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[toplady]

Spinning Top Invented by a Woman in 1926
... Celebrating…. International Women's Day - March 8, 2024
at the Spinning Top & Yo-Yo Museum
- Beulah Henry invented a game top called the "Indicator Top"
 with the inner balls randomly rotating when you spin the top. When the tops falls, one side faces up and that shows you the number to move in a board game that you are playing; or use this top to play put-n-take.  Wish I had one of these tops!

[the Earl of Whirl]

Where would we be without women!!!  Looks like a fascinating top.  Thanks for sharing

[ta0]

Happy women's day!

Nice! I was not familiar with that top or with her. I also would like to have the top. What's the patent number?

EDIT: I found the patent in my files: US1,575,264, March 2, 1926. I hadn't realized that Beulah was a women's name.

I looked up her name and she was a prolific and well recognized inventor.  From the Wikipedia article:

Beulah Louise Henry (September 28, 1887 – February 1973) . . . was given the nickname "Lady Edison" for her many inventions. . . Her work was so well known and respected that, as of 1937, she had a museum exhibit dedicated to her in Osaka, Japan, which was seen as an inspiration to aspiring female Japanese inventors.

Partial list of inventions from Wikipedia:

    Vacuum ice cream freezer (1912) US 1037762
    Umbrella with a variety different colored snap-on cloth covers (1924)
    First bobbinless sewing machine (1940)
    "Protograph" – worked with a manual typewriter to make four copies of a document (1932)
    "Continuously-attached Envelopes" for mass mailings (1952)
    "Dolly Dips" soap-filled sponges for children (1929)
    "Miss Illusion" doll with eyes that could change color and close (1935)
    Hair Curler (1925)
    Parasol Bag (1925)
    Umbrella Runner Shield Attachment (1926)
    Water-Sport Apparatus (1927)
    Poodle-Dog Doll (1927)
    Ball Covering (1927)
    Foot Covering (1927)
    Sealing Device for Inflatable Bodies (1929)
    Valve For Inflatable Articles (1929)
    Henry Closure Construction (1930)
    Henry Valve for Inflatable Articles (1931)
    Duplicating Device for Typewriting Machines (1932)
    Duplicating Attachment for Typewriters (1932)
    Writing Machine (1936)
    Multicopy Attachment for Typewriters (1936)
    Movable Eye Structure for figure Toys (1935)
    Double Chain Stitch Sewing Machine (1936)
    Feeding and Aligning Device (1940)
    Seam and Method of Forming Seams (1941)
    Sewing Apparatus (1941)
    Typewriting Machine (1941)
    Device for Producing Articulate Sounds (1941)
    Duplex Sound Producer (1944)
    Continuously Attached Envelopes (1952)
    Can Opener (1956)
    Direct and Return Mailing Envelope (1962)

[ta0]

The first person to patent a Tippe Top (Wenderkreisel) was a German nurse, Helen Sperl, in 1892 (DE63261)



Unfortunately for her, it didn't become popular until it was commercialized (re-invented?) in Denmark in the 1950s.

[ta0]

Sperl's tippe top patent includes de idea of a threaded tip on the stem (Fig. 7) so that the length of the stem could be adjusted for the best turning of the top. She also mentions that the top and bottom of the top can be painted in different colors so the flipping over gives an interesting effect.