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to make a living. Regardless, in the short span of a year and a half, Clarissa applied for and received seven patents. One of her patents was for an ambulance improvement to help with the removal of the wounded and bodies from the battlefield. Several others were for cooking improvements and one for a dinner pail for miners (Patent No. US41,274) which included a light, a food warming mechanism, and eating utensils.
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In 1863 after settling her brother's affairs, Clarissa's professional life turned from teaching to inventions. It is not known why she did this. It can be surmised that perhaps what she saw in her journey north inspired her to create some of her inventions or perhaps she was looking for another way
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for a year in 1866 before returning to South
Carolina to take care of her sister's seven children after their mother died. She then moved to Chicago in 1870 with the children and their father to focus on raising her sister's children. It appears she lived in Chicago for a number of years, before
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to be closer to her brother Calvin and to also establish her own school, Niles Female
Seminary which she was the principal until 1848 when she sold the school. Clarissa moved back to Troy and taught for three years at Troy Seminary. She then moved to Beaufort, South Carolina to be closer to her
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This was the start of
Clarissa's journey around the United States. She lived in at least seven different states during her lifetime which was unusual for a woman of her time period. Her family was the main reason for her transitory lifestyle.
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Because of her socioeconomic position, Clarissa received a good education and was able to have a career as a teacher. She taught for several years in district schools near her home in
Brownville. From 1838 to 1839 she attended Emma Willard's
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in 1861. In 1862, her brother, Calvin died and she traveled back to St. Joseph, Michigan to settle his estate. It is unclear how she made her way back to
Michigan but she more than likely came in close contact with the fighting during the
85:(1816–1895) was a 19th-century American inventor who received seven patents in a span of 18 months from early 1863 to 1864. Professionally, she was trained as a school teacher and was the founder and principal of Niles Female Seminary in
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264:"Emma Willard and her pupils, or, Fifty years of Troy Female Seminary ; Emma Willard and her pupils ; Fifty years of Troy Female Seminary ; 50 years of Troy Female Seminary ; 1822-1872"
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sister, Martha
Johnston. It is not known where she taught while she lived in South Carolina but appears that she left Beaufort and spent several years as vice principal at a school in
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It was while she was still in
Beaufort the second time that the South seceded from the North in 1860. Clarissa lived only six miles away from the
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It doesn't look like
Clarissa was ever able to sell the rights to any of her inventions and her obituary never mentions her inventor career.
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returning to St. Joseph, Michigan to live her sister, Isabella. According to the 1880 census she listed her occupation as retired teacher.
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laying out the plat of the original village and who went on to be a prominent politician in
Michigan.
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Patent Model-Improvement in
Boilers, October 6, 1863, Patent No. 40,157, Hagely Museum and Library
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for reasons not recorded. She died in Baton Rouge in 1895 at the age of 80.
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Drawing from Clarissa Britain's "improvement in ambulances" patent
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491:"Genealogy, Family History & Ancestry Search | GenealogyBank"
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400:"Clarissa Britain: an enigmatic inventor. - Free Online Library"
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family. Her father, Calvin Britain was a Major-General in the
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Women Working, 1800-1930 - CURIOSity Digital Collections
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After trying her hand at invention, Clarissa moved to
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295:. New York: Ballantine Books. pp. 19–20.
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