Railcar Heater Led to Modern Auto Climate Control
Margaret Wilcox patented her invention for a railway car heater in 1893. Her genius innovation redirected the heat generated from the train’s internal combustion engine to the interior of the passenger cars, which could become unbearably frigid on cold winter days. It also kept the windows free of frost and mist. Alas, the system had no controls and led to overheating in the cars, and thus was abandoned by the railway system because of safety concerns. But along came the automobile and, in 1917, engineers followed Wilcox’s design to heat the interior of the cars. The design was perfected when Ford began using her hot engine air model in 1929. Thus her invention became the predecessor for our modern automobile climate control systems.
Born in Chicago at a time when women rarely even attended college, Wilcox graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree. She was an inventor at heart, always experimenting with new ways to make life easier. One of her creations was a combination clothes and dish washing machine. (At that time, it was illegal for women to file patents under their own names, so she had to file under her husband’s name.) She went on to develop several stoves and housing appliances, including a combined cooking and hot water heating stove designed to save fuel by efficiently utilizing the wasted heat of the stove. None of these inventions were a commercial success, but demonstrated her innovative approach to solving everyday problems.
In 2020, Inventors’ Digest named Wilcox’s patent for the car heater one of their top ten patents by women. And she’s not the only woman credited with advancements in the automobile industry. Windshield wiper blades, rear view mirrors, turn signal arms and brake lights were all common sense solutions invented by women in a male dominated industry.
