After posting the article below we found this in wikipedia…

I am curious where people got this information about Anna Connelly having the first registered patent for a fire escape in 1887. New York City building codes required exterior balconies and stairs (referred to as fire escapes in the code) already in 1860. And numerous patents for such exist prior to 1887, the earliest in 1860. The article needs reliable references. —Metro2008 (talk) 05:53, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, after searching on the internet for about 5 minutes, I was able to obtain the patent number for Anna Connelly’s fire escape. I then when to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office online archive of full text patents and searched the number. As I suspected, she did not actually invent the fire escape, she invented a type of fire escape that is actually nothing like the exterior stairs and balconies that this wikipedia entry discusses. Her patent is for a bridge that connects the roofs of buildings. I am disturbed to find that she is noted all over the internet as the inventor of the fire escape. I am a woman and am all for promoting inventions by women, but we can’t give her more credit than is due. Clearly people need to check their facts, because once something ends up on the internet, it ends up being taken as truth. —Metro2008 (talk) 05:53, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

People Really Don’t Know That Women Actually Invented Things

Now’s your chance to learn.

Nina BahadurDeputy Editor, HuffPost Women

If this video is anything to go by, New Yorkers need a serious refresher course on women in history.

In the video created by MAKERS, a host asks people on the street who made a certain historical discovery, letting them choose between the woman who actually did it and a fictional man. Unsurprisingly, most respondents assumed that the men were the creators.

“Hmm,” one participant says when asked who invented the fire escape, inventor Anna Connelly or ’90s heartthrob Jonathan Taylor Thomas. “I’m feeling like [whoever invented] the first fire escape could be a woman, but is probably a man.” Spoiler alert: She’s wrong.

This lighthearted video reminds us that women’s contributions to history just aren’t as well known — something that seriously needs to change. Because #HerStoryIsHistory, too.

National Women’s History Museum

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In 1872, Susan B. Anthony registered and ultimately voted in a Rochester, New York election. When it was discovered that she had cast a vote as a woman, she was arrested for “voting illegally” and brought to trial. She was ordered to pay a $100 fine. She never did.

MORE: Herstory, #HerstoryIsHistory, Women’s History, On The Street