June 14 2022 - Young vs Old Inventors

 

the youngest inventor on record is Samuel Thomas Hougton who in April 2008 at the age of 5, received a patent for his "Sweeping Device With Two Heads" invention. He is thought to be the youngest person to have been granted a patent for their invention.  In 2006, at the age of 3, Sam Houghton saw his father sweeping their back yard using two different brooms: one to clear up the larger leaves and twigs and another to pick up finer debris. Believing that there must be an easier way to do the job, Houghton strapped two different brooms together with a large rubber band. Houghton's father, Dr. Rev. Mark Houghton (a patent attorney) was impressed by the invention. On 14 October 2006 he filed a patent application at the UK Intellectual Property Office. There are more youthful inventors in this article HERE.   An article from the washingtonpost.com identifies a little girl, aged 2 who invented a suction-based kitchen drawer opener, The patent was received at age 4 years.  Its purpose is to help the disabled open drawers more easily.   Compare that to the oldest person to receive a patent:  It is Charles Greeley Abbot, an American astrophysicist and astronomer with the patent granted at age 101 in 1973.   At 99, he invented the solar cooker that used the energy of direct sunlight to cook food and heat beverages. At that time, he became the oldest person to receive a patent and may still hold the record as the oldest inventor. Here are a few others: Peter Mark Roget’s “Roget’s Thesaurus,” the gold standard for synonyms, was published when he was 73. He supervised all revisions for the next 17 years until his death. George Weiss was 84 when he invented the board game Dabble, in which players get tiles with letters on them and have to come up with words as fast as they can within a limited time. For this, he was awarded the 2011 Game of the Year. Gys van Beek was 85 when he invented the all-purpose survival tool Trucker’s Friend, a multi-purpose tool specifically designed for any situation that requires hacking, chopping, prying, pulling or pounding. It includes a curved axe, hammer, nail puller, tire chain hook, pry bar, lever and spanner wrench. An nber.org article says that the average age for producing notable inventions has increased steadily over the last century.  Here's the summary: "First, there is large variation in age: 42 percent of innovations came about when their creators were in their 30s, while 40 percent occurred when the inventors were in their 40s, and 14 percent appeared when the inventors were over 50. Second, there were no great achievements produced by innovators before the age of 19, and only 7 percent were produced by innovators at or before the age of 26 (Einstein's age when he performed his prize winning work). Third, the age distributions for the Nobel Prize winners and the technologists are nearly identical." That article  was written in 2005.  Is there a youngest train engineer and conductor?  One article says they started at age 14 as engine watchmen and were allowed into engine service at 18. Here's an older volunteer on the Strasburg Railroad.

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Dec 3 2021 - Christmas Inventions

 

What might not exist except for Christmas?  Giving Tuesday got me thinking of how we might be thankful for Christmas, despite the ongoing and relentless Christmas songs everywhere we go. My guess is you would immediately volunteer:  Christmas tree tinsel, candy canes, artificial Christmas trees, Christmas cards and string lights.  But this is not very interesting or exciting. Not enough to inspire us to gratitude. So we might turn to inventions that are entertaining: The self-extinguishing Christmas tree - the fire-extinguisher is attached to a pipe and somehow knows when to eject the fire-retardant.  A smoke detection angel - alerts you the tree is in the process of being ruined by the fire. A real Christmas tree watering system (disguised as a present) Device for dispensing tinsel (in the shape of a gun) A supporting actor award might go to this one: Richard Drew developed one of the most useful and practical items ever invented while working at 3M in 1923: adhesive tape.  As legend would have it, the tape fell off a car during a trial run and one frustrated worker told Drew to “take this tape back to those Scotch bosses of yours and tell them to put more adhesive on it!” That was how the world’s first brand of transparent tape – a clever combination of oil, rubber and resins – came to be known as Scotch Tape.  And is there entertainment in what might the next Christmas inventions might look like?   A watch that determines if children are naughty or nice - Child wears "watch", parent wears "watch with behaviour app", parent observes child, parent taps app to award child points for good behaviour, updates child's watch to let them know their current performance level.  A cat receiver collar and wire loop antenna placed around the Christmas tree to dissuade cats from climbing the mountain to the star on top. Santa drone - that seems imminent, even immediate. Augmented reality family - pop on the AR glasses and loved ones from all corners of the globe appear around you. This orchard tree on Greenlane is still with us, but the ancient trees are starting to fall - non-native tender fruit trees are not long-lived typically 40 years, compared to apples which can easily live over 50 years.

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May 23 2020 - Stupid and Useless Inventions

The radio was not a weird invention.  There were many people working to bring it to operational use - it was exciting and engaging for scientists and engineers. They knew there were big stakes and lots of money and power involved. In comparison there are many articles titled:  18, 15, 12, etc Stupid, Useless, Ridiculous, Weird Inventions that made their creators rich.  Also:  Those seemingly pointless products that made investors millions.  Considering all the money these silly inventions have made, the most lucrative invention is considered Karl Benz' automobile, invented in 1886.  There is lots of money to be made in stupid and useless things: The Kush Ball made over $100 million, Pillow Pets has sold over $300 million. The Slinky has made over $3 billion.  It was discovered when an engineer bumped a spring and it started to move.  He watched it as it walked across the floor. Here are three: Yellow Smiley Faces It's just two black oval eyes and a full smile printed on a yellow circle. Harvey Ball created the design in ten minutes and was paid $45.Two brothers, Bernard and Murray Spain, stumbled upon the unrealized potential of the smiley and tagged it with the now infamous tag-line,"Have a nice day." Plastic Wishbone These are fake wishbones produced to give everybody, including vegetarians, a chance to make a wish.  Heartbroken by the fact that only two people can make a wish at each Thanksgiving table, Ken Ahroni started LuckyBreak, a company that produces fake wishbones. The business now makes thousands of plastic bones a day and reports sales of over $2.5 million each year. Snuggies A Snuggie is a blanket with sleeves that keeps your hands free to move.  Despite the fact that you can make your own sleeved blanket by wearing a bathrobe backwards, the Snuggie made an impressive $200 million in profit. Boosted by ridiculous commercials, everyone from celebrities to kids adored this. More HERE.  They include Pet Rock, Silly bands, Slinky, Billy Bob Teeth, Beanie Babies, Tamagotchi, Big Mouth Billy Bass 'The Singing Fish", Furby, Wacky Wall Walker, Magic 8 Ball.

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