Margaret A. Wilcox
Margaret A. Wilcox (1838 - March 30, 1912) was an American mechanical engineer and inventor known for developing a rail car heater design. She is also credited for patenting several inventions. Biography 
Margaret Wilcox, born in 1838, was a mechanical engineer from Chicago, Illinois. Wilcox developed a rail car heater. Wilcox had developed other patented inventions and designs, such as a machine that combined and performed two tasks which was able to wash both clothes and dishes at once, she classified it as a combined clothes-and-dishwasher in 1890. This machine involved two bowls, a smaller bowl being moved around inside a larger bowl. Wilcox also developed a combined cooking and hot water heating stove, which is designed to save fuel through a furnace that  utilized the wasted heat of the stove. By the time this occurred it was still illegal for women to file a patent under their name; Margaret Wilcox consequently filed the patent under her husband’s name. These products did not succeed. It is suggested that she founded Wilcox Company sometime in 1892 for the purpose of marketing her inventions. By 1883, Margaret Wilcox lost her husband. In November 28, 1893 she applied for a patent for her rail car heater idea. Wilcox presented this work at the World’s Columbian Fair in 1893, the year in which Chicago had the right to host the fair. Wilcox's design moved the heat produced by the combustion engines in automobiles by running a channel of air along the engine, and as a result warming up the car. One concern of the car heater was the inability for people to control the level of heat. This meant that warmth within the vehicle would continuously increase once the ride begun, since there was no way of regulating the temperature levels thus raising danger. Wilcox’s design was used in the engineering process. Legacy 
Wilcox’s solution was the foundation for modern car-heating systems. When it was first presented, the main concern was that the heat was unregulated; occupants could not adjust the temperature to their liking8. These problems were slowly solved over the course of thirty years. In 1917, engineers started seriously focusing on and improving Wilcox’s device. In 1929, Ford implemented the heating system into their Model A cars. This is when Wilcox’s invention really took off. In 1930, General Motors started using this system in their cars, for an additional cost. In the late 1930s, Nash introduced a heating and primitive air conditioning system that allowed the driver to control the amount of airflow. In 1953, Chrysler expanded upon existing ventilation systems by introducing the ACC, or automatic climate control system. Today, in-vehicle heating and air conditioning can be found in cars, trucks, trains, and airplanes. Wilcox’s invention not only provides comfort for passengers, but also aids in the transportation of perishable goods and the global supply chain. Honors 
In 2020, Inventor's Digest named Wilcox's patent for car heater one of their top ten patents by women. References 

1838 births
Women inventors
Women engineers
Year of death missing
People from Chicago
19th-century women engineers