Emma Lilian Todd (1865-1937) was a self-taught inventor who liked to take things apart and put them back together to see how they worked.
A lawyer and a clerk in the US patent Office, she would type up patent applications, and she learned what worked, and what didn’t work.
Inspired by airships she saw on a trip, Todd began creating designs around 1903, trying & eliminating different features until she successfully designed a working #aircraft that improved upon the Wright brothers' model.
