that racial bias would prevent the clothes-wringer's success caused her to sell the design to an unknown white agent for $18. The buyer went on to reap considerable financial awards. By 1900, Eglin's invention found a home with the American Wringer Company. The company grew rich from profits earned from Eglin's invention. Eglin's wringer is still used for mops today. Later work After selling her clothes-wringer, Eglin was planning on creating another invention and planned to patent it in her own name. She wanted that "the invention will be known as a black woman's," something that would inspire African American women of the upcoming generation. Although she wanted to exhibit the new model at the Women's International Industrial Inventors Congress (WIIIC), where, anyone was invented regardless of race, she never went on to patent it. Unfortunately, Eglin never appeared at the WIIIC and the mystery invention was never documented. It is rumored that she went on to work as a clerk in a census office. Last years Little is known about the later stages of Ellen Eglin's life, including the place or date of her death. Ellen Eglin appears to have spent the rest of her life in Washington, D. C. In 1890, she was employed by the United States Department of the Interior as a charwoman in the Census Office She appeared in the local city directories from about 1888 living at 1929 11th Street, N. W. with her brother Charles, a Union Navy veteran who was a teamster. Charles Eglin died in July 1896, leaving his estate divided between his three siblings, including Ellen. Ellen Eglin last appears in the Washington city directories in 1916. References External sources Patent of a Clothes Wringer from 1888 Magazine showcasing Ellen Eglin People from Washington, D.C. African-American inventors 19th-century American inventors Women inventors 1916 deaths 1836 births 19th-century American businesspeople 19th-century American businesswomen 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women