Katharine Blodgett Katharine Blodgett was a well accomplished engineer/scientist at the GE Research Lab in Schenectady, NY who discovered methods for working with monomolecular coatings. She applied this knowledge to improve of eyeglasses, camera lenses, deicing for aircraft materials, poison gas absorbents and more. Katharine Blodgett was born in Schenectady (January 10, 1898) but moved after her father was shot by a burglar. Her father George R. Blodgett was a nationally famous patent attorney for General Electric, the murderer hung himself and the mystery of the event remains to this day. Katharine and her mother moved to France. She returned to New York City and went to the Rayson School. She got a better education than most girls of the time and showed a talent for mathematics and physics. After getting her Bachelors at Bryn Mawr College she pursued a masters at University of Chicago. At 21 years old she published an important paper on paper on gas mask mat...