Beulah Louise Henry was born on September 28, 1887, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her family said they were distantly related to a famous man named Patrick Henry. Even as a child, Beulah was great at imagining machines in her head. She did not go to school for engineering or science. Instead, she studied normal school subjects like most young women at that time.
Beulah had a special gift. She could picture an entire invention in her mind, like a 3D movie. She could see all the parts and how they worked together before she ever drew a picture. Then she would hire helpers to draw her ideas and build real models. Newspapers loved writing about her amazing imagination.
Beulah got her first patent when she turned 24 years old. It was for an ice cream freezer that used less ice and could also cool water. This was just the start of a long inventing career.
She moved to New York City to sell her inventions. There, she invented a snap-on parasol. It was an umbrella-like sunshade with covers you could snap on and off in different colors. It even had a fancy handle. People loved it, and Beulah earned about $50,000, which was a lot of money back then.
In 1921, Beulah started her own company called the Henry Umbrella and Parasol Company. She wanted to make and sell her own inventions, not just sell the ideas to other people. This was a brave move, since not many women ran factories at that time. In 1929, she also invented soapy sponges for kids called "Dolly Dips," plus the machine used to make them.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Beulah invented even more amazing things. She made a typewriter attachment called the Protograph. It could make four copies of a document at the same time, without messy carbon paper. She also invented a doll called "Miss Illusion." This doll's eyes could open, close, and even seem to change color when you moved its arm.
One of Beulah's best inventions came in 1941. It was a new way to sew fabric that did not need a bobbin. A bobbin is a small spool of thread inside a sewing machine. Normally, sewers have to stop and refill it often. Beulah's new stitch fixed this problem.
Beulah kept inventing for many years. She worked for machine companies and toy companies. Even when she was almost 70 years old, she invented a new kind of can opener!
By the end of her life, Beulah had 49 patents and about 110 inventions. People called her "Lady Edison" because she invented so many things, just like the famous inventor Thomas Edison.
Beulah never got married and did not have children. She loved her work and lived most of her life in New York City. She was also known for being stylish and interesting to newspapers, who liked showing that a woman could be both fashionable and very smart.
Beulah Louise Henry died on February 1, 1973, in New York City. She was 85 years old. In 2006, many years after her death, she was added to the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Today, people remember her as one of the greatest woman inventors in American history.
