
Historical records matching Martha Jane Coston
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About Martha Jane Coston
Inventor. Born Martha Jane Hunt, when she was a young child her father died, and her mother moved the family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania because of its reputation for good schools.
At age 14 she met a scientist/inventor named Benjamin Franklin Coston, whom she soon married. The newlyweds moved to Washington, D.C., where Benjamin had been appointed Master in the United States Naval Service to oversee the Navy's laboratory located in the nation's capital. He was working on numerous projects, one of which led to the successful development of a novel cannon percussion primer.
However, a disagreement arose between the Navy and Benjamin as to the compensation he should receive for the Navy's adoption of this new type of primer, so in August 1847 he resigned from the Navy and moved Martha and their growing family to Boston, Massachusetts. Although still in his twenties, Benjamin became president of the Boston Gas Company, and he soon demonstrated his merit by refining the process for the manufacture of sylvic gaslights. However, this work with toxic chemicals exacerbated the health problems he had already incurred from working with similar substances in experiments conducted at the Navy laboratory. His condition proved fatal: Benjamin Franklin Coston died in November 1848.
Not yet 22 years old, the now widowed Martha was left with four young children to support, so she moved back to the Philadelphia area to be close to her family. Within two years after losing her husband, her loss was compounded by the deaths of her mother and two of her children. Moreover, she found herself nearly destitute due to the duplicity of a relative who "misplaced" her money.
Driven not only by financial necessity, but also the desire to further her late husband's work, the she began searching through his papers, where she discovered some preliminary notes for a new invention - signal flares that could be used by ships at sea. Martha spent a number of years searching for the pyrotechnical means and expertise by which this idea could be developed to a marketable, effective product with an accompanying signaling system.
With the help of pyrotechnicians whom she recruited from New York City, she finally was ready to file for patent in 1859. However, given the gender prejudices of the time, the patent was filed under the name of her husband, although he had been deceased for more than a decade.
Martha then proceeded to market her product assertively. Later that year, when negotiations with the United States government were unsuccessful, she went to Europe to sell the patent for her signal flares to Great Britain, France, Italy, Denmark, and the Netherlands. She remained abroad until the outbreak of the Civil War.
It was not until August 5, 1861, after the First Battle of Bull Run, when it became evident that the Civil War would be a prolonged conflict, that the United States Congress finally authorized the purchase of the Martha's patent by the Navy. Even then, because she was a female, she was awarded only half the asking price.
Furthermore, throughout the war the Coston Company provided the flares to the Navy at cost, which increasingly meant producing at a loss because of the impact of wartime inflation upon the cost of materials. Despite this, the supply of flares to the Navy never faltered. The Coston flares were so bright that they could be seen at night from a distance of 15 to 20 miles away at sea, and the system used but three colors (red, white, and green) in various patterns for its communication codes. The Coston flares were used successfully for ship-to-shore or ship-to-ship communications by Union ships and were a major factor in helping to enforce the blockade of Southern shipping. They were are especially credited as a decisive factor promoting Union victory in the two-day naval battle at Fort Fisher, North Carolina, in January, 1865.
After the War she continued to work on improving the Coston flares, and in 1871, she obtained a patent under her own name (Patent No. 115,935, Improvement in Pyrotechnic Night Signals). She also filed to receive additional compensation from the government: she estimated that her company was owed $120,000 for the millions of flares supplied during the War. After a decade of wrangling, she was finally awarded only $15,000 in additional reimbursement. Meanwhile, the demand for Coston signals remained high, as it was used widely by the United States Life Saving Service (precursor to the United States Coast Guard), by private boating clubs and commercial shipping lines, as well as by foreign navies. Coston-type flares and the signaling system Martha developed are still used today around the world by meteorologists, navies, and private ship owners to signal distress at sea or to communicate at night.
- Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jul 29 2020, 15:41:25 UTC
Martha Jane Coston (December 12, 1826 – July 9, 1904) was an inventor and businesswoman best known for her invention of the Coston flare, a device for signaling at sea.
Early life
She was born Martha Hunt in Baltimore, Maryland, and moved to Philadelphia in the 1830s. At age 15 or 16, she eloped with a Benjamin Franklin Coston, age 21, who had already acquired a reputation as a promising inventor. As a young man, he became director of the U.S. Navy’s scientific laboratory in Washington, D.C. At the Washington Navy Yard, he developed a signaling rocket and a percussion primer for cannons. He also experimented with color-coded night signals to allow communication between ships, which at that time was limited to visual signals such as flags during the day and lanterns at night. After a dispute over payment for his work on the percussion primer, Coston resigned his commission with the Navy in 1847 and became president of the Boston Gas Company. His work with chemical fumes at both the Navy Yard and the Boston Gas Company caused his health to deteriorate, and he died in 1848 as a result of the chemical exposure. His work on the signal flares, while important, was limited to plans and chemical formulas.[1]
Flare design and business
The years following Benjamin Coston's death were filled with more tragedy for Martha Coston; two of her children and her mother died in the next two years, leaving her in poor condition emotionally as well as in difficult financial straits. While searching through her husband's papers, she discovered the notes he had written on night signaling at the Navy Yard. Her husband’s incomplete work needed substantial additional effort before it could be turned into a practical signaling system.
For nearly ten years, Martha Coston worked to develop a system of flare signaling based on her husband's earlier work. With a limited knowledge of chemistry and pyrotechnics, she relied on the advice of hired chemists and fireworks experts, with mixed results. A breakthrough came in 1858, while she was witnessing the fireworks display in New York City celebrating the completion of the transatlantic telegraph cable; she realized that her system needed a bright blue flare, along with the red and white she had already developed. she established the Coston Manufacturing Company to manufacture the signal flares, and entered into a business relationship with a pyrotechnics developer to provide the necessary blue color.[2]
On April 5, 1859, she was granted U.S. Patent number 23,536 for a pyrotechnic night signal and code system. (The patent was granted to her as administratrix for her deceased husband, who is named as inventor.) Using different combinations of colors, it enabled ships to signal to one another, and to signal to shore. Captain C.S. McCauley of the U.S. Navy recommended the use of her flares to Secretary of the Navy Isaac Toucey in 1859. After extended testing, which demonstrated the effectiveness of the system, the U.S. Navy ordered an initial set of 300 flares, and later placed an order for $6000 worth of the flares.[3]
International successes and the Civil War
Coston then obtained patents in England, France, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands, and sailed to England to begin marketing her invention there and in other parts of Europe. She remained in Europe until 1861, when she returned to the U.S. on the outbreak of the Civil War. She went directly to Washington, where she petitioned Congress to purchase the patent so that the flares could be used in the approaching conflict. After some delay, Congress passed an act on August 5, 1861, authorizing the U.S. Navy to purchase the patent for $20,000, though less than the $40,000 she had originally demanded.
Coston flares were used extensively by the U.S. Navy during the Civil War; they proved particularly effective in the discovery and capture of Confederate blockade runners during the Union blockade of southern ports. Coston flares also played an important role in coordinating naval operations during the battle of Fort Fisher in North Carolina on January 13–15, 1865.[4]
In 1871, Coston obtained a patent in her own name - Patent No. 115,935, Improvement in Pyrotechnic Night Signals. In addition to working on improvements to the signaling system, she continued to press claims for additional compensation from the U.S. government. Due to wartime inflation, the Coston Manufacturing Company supplied flares to the U.S. Navy at less than cost, and Coston estimated that the government owed her $120,000 in compensation. Although she pressed her claims for over ten years, she was offered only $15,000 additional reimbursement.
Use of the Coston flare in the United States Life-Saving Service Eventually every station of the United States Life-Saving Service was equipped with Coston flares, which were used to signal ships, warn of dangerous coastal conditions, and summon surfmen and other rescuers to a wreck scene. Many accounts of wrecks and rescues describe the use of the Coston flare, which was instrumental in saving thousands of lives. While Martha Coston died in 1904, her company, later called the Coston Signal Company and the Coston Supply Company, remained in business until at least 1985.
Legacy In 2006 Martha Coston was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.[5]
Benjamin Franklin Coston and Martha Coston are buried in Section D, Lot 62, at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Coston
https://www.engineergirl.org/125236/Martha-Coston
Martha Jane Coston's Timeline
1826 |
December 12, 1826
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Baltimore, Baltimore City, Maryland, USA
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1847 |
1847
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District of Columbia, USA
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1904 |
July 9, 1904
Age 77
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Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia, USA
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Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA
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