Women Inventors: Chocolate Chip Cookies
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One day circa 1938, Ruth Wakefield ran out of baker’s chocolate when making fudge cookies. She replaced the bitter chocolate with chunks from a semi-sweet Nestle bar. Wakefield thought the chunks would melt into the cookies when baked. They didn’t.
Undeterred, she served her newly invented chocolate chip cookies to guests at the lodge she owned in Whitman, Massachusetts: the Toll House Inn. They were a hit.
Wakefield named her creation “Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies,” and they became so popular that a Boston newspaper published the recipe. Nestle bar sales increased and as a thank you, Nestle printed Wakefield’s recipe on their package — and offered Wakefield a lifetime supply of Nestle’s chocolate.
Liquid Paper
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Bette Nesmith Graham would eventually be the mother of an American pop star, the Monkees’ Michael Nesmith, but she was also an inventor. While in the workforce, the Texas Bank and Trust executive secretary had to toil with early 1950s typewriters. Tired of the time it took to fix typos on an unforgiving device, Nesmith Graham forged a solution.
“With lettering,” she recalled, “an artist never corrects by erasing, but always paints over the error. So I decided to use what artists use. I put some tempera water-based paint in a bottle and took my watercolor brush to the office.”
Nesmith-Graham consulted with her son’s chemistry teacher to tweak the formula for optimal use. She then started her own company to produce her invention, Liquid Paper. Eventually, she sold it to Gillette for a cool $47.5 million.
