Inventions
It’s Never Too Early to Invent
A new website and media campaign are encouraging children to use their imagination to come up with technological innovations of the future.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is working with the Advertising Council and the National Inventors Hall of Fame in launching the new initiative InventNow.
The program targets kids between 8 and 11 [...]
Pure Digital, cheap camcorder that syncs easily with YouTube.
Pure Digital, which makes disposable cameras sold in drugstores, is launching a new pocket-sized camcorder called Flip Video on Tuesday. The product, which will be available at Target, Costco, Best Buy and on Amazon.com, comes with a USB arm to connect to a personal computer or Mac.
Jonathan Kaplan, CEO of San Francisco-based Pure Digital, said [...]
Farmer’s Cool Invention Turns Profitable
When the air conditioner caught fire three years ago, Kate Khosla thought it was time to pull the plug ”literally” on her husband Ron’s efforts to invent a better compressor-condensor-evaporator.
Khosla’s idea was simple: he thought he could build a gizmo that would allow an ordinary air conditioner to take a room’s temperature down as low [...]
Inventor Has 350 Ideas On Market
Every inventor has a thousand ideas. But it’s the rare one who has 350 of his ideas actually on the market.
Meet Zlatko Zadro, president of Zadro Products in Huntington Beach.
After careers selling large computers and refurbishing real estate, Zadro decided in 1983 to try marketing one of his inventions.
The result is an international company that [...]
Accidental Inventions
Viagra – Men being treated for erectile dysfunction should salute the working stiffs of Merthyr Tydfil, the Welsh hamlet where, in 1992 trials, the gravity-defying side effects of a new angina drug first popped up. Previously, the blue-collar town was known for producing a different kind of iron.
LSD – Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann took the [...]
Necessity The Mother Of Invention
Stephanie Dellamura dreaded taking her toddlers to a public restroom. Visiting parks and fairs was worse, she said. Portable restrooms are often filthy and there’s no place to wash hands. But dirty restrooms weren’t her only worry. Candies and ice cream also made her boy’s hands a sticky mess.
Dellamura searched stores and websites for a [...]
Lonnie Johnson and the Super Soaker
It all started with an accident. Late one night, while experimenting with a jet pump and a nozzle for a refrigerator cooling system, Lonnie Johnson shot a stream of water clear across his bathroom. Where some people might have seen a mess to clean up, Johnson saw an opportunity. Thus was born the mother of [...]
