Harris, Ada
1870-unknown · Contribution: 1895
Household & Domestic Inventions
Improved hair straightener — a hinged, heated implement with a toothed comb portion to separate hair and flat faces to press it straight

Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Quick facts
- Born
- 1870-unknown
- Active since
- 1895
- Category
- Household & Domestic Inventions
Impact on the world
Harris designed one of the first hair-straightening irons, an early ancestor of the flat iron that would become a staple of hair care.
Sources
- USPTO / Google Patents (US 536,802)
1 more sources and references are available to members.
More in Household & Domestic Inventions
Alexander, Nathaniel
unknown
Improved folding chair with a pivoting, integrated book rest, designed for churches, Sunday schools, auditoriums, and choirs
Ammons, Virgie
1908-2000
Fireplace throat damper
Ashbourne, Alexander P.
c.1820-1915
Spring-loaded biscuit/cake cutter (hinged molding board with interchangeable shaped plates to cut a whole batch at once); pioneering processes for refining, treating, and preparing coconut oil for domestic use
Bailey, Leonard C.
1825-1918
Folding cabinet bed (U.S. Patent 629,286, 1899), adopted by the U.S. Army; also patented an Army-adopted hernia truss and a rapid mail-stamping machine, and co-founded Washington's Capitol Savings Bank