Sarah boone - inventor

Sarah Boone (nee Marshall) was born in Craven County, North Carolina, in 1832. By some accounts, she was born into slavery. In 1847, at the age of 15, she was married to a freedman, James Boone and they were able to move to New Haven, Connecticut.
When the Boone family relocated, Sarah Boone took up dressmaking as a profession. At the time, ironing was done either on a plain kitchen table or on a wooden plank propped between two chairs.
After much experimentation, Sarah developed a design of a tapered board on a stand. On the tapered edge, one could drape a cylindrical segment of clothing. Rotating the fabric around the board while ironing, the sleeve or torso portion of a dress is completely smoothed. So distinct was her new board, she was issued US Patent #473,653 on April 26, 1892. Sarah Boone was one of the first African-American women to receive a patent for a device that can be found in many homes to this day.