19th Century Wonder Woman in the Patent House

When it comes to roll call time for inventors, guys generally get all the credit.

Creativity has no gender boundary, so here’s a quick salute to the first African American woman to receive a U.S. patent, way back in 1885.

On July 14, 1885, a Chicago furniture storeowner received patent number 322,177 for a clever convertible bed design.  Her cabinet bed was literally a bed in a box.

The intricate mechanical folding enclosure looked more like an antique desk in disguise.

Popping open the top of the cabinet revealed a two-winged apparatus below, identical halves of the bed, made to balance on the cabinet’s sturdy center of gravity providing a restful platform for sleep.

Sarah Goode had the intuition, the wisdom, and the smarts to dream up this masterpiece.

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