Her timing was too soon, though, and she was unable to get financial support for nearly a decade, and only then from a relative, Anne F. Davidson. They formed the Knight-Davidson, or K-D Motor Co. (Anne’s daughter Beatrice called her “Aunt Maggie” and Anne’s maiden name was indeed Knight, but Anne’s father was George and Margaret’s was James. I was unable to follow either family farther back, and they were born in distant states from the other.)
In 1913 Moore & Munger manufactured a Charles R. Greuter-designed phaeton body for the Knight-Davidson prototype. Knight displayed the finished vehicle at that fall’s Boston Automobile Show hoping to license her sleeve-valve engine to an established automobile manufacturer. Beatrice reported that several prototypes were ordered at a $6000 price.
Unfortunately Knight died before any licensing agreements and no further Moore & Munger vehicles are known to have been constructed with her engine. Of note, Margaret was unrelated to Charles Knight, the inventor of a sleeve-valve engine that did go on to series production as part of the Willies-Knight company.
Florence Lawrence, a silent film star, later became the president of her mother’s company, Bridgwood Manufacturing, a producer of after-market automobile features. Both mother and daughter were also brilliant inventors. Her mother invented a patent for a type of windshield wiper in 1917, while Lawrence invented the first car turn signal, or “auto-signaling arm,” and the brake signal for automobiles. However, Lawrence did not patent her inventions and did not receive any profits from licensing her work, just manufacturing them.
Marie Luhring made history by becoming the first female truck designer and distinguishing herself as one of the top designers in the country when she was hired in 1920 by Mack Truck.
Unfortunately, none of these women survived into the Forties when several American women were hired as designers by major automobile manufacturers.
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