Bessie Blount
Bessie Blount
Bessie Blount(November 24, 1914 - December 30, 2009)was a physical therapist, inventor, and forensic scientist also known by her married name, Bessie Blount Griffin.
During World War II, as part of her work with wounded soldiers, Blount devised an apparatus to help amputees feed themselves. She invented an electronic feeding device in 1951, a feeding tube that delivered one mouthful of food at a time, controlled by biting down on the tube. The American Veterans Administration did not want her invention, so she sold it to the French government. Blount was once a physical therapist to the mother-in-law of Theodore Edison, son of famed inventor Thomas Edison. She and the younger Edison became close friends and while in his home she invented the disposable cardboard emesis basin. The basin was fashioned out of newspaper, flour and water, which was then baked into a hard form. This invention was also not accepted by the American Veterans Administration, so she sold it to Belgium.