Ultimately, this led to the invention of the disposable paper diaper, which was eventually commercialized by Victor Mills, the creator of Pampers.
With his identical twin brother John, Miles O'Brien ran the South Bend Lathe Words manufacturing plant.
[4][5] Donovan's father and uncle were inventors as well, credited with inventing products such as the "South Bend lathe" for developing automobile gears and gun barrels.
[5] Nineteen years later, as one of the three women in her graduating class, Donovan earned a master's degree in architecture from Yale University.
Donovan ripped her shower curtain off of the hanger, cut it into pieces, and sewed it into a waterproof diaper cover with snaps instead of safety pins.
A couple years later, she sold her company and her patents to Keko Corporation for a million dollars because even though she considered continuing her creation of a diaper with absorbent paper, executives apparently were not interested.
[7] While Donovan was never able to find the right manufacturer, largely due to sexism, she is credited with innovations that eventually led to the creation of disposable diapers which were introduced in the U.S. by Procter and Gamble in 1961,[4] specifically inventor Victor Mills' Pampers.