| 26th of March 2021 |
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| Women's History Month: Myra Juliet Farrell |
| by Chenoa Tremblay |
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Light... we all use it but have you ever thought of who created a way to
project it at great distances? Myra Juliet Farrell was an Australian
inventor and artist and has a long list of patents to her name.
During World War I she invented a way of projecting light great
distances, which she thought would help with advertising but was taken
up by the military instead. The unconfirmed family legend is that the
light was tested from the North Head of Sydney Harbour, causing
confusion to the crew of a vessel out at sea who mistook the beam for
that of the South Head lighthouse.
Being born in Ireland she migrated to Australia as a child. She said that she would see a need, sleep on it, and come up with a solution in her dreams. When she woke up in the morning she would write down the solution on whatever she found nearby, including bed linen or walls. She has a long list of inventions to help the quality of life in the early 1900s with items like special corsets for people suffering tuberculosis to ways of transferring dress patterns onto fabric. The image above shows Myra Juliet Farrell in 1939 with her grandchild Jennifer (Image credit: Wikipedia). If you want to learn more about Myra and her inventions, check out this episode of the podcast “Chickstory”. March is Women's History Month and this week we are celebrating the careers of women in science. |