SWE - Spring 2008 - (Page 20) Answers to Trailblazers Quiz Answers (Points) 1. C (10 points) Bertha Lamme was the first woman engineer hired by Westinghouse. In 1973 the company established the Westinghouse/Bertha Lamme Scholarships. Although reports indicate that Lamme pursued her degree “for the fun of it,” she was a highly capable and respected engineer who gained recognition both within Westinghouse and in the greater engineering community. One of SWE’s scholarships is named for her. Bertha Lamme died in 1954 at the age of 85. 2. E (15 points) Katherine Cleveland Harelson was among the first women to receive full membership in Tau Beta Pi, but it was a long time coming. From the society’s founding in 1885 until 1903, it was assumed that the membership would include only men. In 1903, however, a young female architectural student was elected for membership. The society’s council refused to admit her, and the council immediately amended the constitution to restrict the membership to men. It was not until a convention in 1936 that the society decided to bestow the “woman’s badge” to recognize some of the outstanding engineering achievements of women. The badge was considered a “token,” and the council made it clear that it did not represent membership in the society. Finally, in 1968, Tau Beta Pi voted to grant membership to women. 3. B (15 points) Edith Julie Griswald worked as a clerk in a patent law firm and taught mathematics before setting up her own patent law firm in New York City. She co-founded the Women Lawyers Journal and was the first president of the Women Lawyers Association. Griswald was the first woman on record to register with the United States Patent Office to practice law. 4. G (15 points) Kate Gleason was known internationally as an engineer, a businesswoman, and a philanthropist. She started working in her father’s gear works factory when she was only 11 or 12. Gleason entered Cornell University in 1894 but had to abandon her studies to help her father in the factory. 20 SWE SPRING 2008 Eventually, she resumed her education at the Rochester Mechanics Institute, later renamed Rochester Institute of Technology. She and her father designed a machine that produced beveled gears quickly and inexpensively. She continued to blaze new trails by being the first woman president of a U.S. bank. Gleason also was a leader in developing lowincome, standardized housing. In 1999, RIT renamed its college of engineering, the Kate Gleason College of Engineering, in her honor. 5. D (20 points) Lena Allen Stoiber, known as “Captain Jack,” had a reputation as one of the most colorful figures in the mining industry in the latter part of the 19th century. Her husband and his brother established the phenomenally profitable Silver Lake Mine in Silverton, Colo., but it was Lena who reportedly handled all of the business operations of the mine. The success of the mine made the Stoibers multimillionaires. 6. A (5 points) Lillian Moller Gilbreth, Ph.D., was known as the “First Lady of Engineering.” SWE’s first scholarship, granted annually since 1958, is named for her. Dr. Gilbreth and her husband developed motion studies to increase the efficiency of industrial workers and coauthored a number of books on the subject. She used the techniques derived from the studies to design appliances and equipment to make housework easier for the disabled. She died in 1972 at age 93. 7. F (20 points) Marian Sarah Parker completed a four-year engineering program in three years at the University of Michigan in 1895. She worked as a structural engineer, and her work was considered exemplary. She worked for only 10 years, leaving the work force after she was married. TAU BETA PI UNIV. OF MICHIGAN, COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING How You Scored: 0-15 You have an average knowledge of our engineering heritage. 20-45 Above average. 50-75 Well done. 80-100 Congratulations, you have superior knowledge of our remarkable pioneers!
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