Women & Non-Binary Hack Night: Build Stuff & Honor Bessie Blount, Inventor of the Feeding Tube
This week we honor Bessie Blount, a feisty African-American inventor of the feeding tube for folks in hospitals.
We love this one account from The NY Times about her defiance as a small child forbidden to write with her left hand:
So she taught herself to write with her teeth and her toes, figuring, “If it was wrong to write with my left hand, then it was wrong to write with my right hand.”
Working as a nurse she later went on to teach amputees to write with their feet and their teeth!
Later on in life Bessie went on to invent the feeding tube, and while unlike other brilliant African American female inventors we have mentioned, she did become acknowledged but didn't quite reap the financial benefits of her invention as it wasn't seen as economically viable...
We applaud her!
Hack on What you Want
Since this is mostly screen-free and face to face, this frees up the meeting for everyone to work on whatever they want and participate at will!
The SudoRoom has hardware of all types: analog audio, soldering tools, a lasercutter, and more! So this isn't just a software workshop.
Hardware Hacking
Poke around our wiki to see all the cool toys we have!
We have a bunch of tools on our wiki such as the Big Red Laser Cutter https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Big_red_laser_cutter
Yes, we have 3D printers! https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Printing
Browse older projects and get them jump-started again like the Hack Pack https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Hackpack