Martha Coston and her side project: The signal flare

While raising four children as a young widow, Martha Coston (1826–1904) developed a groundbreaking naval signal flare system that revolutionized maritime communication and saved countless lives. Starting with her late husband's rudimentary notes, she battled gender barriers of 19th-century America to create patented technology that supported military operations during the Civil War and established a company that thrived for over a century.

After her husband's sudden death in 1847, 21-year-old Martha Coston faced the immediate challenge of supporting her family with virtually no financial resources in a society offering few opportunities for women.

"I was left a widow at twenty-one years of age, with four children, the eldest but seven years, and in very straitened circumstances," Martha wrote in her memoir. Her responsibilities encompassed everything from maintaining the household economy to providing sole emotional support for her young children—work that would have been considered more than full-time in the 1850s.

Amid her struggle to keep her family afloat, Martha endured the devastating loss of three of her four children during the years she worked to perfect her flare system. Yet even through crushing poverty and overwhelming grief, she maintained her determination to create a stable future through innovation.

Among her late husband Benjamin's belongings, Martha discovered notebooks containing unfinished ideas for a naval night signaling system. These rudimentary sketches sparked a decade-long quest to develop a functional maritime communication technology.

With no formal scientific training, Martha mastered the complex chemistry of pyrotechnics, often corresponding with experts under male pseudonyms to be taken seriously. "I found that, to succeed, I must overcome the prejudice against women inventors, and I determined to do it," she later explained. After extensive experimentation, she created a sophisticated system of red, white, and green flares visible over great distances in various weather conditions.

Admiral David D. Porter, who used her signals extensively during Civil War naval operations, confirmed their effectiveness: "At night the signals can be so plainly read that mistakes are impossible." Martha's invention went beyond simple flares—she developed an entire coded communication protocol and founded the Coston Manufacturing Company to produce her system during wartime demand.

"The men I employed and dismissed, the experiments I made myself, the frauds that were practiced upon me, almost disheartened me," she later wrote, "but despair I would not." Martha secured patents across Europe and established global manufacturing agreements, personally traveling abroad to expand her business despite the unprecedented nature of such actions for a woman of her era.

Martha's journey required extraordinary determination to overcome both personal tragedy and systemic barriers while managing her primary responsibilities as a mother.

She conducted research and correspondence after her children were asleep, working by candlelight late into the night. Though her initial patent in 1859 was issued under her late husband's name for strategic legitimacy, she continued fighting for recognition, telling Congress in her petition for compensation: "The merit of the invention belongs to me."

Martha built strategic relationships with naval officers who could test and advocate for her invention, turning skeptics into supporters through practical demonstrations. Rather than attempting to master all technical aspects herself, she hired specialists for specific challenges while maintaining control of the overall vision—a management approach that allowed her to balance invention with motherhood.

When she petitioned Congress in 1861 for the Navy to purchase her patent rights, gender bias resulted in her receiving only half the requested compensation—$20,000 instead of $40,000. Yet she persisted, using these funds to expand production as the Civil War created urgent demand for her flares.

Martha Coston's signal flares transformed naval communication while establishing a remarkable precedent for women inventors and entrepreneurs in male-dominated fields.

Her flare system became standard equipment for navies worldwide and was credited with saving thousands of lives through rescue operations. During the pivotal Battle of Fort Fisher in 1865, Coston flares played a crucial role in naval coordination. After the Union victory, Admiral Porter commemorated the moment by "illuminating the sea and shore with a splendor seldom equalled" using her signals.

The U.S. Life-Saving Service equipped all stations with Coston signals, which proved crucial in countless shipwreck rescues along American coasts. Despite initial struggles for recognition, her company thrived for over a century, continuing to manufacture maritime safety equipment until the late 20th century.

Martha reflected on her journey in her memoir, "A Signal Success," writing: "If I had known the obstacles to be overcome, the disappointments to be encountered, the rebuffs and discouragements to be met...I should still have persisted, for there was something within me that seemed to force me on." Her story represents the perfect intersection of necessity, opportunity, and unstoppable determination—proving that groundbreaking innovation can emerge from life's most challenging circumstances.