Emily Davenport

With her husband (Thomas Davenport), and his colleague (Orange Smalley[?]), she invented the electric motor and electric locomotive circa 1834.

She cut up her wedding dress into strips of silk to insulate the wire windings.

Further Reading

• Frank Wicks. "The Blacksmith's Motor. Electricity, magnetism, and motion: A self-taught Vermonter pointed the direction for lighting the world." (http://www.memagazine.org/backissues/july99/features/blacksmith/blacksmith)   Mechanical Engineering (http://www.memagazine.org), July 1999 (http://www.memagazine.org/backissues/july99/features/feat_toc).