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.
