies and experiment equipment between Atlantis and the Mir station.

STS -93 Columbia (July 23-27, 1999) was the first Shuttle mission to be commanded by a woman. STS -93 highlighted the deployment of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Designed to conduct comprehensive studies of the universe, the telescope has enabled scientists to study exotic phenomena such as exploding stars, quasars, and black holes. On STS-93, Collins was the first woman Shuttle Commander.

STS -114 Discovery (July 26-August 9, 2005) was the Return to Flight mission during which the Shuttle docked with the International Space Station and the crew tested and evaluated new procedures for flight safety and Shuttle inspection and repair techniques. After a 2-week, 5.8 million mile journey in space, the orbiter and its crew of seven astronauts returned to land at Edwards Air Force Base, California. (Reprinted From NASA’s Website)

Women's History Month - Mary Walton

In recognition of Women’s History Month, Smithtown Matters is proud to recognize the accomplishments of women.  It is fascinating to learn the wonderful and interesting ways women have made their mark on the world.  Throughout March, SmithtownMatters will give a brief history of women who made a difference. 

Day 16 - Mary Walton - Inventor 

Anti-pollution devices

The major scientific shortcoming of the Industrial Revolution that transformed the U.S. in the years after the Civil War was, and still is, pollution. One of the pioneers in the fight against pollution, especially in large cities, was the independent inventor Mary Walton.

As early as 1879, Walton developed a method for minimizing the environmental hazards of the smoke that up until then was pouring unchecked from factories all over the country. Walton’s system (patent #221,880) deflected the emissions being produced into water tanks, where the pollutants were retained and then flushed into the city sewage system.

Some years later, Walton applied her ingenuity to a different kind of air pollution—-noise. The elevated trains being installed throughout the larger cities of the U.S. in the 1880s were producing an intolerable amount of rattling and clanging: sociologists even blamed the noise for some urbanites’ nervous breakdowns and neuroses! Walton, who lived in Manhattan, set out to solve the problem. She set up a model railroad track in her basement, and in time discovered an excellent sound-dampening apparatus. She cradled the rails in a box-like framework of wood, which was painted with tar, lined with cotton, and filled with sand. As the vibrations from the rails were absorbed by the surrounding materials, so was the sound.

After successful trials fitting her apparatus under the struts that supported real els, Walton received patent #237,422 (granted February 8, 1881). She sold the rights to New York City’s Metropolitan Railroad, which thrived thanks to Walton’s new, environment-friendly system. Walton herself was hailed as a hero—-and as a feminist. As the Woman’s Journal put it twenty years later: “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…” (Reprint from MIT School of Engineering)  [Nov. 1996]