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Mary Florence Potts, ca. 1895
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Born | September 1850 |
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Died | July 1922 (aged 71) |
Nationality | American |
Occupation | businessperson and inventor |
Spouse(s) | Joseph Potts |
Children | 6 |
Mary Florence Potts (née Webber; September 1850 â 1922) was an American businessperson and inventor. She invented clothes irons with detachable wooden handles that became prominent throughout North America and the European continent. She termed herself an 'inventress'.
Early life[edit]
Potts was born in Iowa and gave her birth date as September 1850 in the 1905 New Jersey Census[1] and September 1851 in the 1900 United States Federal Census.[2] Her parents were Jacob Hanec Webber (from Pennsylvania) and Anna Nancy McGinley (from Ohio). Her exact birth date is unknown and recorded by various sources as from November 1, 1850, to 1853.[3][4]
Mid life and career[edit]
Mrs Potts cold wooden handle sad iron kits manufactured 1876â1950 by American Machine
American Machine Company sad iron of Potts removable detachable base with wooden handle
Conventional nineteenth-century all-metal irons compared to Potts's detachable wood handle ones
Potts is associated with improvements to the sadiron that she made from the age of 19. The old English word of sad before the 'iron' meant heavy, dense, and solid.[5] Potts's patented double-pointed shaped clothes iron was made of hollow rather than solid metal.[6] The flat iron's bottom was of thick iron and the sides were thin sheets of iron. The hollow iron was poured and filled with material that was a poor conductor of heat, such as cement or clay.[7] Since her father was a plasterer by trade she experimented on filling some with a type of plaster of Paris.[7] The advantage of these materials was that they did not radiate heat up like the predecessor old-style conventional solid metal clothes irons.[7] Her patent claimed it retained heat longer and as a result would need less reheating.[7]
The conventional solid metal clothes iron of the 19th century weighed around 5 pounds (2.3 kg) to 10 pounds (4.5 kg) and had to be heated on a stove. It was so hot, that often a rag or thick cloth mitt was utilized to touch the metal handle to prevent burning the fingers. Once this all-metal iron cooled down, the ironing job at hand had to stop until it was reheated. The advantage of Potts's system was that there was always a waiting heated base ready to be switched out with the used cooled base, so the ironing could continue immediately.[8][9]
The most pronounced feature of Potts's clothes iron was a detachable rounded wooden handle. That allowed the iron base to be placed on a heated stovetop and the handle removed at that time to stay away and cool while the base heated up.[10] This prevented burned fingers, that often happened with the conventional all-solid-metal clothes iron of the nineteenth century.[11] The handle and bases were designed standard and could be easily reattached to various sizes after they were heated for little delay in ironing.[12][13]
Initially, Potts sold her innovative clothes iron, but later it was franchised out and manufactured by the American Machine Company of Philadelphia.[9] This company marketed the clothes iron in a kit package that contained one wooden handle mechanism that attached to three iron bases.[7] The handle could only connect to Potts's iron bases, in effect tripling sales of these clothes irons over that of conventional solid metal irons.[14]
Potts's double-pointed clothes iron became a standard household appliance widely used throughout North America and the European continent.[6][15] Because of its shape, it was more efficient in pressing clothes as it could be operated in both directions.[12] Potts's patented invention of her various styles of clothes irons were the most popular ever used.[3][12] The 1876 Philadelphia Exposition World's Fair displayed Potts's cold-handled sadiron and it was popular through the century.[4][16] Her cold handle innovative clothes iron was also a favorite item at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.[17]
Family[edit]
She married Joseph Potts and they had a family of six children.[12] She died in New Jersey in 1922.
Patents[edit]
She was awarded three United States patents.[4] Potts had two patents for metal flat iron improvements in 1871â1872.[18] In addition she held an invention for a medical device that her husband helped make.[12] Potts termed herself as an 'inventress' â a Victorian expression.[3]
Legacy[edit]
Potts's innovation of a removable handle mechanism of 1871 was later implemented by Gillette in 1901 â some thirty years later. Gillette's application was a removable disposable blade and reinsertion of a sharp blade. This was a spin-off of Potts's removable cooled clothes iron base that could be reattached to a preheated base ready to go for ironing. This concept presaged the twentieth-century construction industry concept for portable hand tools with removable exhausted battery packs that can be reattached to fully charged batteries.[14]
References[edit]
- ^New Jersey, State Census, 1905
- ^1900 United States Federal Census
- ^ abcAmram 1998, p. 106.
- ^ abcGale 2007, p. 1536.
- ^Williams 2017, p. 7.
- ^ abGillies, Scott (April 22, 2009). 'Iron designs had a few wrinkles in early days'. Ingersoll Times newspaper online. Sun Media Community Newspapers. Retrieved May 13, 2017.
- ^ abcdeUS Patent Office 1880, p. 250.
- ^Williams 2017, p. 7-8.
- ^ abLadd, Marsha (January 11, 2014). 'Mrs. Potts's sad iron'. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
- ^Williams 2017, p. 8.
- ^'Mrs. Potts wooden handle iron'. Indiana Gazette. Indiana, Pennsylvania. January 21, 1987. p. 10 â via newspapers.com.
- ^ abcde'Inventors'. Women in World History. Gale Research Inc. 2002. Retrieved May 12, 2017.
Potts â American inventor of the most popular irons ever used.
- ^Zierdt-Warshaw 2000, p. 254.
- ^ abWilliams 2017, p. 9.
- ^Marks, Dorothy (August 25, 1976). 'Centennial Hailed Women'. Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Lubbock, Texas. p. 73 â via newspapers.com.
- ^Reed Business 1984, p. 11.
- ^'A Visit with Mrs. Potts'. Costumed Interpretations. Ellie Presents. Retrieved May 13, 2017.
- ^'Patents for Mary Florence Potts'. Directory of American Tool and Machinery Patents. Datamp. 2017. Retrieved May 13, 2017.
Bibliography[edit]
- Amram, Fred M. B. (1998). 'Women of Mettle'. FAMILY Magazines Publishing. ISBN978-1-351-98695-3.
... most popular irons ...
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- Gale (2007). Dictionary of Women Worldwide. Thomson Gale. ISBN978-0-7876-7585-1.
- Reed Business (24 May 1984). New Scientist. Reed Business Information.
- Williams, Robert Jr and Helena (21 April 2017). Vintage Marketing. Palgrave Macmillan US. ISBN978-1-137-38721-9.
- US Patent Office (1880). Drawings of Patents.
- Zierdt-Warshaw, Linda (1 January 2000). Women in Technology. ABC-CLIO. ISBN978-1-57607-072-7.
External links[edit]
- Mary Florence Potts at Find a Grave
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mary_Florence_Potts&oldid=944393606'
Ashley Batz/Bustle
One of the most frustrating feelings about depression is how hard it is to describe. The word 'depression' in English had its own poetic connotations: the word (from Latin deprime) essentially means being forced downward, or a low, sunken place, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. That's pretty evocative â but it doesn't cover a lot of the emotions of depression itself; the isolation, the abyss-like fears. Words for sadness that don't translate into English can often be far more true to the experience of that feeling than what's already available in our language.
'Often when a word or expression doesnât have a one-to-one translation into another language, itâs because the original word or expression is culturally bound,' says Jennifer Bloomquist, Ph.D., a professor of linguistics at Gettysburg College. 'When the translation occurs, it is frequently the case that the translation is not exact and some sense of the original is lost. The reason for this is that the original was created by a culture that had a need to encode the meaning of the word [or] expression in a particular way.'
Emotions are a particular area where cultural understanding can help shape the way in which a word is used â and what it's used to described. For centuries, depression and its feelings were referred to as 'melancholia,' a state of deep wistfulness, misery, and withdrawal (as well as an excellent Lars von Trier film). But if you step outside English â and Latin â other languages possess words that can strongly evoke the real, lived experience of depression.
'Untranslatable' words in other languages â ones that pick up on very particular feelings or situations that can't really be understood outside their particular culture â are pretty fascinating. But beyond the untranslatables, world languages have the potential to enrich our emotional vocabulary. English isn't stunted when it comes to sad adjectives â you can be devastated, mournful, woebegone, crestfallen, wretched, and rueful â but sometimes, other languages pick up on stuff for which we just don't have the words for.
Is it a pipe dream to hope that some of these words find their way into everyday English usage? It's happened before; schadenfreude, a German word meaning pleasure evoked from the pain of others, is often used in English nowadays. And it'd be a lot easier to explain your particular experience of sadness if you could say, 'Yeah, I'm feeling very lebensmüde, with just a hint of hi fun koi gai.'
Here are 18 words for sadness and depression that don't have direct equivalents in English.
1. Mono No Aware, ç©ã®åã (Japanese)
This phrase describes the particular sadness or sensitivity regarding the passage of time and the transience of life. To experience this sadness is to be affected by the fleeting nature of specific things (love, experiences, sandwiches), and become wistful or reflective about the fact that everything must end.
2. Dépite (French)
This French word describes the feeling of itching irritation or fury (on a small scale) that happens when you're disappointed by something, like getting rejected in love or not winning a prize.
3. Koev li halev, ×××× ×× ××× (Hebrew)
This refers to a certain kind of empathy. If you can't watch people suffering or miserable, particularly if you love them, because you feel it so strongly yourself â to the point of causing you serious physical pain â then this is the term for you.
4. Watjilpa, Pitjantjatjara
A 2012 study on depression in Aboriginal men in Australia found that there is no clear-cut vocabulary to describe the clinical symptoms of depression. Interviews with subjects, however, found that the concept fell close to kulini-kulini, a phrase meaning 'excessive, intrusive and repetitive worry, âtoo much thinkingâ, âtoo much worryâ.' Watjilpa, a word from the Pitjantjatjara language, also describes a feeling of disconnection from family or social units. Similar to homesickness, but far more deeply felt.
5. Hi Fun Kou Gai, ã²ãµããããã (Japanese)
This Japanese term is a kind ofrighteous, miserable anger, a frustration and despair over a situation that seems terrible but cannot be changed.'Like corruption in a government, or a friend's bad treatment.
6. Lebensmüde (German)
German does seem to have a lot of evocative words for emotions â which totally blasts the global stereotype of the German people as ruthlessly efficient and emotionless. Lebensmüde literally translates as 'life-tired' (a lot of German words just link two or three words together to make another), and either means you do such risky things that you clearly don't care for your own safety, or that you've entered a deep, physical state of not-caring.
7. Wintercearig (Old English)
This may be cheating, as Old English is no longer in use â but hey, we use Latinate words all the time. Wintercearig literally means 'winter-care,' but it isn't about Seasonal Affective Disorder; it's more meant to be a metaphor for the strength of your sadness, which is as strong and never-ending as the bitter cold of midwinter.
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8. Ghoseh, غص٠(Farsi)
In Farsi, the word ghoseh is along the lines of sadness, but in a much more physical sense. A friend who speaks Farsi defines it as 'to have emptiness,' or 'to practice holding sadness.' A perfect term for when the your sorrow feels a little outside yourself, or is an emotion that needs to be carried, rather than internalized.
9. Mutterseelinallein (German)
German again â and this one is absolutely horrible. It's loneliness, but much harder-hitting than that: it's meant to evoke being abandoned by everybody you love, and literally means that your mother's soul has left you. Hardcore.
10. Natsukashii, æããã (Japanese)
This beautiful Japanese word identifies the feeling of evocative longing for something past: a nostalgia that's also very sad, as it reminds you that what you're remembering will never come again.
11. Saudade (Portuguese)
Saudade regularly tops the list of the world's most untranslatable terms. The Portuguese term, which is the basis of the entire Portuguese genre of fado music, evokes deep, soul-rending sadness, flavored with longing and melancholy.
12. TÇntè, å¿å¿ (Chinese)
This Chinese word means a kind of nervousness or perpetual anxiety, a state of worry where your senses are so heightened that you can feel your own heartbeat.
13. Toska, ТоÑка (Russian)
The Russian word toska actually has a lot of emotional registers, if you read this definition by Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita: âNo single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.â
14. Weltschmerz (German)
This one's actually got a critical edge: it's almost an accusation. It's a kind of ennui(a French word meaning listlessness or severe boredom, incidentally) that translates as 'world-pain.' It essentially means the depression that comes from believing your problems are caused by the world itself and its unfairness and cruelty. (These days, more generously, it can just mean sadness at how depressing and horrible the modern world is.)
15. XÄ«nténg, å¿ç¼ (Chinese)
This Chinese term is a literal translation of 'heartache': it's the particularly kind of sadness and pain that comes from witnessing and sharing the pain of people you love. You can translate it as 'feeling sorry,' but it's more physical and empathetic than that.
16. Viraag, विराठ(Hindi)
This Hindi word means dispassion, but a writer on the blog Better Than English notes that it can also denote a particularly kind of emotional suffering: the sadness or depression caused by separation from somebody you love.
17. Stenachória, ΣÏεναÏÏÏια (Greek)
A heritage Greek speaker tells me stenachória 'can mean worry, grief, upset. It's versatile.' Derived from the words for 'narrow' and 'room,' but etymologically related to 'close' and 'chorus,' the word speaks to the experience of being in an enclosed space, where the darkness of the corners feel inescapable. The same speaker also pointed me towards ÏÏεναÏÏÏιεμαι (stenachóriemai), which is a more physical experience. 'ΣÏεναÏÏÏιεμαι can probably be translated as 'I am choked up',' she says. 'It's literally a physical response to grief.'
18. Sielvartas (Lithuanian)
The website Eunoia, a database of untranslatable words, translates sielvartas as 'soul tumbling,' and notes that it's used in cases of grief or resentment. Other sources on Lithuanian translate it as distress, woe, or pain.
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