BEULAH HAS A HUNCH!

An introduction to a groundbreaking inventor known as “Lady Edison.”

The subtitle should be taken literally, as the author offers limited biographical information while zeroing in on her subject’s lifelong fascination with learning how machines and household items work and the “hyperphantasia”—the ability to visualize items in unusually exact detail—that helped Henry devise her inventions and improvements. Henry also had what she herself described as “color hearing,” now known as synesthesia, which Mazeika illustrates with stars and brightly hued curlicues floating through select scenes to represent dance music or street sounds. Beginning in 1913 with improvements to ladies’ parasols, Henry went on to file dozens of patents for significant refinements to sewing machines, kitchenware, doll designs, and more. She also shrugged off male resistance to the notion of a woman inventor and went into business for herself as a consultant and the founder of two manufacturing companies. Accompanied by several small but illustrative patent drawings, the afterword highlights Henry’s neurodiversity while promoting her lasting impact on women in STEM (her current obscurity notwithstanding). Looking forthright and confident beneath a coronal wreath of red hair, she and most of the other figures in the illustrations are white, but skin tones vary in some group and street scenes.

More role model than living person here, but still well worth the attention.