Anna Connelly
American inventor
Anna Connelly was an American woman who lived from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century in Pennsylvania. She was the inventor of the predecessor of the modern outdoor fire escape; her invention saved lives, causing it to become a safety component in modern buildings. In addition, she was one of the first women in the US to submit a patent application without any assistance from a man. Connelly made contributions to fields such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Context
Between 1870 and 1920, approximately 11 million Americans migrated from rural to urban regions, and an additional 25 million immigrants, mostly from Europe, moved to the United States. This migration fueled the expansion of American cities such as New York and Philadelphia, resulting in the development of taller and more crowded buildings. This expansion was driven by industrialization, which had started in the country with influence from England. While it led to economic growth and development, it also raised urban planning, public health, and safety concerns; the safety concerns regarded fire hazards in particular. At the time, there were complications with the construction and usage of fire escapes, which were primarily ladders or ropes tied to the sides of buildings. As a result, the risk of fires became a larger concern for the safety of those living and working in cities.
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This entry incorporates text from “Anna Connelly” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.