1903 Knitting and Crochet Chatelaine
by Eleanor Hughes,
Lady’s Maid
About the Patent
- NAMEEleanor E. Hughes
- PATENTGB190217277A
- DATEJuly 9, 1903
- LOCATIONPatented in Great Britain – inventor residing in Newton-le-Willows, England
- INVENTION“Bags for Holding Wool for Knitting or Crochet Work”
- THEMEWorking [more about our themes]
About the Inventor
Eleanor Elizabeth Hughes worked as a lady’s maid at Newton Park, Newton-le-Willows in Lancashire in 1902. We have not been able to trace her via the census records and it is likely that she would have been relatively transient, moving between different employees. It is possible that she is the same Eleanor Elizabeth Hughes who patented a portable work table whilst employed as a maid attendant in Birkenhead in 1913.
About the Invention
PROBLEM
Working as a lady’s maid, Hughes would have had very little time and space of her own. We speculate that she would have had few options for storing threads or yarns for use in knitting and crochet, either within practices of her paid work, repairing her own belongings or perhaps as an entrepreneurial activity that could be picked up and put down as time allowed. The challenges of multiple projects are compounded because yarns tangle easily, and need a certain amount of management to be able to work with them effectively.
SOLUTION
Hughes’s solution was to design a compartmented bag in which wool, cotton threads and different projects could be stored separately. The purse-style metal top of the bag has holes to allow the ends of the yarns or threads to pass through. The bag has a side opening for access and a chatelaine hook to enable it to be suspended and worn, making it a portable wearable device.
Open Access Patent Document
See the complete British patent.
“A bag with a metal top secured like a purse (…) with one or more apertures in the top for wool or cotton to pass through separately.”
— Eleanor Hughes, inventor
Speculatively Sewing Eleanor Hughes’s Invention
Learn more about speculative sewing here
We made multiple iterations of Hughes’s invention: a small-scale paper model; a full-sized calico toile; and finally a performance piece using fabric from Dashing Tweeds. The latter piece featured in the “Pockets of Power” show, developed in collaboration with feminist theatre company Scary Little Girls and Dr Naomi Paxton in her cabaret persona, Ada Campe.
Like many patents, this invention appears to be simple when encountered in text and drawing form. It is a small bag that is worn on the body within easy access of the hands. It was designed to contain multiple knitting and crochet projects that a busy worker like Hughes might have on the go. The complexities of the invention lie inside; with its divided interior and multiple compartments.
The exterior pocket carried finished projects or an extra ball of wool. The two internal pockets kept projects separated and the divided opening at the top enabled wool or yarn to “pass separately”. The overall aim was to keep “the balls separate and to prevent them from getting tangled”. It was “suspended by a chatelaine hook and chain or strap or cord”. In many ways, this invention is a portable pocket filled with pockets.
Hughes would have had scarce space or enough time within which to fulfil her work duties let alone anything else, but in her patent we gain insights into the desires she might have had to be more than just a maid to a lady. With her invention she transgresses some of the boundaries that conventionally shaped and contained lives like hers. Much like her kitting and crochet projects, her success in inventing and patenting evidences her desire to partition her life of servitude away from her personal (or perhaps even entrepreneurial) activities. She could create clear divisions to claim time, space and imaginaries in a place that would never be hers.
You can read our open access journal article about speculative sewing here.
Another Invention by Eleanor Hughes
We think it likely that is was the same Eleanor Hughes who successfully patented again in 1913 (GB191209795A).
If so, she was still a domestic servant – working as a maid attendant in Birkenhead. Again, her living and working conditions would have been minimal and cramped and unlikely to have given her much life/work separation. This time she invented a “Portable Work Table”. Similar to the knitting and crochet chatelaine, this invention also provided a mobile working space.
Patenting twice, while working in this very labour-intensive, time-consuming role, points to an ambitious individual imagining a life beyond that of her daily servitude.
More Research Relating to Hughes’s Invention
Below is a selection of research activities relating to Hughes’s invention. Click through to learn more.
The Speculative Sewing Inventory is part of the Politics Of Patents project, which has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant No: 819458. Politics Of Patents is hosted by Goldsmiths College, University of London.
