"I was out driving once with an old farmer in Vermont," writes Mrs. Ada C. Bowles, "and he told me, 'You women may talk about your rights, but why don't you invent something?' I answered, 'Your horse's feed bag and the shade over his head were both of them invented by women.' The old fellow was so taken aback that he was barely able to gasp, 'Do tell!'" Had he investigated further he would have found that the flynet on his horse's back, the tugs and other harness trimmings, the shoes on his horse's feet[232] and the buggy seat he then occupied were all the inventions of women. He would, doubtless, also have discovered that the currycomb he had used before starting out on his drive, as well as the snap hook of the halter and the checkrein and the stall unhitching device were likewise the inventions of members of that sex whose capacity he was so disposed to depreciate; for women have been awarded patents--in some instances several of them--for all the articles that have been mentioned. He might furthermore have learned that the fellies in his buggy wheels and his daughter's side saddle had been made under women's patents; and that, to complete his surprise and confusion, the leather used in his harness had been sewn by a machine patented by a woman who was not only an inventor but who was also for many years the manager and proprietor of a large harness factory in New York City. What particularly arrests one's attention in reading the Patent Office reports is not only the large number of inventions by women, but also the very wide range of the devices which they embrace. It is not surprising to find them inventing and improving culinary utensils, house furniture and furnishings, toilet articles, wearing apparel and stationery, trunks and bags, toys and games, designs for printed and textile fabrics, for boxes and baskets, screens, awnings, baby carriers, musical instruments, appliances for washing and cleaning, attachments for bicycles and type-writing machines, art, educational and medical appliances; for these things are in keeping with their proper _metier_; but it is surprising for those who are not familiar with the history of modern inventions to learn of the share women have had in inventing and improving agricultural implements, building appurtenances, motors of various kinds, plumbing apparatus, theatrical stage mechanisms, and, above all, countless railway appliances from a coupling or fender to an apparatus for sanding railroad tracks, or a device for unloading boxcars.