Famous Women Inventors: Marion Donovan – Inventor of the Diaper

Necessity is the mother of invention.  -Plato

In this case, it was not only necessity but also mothering that were the mothers of invention.

Marion Donovan spent a large part of her childhood in a manufacturing plant run by her father and uncle who invented many things including an industrial lathe. This experience instilled Marion with an inventive spirit.

Frustration at the inconvenience and impractically of using rectangular sheets of cloth as diapers, Marion put that inventive spirit to the test. Tired of constantly changing diapers, sheets and clothing, she went to work at her sewing machine with a shower curtain. After a few attempts, she designed a waterproof diaper cover. Called the “Boater” by Marion because she thought her cover looked like a boat, the design didn’t pinch the skin, cause diaper rash or use dangerous safety pins.

The final product was not actually made of shower curtain but instead was fashioned from nylon parachute cloth. The cover debut at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York in 1949. Unsurprisingly, the product was an instant success. Marion Donovan filed for a patent for her new invention on January 19, 1949. She received Patent Number 2,556,800 on June 12, 1951 for a Diaper Wrap. The Patent rights were sold in the 1950’s for a million dollars.

Feeding off of the success of her wrap, Marion went to work on an even more innovative idea: the disposable diaper. This was not as easy as it sounds. Her goal was to create a diaper that would keep the moisture away from a baby’s skin and prevent diaper rash. Much experimenting led to a design of sturdy, absorbent paper that accomplished the task. To her surprise, the disposable diapers were not nearly as successful as the Boater.

Donovan did not give up on her diaper after it first failure. She traveled the country shopping her idea to all of the major US paper companies. Still no one was interested in the diaper. Instead she was laughed at for proposing an unnecessary and impractical product. Ten years later someone finally capitalized on the idea. Victor Mills, a grandfather and engineer at Proctor & Gamble created Pampers.

Donovan’s story does not end with the failure of her disposable diaper. At age 41, she received an architecture degree from Yale. She also received over a dozen patents. She worked to invent simple and practical solutions for household problems. Her other inventions included the “Big Hangup” which was a 30- garment compact hanger, the “Zippity-Do” which was an elastic cord which connected to the zipper of a dress making it much easier for a woman to zip her dress, and a soap dish that drained into the sink.