By Mary Davis
Imagine sleepwalking. I would guess that most people who sleepwalk wish they didn’t.
Such was not the case for Myra Juliet (Welsh) Farrell, born on February 25, 1878 in Ireland. Her family immigrated to Australia where she grew up. She had an unusual case of sleepwalking (somnambulant) that also involved writing, known as somnambulant writing. Her condition served her well.
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Myra with her grandchild~1938 |
She would think hard on problems that needed solving, especially before falling asleep. Her brain would wrestle with them while she slept. When the answer came, she got up—while still sleeping—and wrote down the solution on any available surface, often the walls and bed sheets. She would wake up to complex equations, technical drawings, detailed plans for prototypes, and a shopping list to build whatever device she’d dreamed about. The one drawback was that when she wrote while asleep, she scrawled right to left. So, in the morning she would use a mirror to transcribe the plans correctly to be understood.
Her inventions spanned from home use to personal items to medical to military. When she saw a problem or need, she set out to come up with a solution.
She created her first invention at age ten when she solved the pin problem by creating a self-locking safety pin. However, the adults in her life never thought to get a patent.
As a young woman, she contracted lead poisoning due to living near mines. After it had reached her lungs, she became gravely ill and bedridden. Her parents took her to a specialist who pronounced her terminal. Myra rejected that diagnosis and said later of the event,
“I decided I couldn’t afford to die.
I had too much work to do.
So I invented an inhalation treatment
that cured me completely.”
Her system (the Membrosus) was like a nebulizer of today. The seven-secret-ingredient tablet she developed was burned in an apparatus where the fumes would clear mucus, kill bacteria, and clean and heal the lungs. Within a week she was able to get out of bed, and in three years, she was pronounced cured.
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Not Myra’s nebulizer, but likely similar to one of these |
In 1905, she met a young Scotsman, William Taylor, dying of tuberculosis. Doctors gave him three months to live. Myra treated him with her Membrosus Inhalation Remedy. William improved greatly in the first year, and the two were married. They had two children. When their daughter was three-months old, she contracted the same illness. Myra treated her, and the little girl was healed and lived to be seventy-two and an inventor herself. Like her mother, she began young with her first invention at age eight, a ‘speedster’ surfboard for soldiers fleeing a sinking ship.
However, Myra’s husband wasn’t as fortunate, dying only seven years after they met.
She married her second husband, William George Farrell, in 1919. They had one child together.
Her first widely accepted invention was a device that allowed a seamstress or tailor to copy a clothing pattern from a book directly to the fabric in whatever size they needed. This changed the pattern industry.
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Author photo from Patterns for Theatrical Costumes by Katherine Strand Holkeboer |
Her fascinating inventions are numerous and varied. They include:
~A foldable pram hood
~A shield that was bulletproof, shellproof, and bombproof to protect soldiers in war
~A collapsible, space-saving clothes line
~A nonsurgical face lifter apparatus
~A fruit picker and packer
~An ointment for a rare fungal skin disease
~A stud button (think the button on jeans) and hook and eye both stitchless so soldiers could repair their uniforms in the trenches
~An infant sling inspired by marsupial pouches
~A stayette: a washable, boneless corset for people with scoliosis
~And a long-range, rayless light she designed for advertising (whether for herself or others, my research didn’t say). She tested it and decided it didn’t work. However, the crew on a ship 700 miles out to sea was confused by it and inquired if it had been the lighthouse. The lightkeeper had no clue what they were talking about. Since this was during WWI, the Australian Department of Defense tracked down the source—Myra—and confiscated her designs and her prototype. Though interested, they didn’t pursue using it. Myra never saw it again nor received anything for it.
Her inventions weren’t well received by the male dominated field, unless she stuck to laundry, corsets, and babies. However, she didn’t limit herself to inventing in one field as her wide range of patents attests to.
“I’ve given my best to my country.
I regret to say that I haven’t received
much appreciation for my efforts.
But then ‘a prophet hath no honour in his own land’.”
~Myra Juliet Farrell
Myra lived to be seventy-nine and passed away on March 8, 1957. Upon her death, she held more than two dozen patents.
I wish I could accomplish so much in my sleep.
MRS. WITHERSPOON GOES TO WAR (Heroines of WWII series)
3rd Place 2023 SELAH Award
Margaret “Peggy” Witherspoon is a thirty-four-year-old widow, mother of two daughters, an excellent pilot, and very patriotic. She joins the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots). As she performs various tasks like ferry aircraft, transporting cargo, and being an airplane mechanic, she meets and develops feelings for her supervisor Army Air Corp Major Howie Berg. When Peggy learns of U.S. soldiers being held captive in Cuba, she, Major Berg, and two fellow WASPs devise an unsanctioned mission to rescue them. With Cuba being an ally in the war, they must be careful not to ignite an international incident. Order HERE!
MARY DAVIS, bestselling, award-winning novelist, has over thirty titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her latest release is THE LADY’S MISSION. Her other novels include THE DÉBUTANTE'S SECRET (Quilting Circle Book 4) THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (The Quilting Circle Book 3) is a SELAH Award Winner. Some of her other recent titles include; THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT, THE DAUGHTER'S PREDICAMENT, “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection, Prodigal Daughters Amish series, "Holly and Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection, and "Bygones" in Thimbles and Threads. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.
Mary lives in the Rocky Mountains with her Carolina dog, Shelby. She has three adult children and three incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at: Books2Read Newsletter Blog FB FB Readers Group Amazon GoodReads BookBub
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myra_Juliet_Farrell
https://www.naa.gov.au/blog/inspiring-inventress-myra-juliet-farrell
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