In honor of International Women’s Day this week, we’re doing a theme week on Things You Didn’t Know Were Invented by Women!
First up, Liquid Paper, which was invented by Bette Graham. She was an executive secretary at the Texas Bank and Trust. Tired of having to retype entire pages because of one error, she decided to find a more efficient alternative. Inspiration struck when she saw painters decorating the bank’s windows for the holidays. She noticed that when they made a mistake, instead of starting over, they simply covered any imperfections with another layer of paint. Graham took their technique, using white tempera paint to cover her typing errors. The other secretaries she worked with flooded her with requests for the product, and Graham soon found herself working nights and weekends to produce batches of her “Mistake Out”. She experimented with the recipe until she got just the right mixture of paint and other chemicals. In 1958, she filed for a patent and trademark. After being fired from her job, she dedicated all her time to Mistake Out. Business boomed, with her son Michael (who would later achieve fame as a member of The Monkees) and his friends helping fill orders. By 1967, the company had its own headquarters and production plant and was selling more than 1 million units per year. She eventually sold the company to Gillette Corporation for over $47.5 million in 1979. Learn more here.
