I love the charm and flow of this picture book biography about inventor Emma Lilian Todd. It made me wish I could have met her! And seeing this photo – below – made me want to meet her all the more…
Emma Lilian Todd grew up pulling things apart and putting them back together again. She was constantly dreaming up ideas and testing them out with the influence and encouragement of her parents. In Lilian’s day, it was uncommon for women to work as inventors, so she got a job at the US Patent office – typing up plans for machines and testing them out in her mind.
But then the era of flying machines swooped in and Lilian had to get her hands dirty.
“Soon blueprints for fantastical flying machines flooded the office. But could they really fly? Lilian needed to know.”
When Lilian heard about the Wright Brothers’ airplane or any other new flying machine, she decided to improve them with practical ideas of her own. She started out tinkering in her small Manhattan apartment and eventually caught the eye of a wealthy patron. Then she was hiring and delegating and coordinating and…inventing. One of her improvements is still used in airplane technology today.
Lillian’s persistence in developing one of the first flying machines is inspiring. I had no idea there were so many inventors working on flying machines in the early 1900’s, much less a woman like the exceptionally cool Emma Lilian Todd. Many thanks to author Kirsten W. Larson and illustrator Tracy Subisak for sharing this amazing story!
