​"We hear much of the chivalry of men towards women, but let me tell you... it vanishes like dew before the summer sun when one of us comes into competition with the manly sex."

• INVENTOR of the FIRST maritime signal flare gun
• The flare gun is now sometimes referred to as the Very pistol, named after Lt. E. W. Very, a man who patented a minor adjustment to Coston's trigger design
• As a young teenager she eloped with Benjamin Coston, a young engineer who quickly became a respected inventor in Washington DC
• Befriended many of the city's elite, including Henry Clay, Dolley Madison, John Quincy Adams, and Samuel F.B. Morse (yes, as in Morse code)
• Benjamin began to develop a flare gun, but died before succeeding
• Twenty-one years old, penniless, and with three young children, Martha spent the next ten years redesigning and perfecting the flare gun
• Had to use a man's name when ordering the chemical flares from fireworks manufacturers, and although the secretary of the navy agreed to test the device, he refused to allow her to attend because she was a woman
• Put her husband's name on the patent, both to take advantage of his reputation, and to avoid any controversy associated with inventing something so far outside the traditional woman's sphere
• Patented her Coston Night Signal in not only the US, but several European countries as well
• Her powerful group of friends helped her immensely, both directly and as a buffer from sexist criticism 
• The navy paid her $6,000 for an initial order, but she had to sue them to get the $20,000 she was owed for the rights
• Her invention provided the FIRST reliable means of nocturnal ship-to-ship communication, and provided the Union with a crucial advantage over the Confederacy during the Civil War
• Became a savvy business woman, improving her design, patenting it -- under her own name this time -- and ensuring her invention wasn't perceived as merely a wartime tool by marketing and selling it to maritime rescue organizations
• Published an autobiography, A Signal Success, which further popularized the device

Public Domain Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: Vare, Ethlie Ann and Greg Ptacek. Patently Female. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002. Print.
Drachman, Virginia G. Enterprising Women: 250 Years of American Business. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002. Print.

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