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Montage of photos of 8 women inventors

Top row: Marion O'Brien Donovan, Tara Astigarraga, Madison Maxey, Marilyn Hamilton. Bottom row: Michelle Khine, Marjorie Stewart Joyner, Alexis Lewis, Ellen Ochoa

Alexis Lewis with travois (detail)

Alexis Lewis

March 22, 2021 by Joyce Bedi

Throughout American history, women with diverse backgrounds and interests created inventions that change our lives every day.

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“Inventors are basically anybody and everybody who’s ever tried to solve a problem.”

Alexis Lewis

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Alexis Lewis with travois

Alexis Lewis with travois. Courtesy of Alexis Lewis

In 2011, twelve-year-old Alexis Lewis was inspired to invent after reading about children who became lost when their families fled the famine in Somalia. She adapted a traditional Native American sled, called a travois, by adding wheels to create a simpler way to transport families and their belongings.

inventors-lewis-alexis-native-american-travois-09850400-750-inline-edit.jpg

Historic photo of Native Americans with traditional travois sled

Lewis modeled her invention on the travois used by Native Americans to transport people and belongings. Photo by Norman A. Forsyth, early 1900s, Photo Lot 90-1, number 295, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

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Figure from patent showing travois design and use

Alexis Lewis received US Patent 8,979,095 for her rescue travois. Courtesy of USPTO

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Two small children riding in the travois while a third child pulls it.

Trying out the rescue travois. Courtesy of Alexis Lewis

Alexis continues to invent—she has a patent pending for an emergency smoke filtration kit that can be thrown to someone trapped in a burning building—and she is inspiring other young inventors through invention education.

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Football shaped container holding mask

3-D printed prototype of the smoke filtration mask container, tested with professional firefighters. Courtesy of Alexis Lewis

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Figure from patent application showing person throwing smoke kit to someone on the second floor

Lewis’s patent application illustrates throwing a smoke filtration kit to someone trapped in a burning building. Courtesy of USPTO


Source for quote above: “Teenage Inventor Alexis Lewis Thinks That Kids Have the Solutions to the World’s Problems.” Smithsonian Magazine, July 21, 2015, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/teen-inventor-alexis-lewis-wants-kids-to-invent-solutions-to-worlds-problems-180955933/?no-ist.

  • Continue To Lisa Lindahl, Hinda Miller, & Polly Palmer Smith
  • Previous
  • Introduction
  • Exhibitions
  • Tara Astigarraga
  • Patricia Bath
  • Ayah Bdeir
  • Cynthia Breazeal
  • Theresa Dankovich
  • Marion O’Brien Donovan
  • Marilyn Hamilton
  • Grace Hopper
  • Marjorie Stewart Joyner
  • Michelle Khine
  • Margaret Knight
  • Stephanie Kwolek
  • Alexis Lewis
  • Lisa Lindahl, Hinda Miller, & Polly Palmer Smith
  • Madison Maxey
  • Ellen Ochoa
  • Amy Prieto
  • Sharon Rogone
  • Charlotte Cramer Sachs
  • Laura Shepherd
  • Kavita Shukla
  • Mária Telkes
  • Madam C. J. Walker
  • Cindy Whitehead
  • Woman’s Building, 1893 World’s Fair

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