Inventor en-us Sat, 12 Jul 2014 22:31:50 -0400 Sat, 12 Jul 2014 22:31:50 -0400 The latest news on Inventor from Business Insider Business Insider Thomas Edison Secretly Financed The First Electric Chair To Destroy His Rival Wed, 09 Jul 2014 08:13:00 -0400 Elena Holodny <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="thomas edison" style="color: #000000; font-size: 15px;" /></p><p>Corporate rivalry was darkest during the industrial revolution. If you think that the rivalry between Facebook and Google is bad, then you should hear about Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse.</p> <p>During the 19th century, Thomas Edison noticed that there were problems with his direct current electrical system, and enlisted Nicholas Tesla to "<a href="">design a more practical form of power transmission</a>." Tesla told Edison that "the future of electric distribution" was in alternating current rather than direct current.</p> <p>Edison didn't take Tesla's advice.&nbsp;</p> <p>But he should have because at the same time, George Westinghouse introduced his own alternating current generators across the country. "By 1887, after only a year in the business, Westinghouse had already more than half as many generating stations as Edison," said Gilbert King of <a href=""></a>.</p> <p>Edison decided that there was only one thing to do: to prove that Westinghouse's generators were more dangerous than his own.</p> <p>In order to prove his claim, he held public executions &mdash; often times in front of reporters &mdash; of animals such as dogs and horses.</p> <p>Around this time, a dentist from Buffalo, New York named Alfred P. Southwick was hoping to develop a "more humane" method of execution than hanging, and after seeing a drunkard accidentally kill himself by touching a generator, he decided that electrocution was the best idea. He reached out to Edison for help with his contraption.</p> <p>Edison was publicly against capital punishment and instead <a href="">directed Southwick to Westinghouse</a>, hoping the name "death machine" would become synonymous with alternating current generators. In fact, "Westinghoused" pretty quickly became a slang term for death by electrocution.</p> <p>Westinghouse, naturally, did not want his generator to be associated with the death penaty, and he refused to sell his generators to public officials. As a result, New York state commissioned another man, Harold Brown, to build the first official electric chair.</p> <p>Despite publicly denouncing capital punishment, Edison secretly financed Harold Brown's project in order to ensure that the first electric chair would be constructed using alternating currents.</p> <p>Eventually, the day of the first electric chair execution came; the hapless guinea pig was a convicted murder named William Kemmler. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Southwick was ceremoniously invited to attend the event.</p> <p>For 17 agonzing seconds, electricity coursed through Kemmler's body, and then he was pronounced dead. And just as Arthur Southwick announced:&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"This is the culmination of ten years work and study. We live in a higher civilization today,"&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">everyone noticed that Kemmler was still alive.</span></p> <p>It took some time for the electric chair to rebuild its current, but when Kemmler was shocked for the second time, the current completely cooked his already damaged body. Some horrified witnesses fainted or ran out of the room from the smell of burning flesh. Others claimed to see smoke "<a href="">at the top of his head</a>".</p> <p>Westinghouse reportedly said: "They could have done better with an ax."</p> <p>However, this was not enough for Thomas Edison, and he sought to prove that alternating current actually can kill quickly. At a demonstration that he held at Coney Island, he electrocuted and killed a circus elephant named Topsy.</p> <p>In the end, despite all of Edison's devious schemes that attempted to destroy his competition's success, Westinghouse's alternating current proved to be the greater of the two.&nbsp;</p> <p>"For his part, Edison later admitted that he regretted not taking Tesla&rsquo;s advice," <a href="">wrote King</a>.</p> <p>Sources:&nbsp;<a href="">American National Biography Online</a>&nbsp;and <a href=""></a></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="" >CITI: These 19 Companies Will Make A Fortune From Global Growth</a></strong></p> <p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> How The First Crossword Puzzle Was Created 100 Years Ago Sun, 22 Dec 2013 13:39:00 -0500 Matthew Shaer <p><span><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="First crossword large" width="480" />Navigate to the Google homepage today, and instead of the traditional multi-colored logo, you'll find an interactive crossword with a range of clues, from "It's always worn backwards" to "One way to store data." The whole production is an homage to&nbsp;</span><a href="" target="_self" title="Title: Arthur Wynne" class="inform_link" rel="nofollow">Arthur Wynne</a><span>, the&nbsp;</span><a href="" target="_blank">cruciverbalist</a><span>&nbsp;generally credited with publishing the world's very first crossword puzzle.&nbsp;</span></p> <p>Now revered by puzzle lovers of all stripes, Mr. Wynne was born in Liverpool, England, in 1871. As a young man, he moved to the United States to pursue a career in newspapers, first at the Pittsburgh Press, and later at the New York World, a now-defunct purveyor of so-called&nbsp;<a href="" target="_blank">yellow journalism</a>. It was at the second publication, which was then under the control of Joseph Pulitzer, that he made his mark on the world of letters.&nbsp;</p> <div class="promotion-tag"> <p class="promotion-tag-p">RECOMMENDED:&nbsp;<a href="">The 20 most fascinating accidental inventions</a></p> </div> <p>According to MIT's&nbsp;<a href="" target="_blank">database</a>&nbsp;of inventors, in the winter of 1913, Wynne was asked by his editor to create a new "mental exercise" &ndash; today, we might call it a brainteaser &ndash; for the "Fun" section of the New York World. From the database:</p> <blockquote> <p>Wynne recalled a puzzle from his childhood called "Magic Squares," in which a given group of words had to be arranged so their letters would read the same way across and down. Wynne created a larger and more complex grid, and provided clues instead of giving the necessary words.</p> </blockquote> <p>Today, of course, crossword puzzles are generally arranged into large squares.</p> <p>Wynne's puzzle, when it debuted, was an intricately-designed diamond, hollowed out at the core. (In fact, the shape wasn't the only thing that changed. Originally, Wynne called his creation a "Word-Cross," after its bisecting lines. Only later was the term "Cross-word" introduced, possibly&nbsp;<a href="" target="_blank">because</a>&nbsp;of an error on the part of a type-setter.)&nbsp;</p> <p>As for the clues, there were a few doozies. For instance, we're wagering you're not super-familiar with&nbsp;<a href="" target="_blank">the gomuti palm</a>, nor the name for its fibers ("doh," in case you were wondering). And did you know that the Nard is a particularly aromatic plant in the&nbsp;Valerian family?&nbsp;</p> <p>Wynne, who had a wicked sense of humor, wasn't unaware of the difficulty factor of his first "Cross-Word." For proof, take a gander at 18 across: "What this puzzle is."</p> <p>The answer? "Hard."&nbsp;</p> <p>If you're interested in proving Mr. Wynne wrong, you could print out&nbsp;<a href="" target="_blank">this copy</a>&nbsp;of the first crossword puzzle (there's also a link to the answers, if you need it). Or you could just crack open the pages of the nearest newspaper or magazine. In the century since Wynne debuted his invention, the world has gone crossword crazy &ndash; today there are competitions,&nbsp;<a href="" target="_blank">tournaments</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="" target="_blank">clubs</a>, as well as crossword books&nbsp;<a href=";field-keywords=crossword%20books&amp;sprefix=crossword+books%2Caps%2C186" target="_blank">aplenty</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>It may be worth pointing out that, of course, that in 2013, crossword fans have something that Wynne's original readers didn't: Access to the Web, where every answer is only a click away.&nbsp;</p> <div class="promotion-tag"> <p class="promotion-tag-p">RECOMMENDED:&nbsp;<a href="">The 20 most fascinating accidental inventions</a></p> </div><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> America Attracts The Most Immigrant Inventors In The World Wed, 18 Dec 2013 12:31:02 -0500 Steven Perlberg <div class="page" title="Page 1"> <div class="layoutArea"> <div class="column"> <div class="page" title="Page 1"> <div class="layoutArea"> <div class="column"> <p><span><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="Albert Einstein chalkboard " width="480" />The U.S. attracts the most immigrant inventors of any country, and it's another reason to be bullish about the economy, according to U.S. Trust's Joseph Quinlan.</span></p> <p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"Think of these people as best in class, the top brains of their respective country. They are restless, driven to create value, and at the forefront of incubating/spawning new companies or industries," Quinlan writes to clients. "They are smart and mobile, and on the move to one country in particular: the United States."</span></p> <p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Canada, Australia, and Singapore <a href="">outrank the U.S. in terms of international migrants as a percentage of total population</a>, but the U.S. has 57.1% of the world's immigrant <em>inventor</em> community,&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">according to&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">World Intellectual Property Organization data.</span></p> <p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">And other countries don't even come close. Quinlan answers why:</span></p> <div class="page" title="Page 1"> <div class="layoutArea"> <div class="column"> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>Think world renowned universities, notably those strong in R&amp;D. </span><span>America&rsquo;s </span><span>entrepreneurial eco-</span><span>system is another draw, with Silicon Valley long a magnet to the world&rsquo;s best and brightest. The U.S.&rsquo; lead in innovation and </span><span>technological advancements is yet another force pulling inventors to America;&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">ditto for America&rsquo;s respect for intellectual property rights, world</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">-class standard of living, internet freedoms and pursuit of the American dream, or the potential for unfathomable wealth.</span></p> <p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Here's the global breakdown:</span></p> <p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><img src="" border="0" alt="immigrant investors" width="800" /><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Quinlan also notes that the number of international students enrolled in U.S. universities has never been higher, which bodes well for future immigrant-operated but U.S.-based inventions.</span></span></p> </div> </div> </div> <p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><img src="" border="0" alt="immigrant inventors" width="800" /><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span><br /></span></p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="" >Here Are The Countries With The Biggest Immigrant Populations</a></strong></p> <p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> 15 Chemists Whose Discoveries Changed Our Lives Fri, 25 Oct 2013 10:14:00 -0400 Vivian Giang and Alison Griswold <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="mad scientist" width="480" /></p><p> Ever gotten a vaccine shot? Do you drink caffeinated soda or wear blue jeans?</p> <p>Most of us take for granted the breakthrough science and technology that gave us these everyday luxuries. If you've ever wondered where they came from, you're about to find out.&nbsp;</p> <p>In celebration of <span>National Chemistry Week</span>, we put together a list of chemists whose discoveries have completely changed our lives.</p> <p><span>From plastic to soda water and artificial sweetener, here are 15 notable chemistry discoveries you should be thankful for.&nbsp;</span></p><h3>Louis Pasteur created the first vaccine.</h3> <img src="" alt="" /> <p><p dir="ltr">If you've ever had a vaccine shot, you can thank Pasteur, whose <a href="">breakthrough discoveries prevented diseases</a> and saved lives all over the world.</p> <p><span>In the 19th century, the French chemist's work in germ theory led to vaccinations for anthrax and rabies. Pasteur became widely recognized in 1885 when he vaccinated Joseph Meister, a 9-year-old boy who had been bitten by a rabid dog.</span></p> <p dir="ltr">After coming up with the process of pasteurization, where bacteria are killed by heating beverages and then allowing them to cool, Pasteur saved the beer, wine, and silk industries in France.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p></p> <br/><br/><h3>Pierre Jean Robiquet discovered caffeine.</h3> <img src="" alt="" /> <p><p>Aside from isolating caffeine in 1821,&nbsp;<a href="">French chemist&nbsp;Robiquet also identified the properties of codeine,</a> which is a powerful molecule used in medicine as a&nbsp;<span>cough suppressant and analgesic drug.</span></p> <p>During his lifetime,&nbsp;Robiquet made significant contributions to science with various discoveries of natural products.</p></p> <br/><br/><h3>Ira Remsen developed the first artificial sweetener.</h3> <img src="" alt="" /> <p><p>A former president of Johns Hopkins University, Remsen is credited with the discovery of the popular artificial sweetener known as saccharin. Today, saccharin is widely used in the U.S., sweetening everything from diet soft drinks to toothpaste.</p> <p>Remsen first synthesized the substance in 1878 while working with his postdoctoral colleague, Constantine Fahlberg. <a href="" target="_blank">As the story goes</a>, Remsen was uninterested in the practical application of saccharin, but Fahlberg was eager to capitalize on the commercial potential and rushed to obtain a patent for saccharin. Fahlberg then attempted to take all the credit for the discovery, a move that didn't sit too well with his colleague.</p></p> <br/><br/><a href="">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> The Atlantic Asks If Elon Musk Is 'The Greatest Living Inventor' Thu, 24 Oct 2013 09:43:00 -0400 Alex Davies <p>The Atlantic magazine is putting out its technology issue next month, and Elon Musk, hailed as possibly the greatest inventor alive, landed the cover.</p> <p>The issue lists the <a href="">50 greatest inventions since the wheel</a> (#1: the printing press) as well as today's top inventors, including Janette Sadik-Khan, the commissioner of the NYC Department of Transportation, Vint Cerf, the "father of the internet," and Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.</p> <p>Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, tops the list, thanks to nominations by senior executives at Google, Oracle, and Yahoo. Here's an quick excerpt from the feature:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">In the spirit of inveterate and wide-ranging tinkerers like Leonardo da Vinci and Benjamin Franklin, Musk has transformed virtually every field he&rsquo;s taken an interest in, from electronic payments to commercial spaceflight to electric cars...</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">The range and scale of Musk&rsquo;s ambitions have attracted skepticism, but over time, he has proved himself to be not only an ideas man but an astute business thinker. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a guy who dreams big dreams,&rdquo; says [Oracle co-president Mark] Hurd, &ldquo;and then makes them happen.&rdquo;</p> <p>And here's the cover:</p> <p><img src="" border="0" alt="elon musk atlantic cover" width="800" /></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="" >29 Reasons Elon Musk Is The World's Most Badass CEO</a></strong></p> <p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> Why Inventors Should Make The Leap To Become Entrepreneurs Tue, 14 May 2013 14:12:00 -0400 Peter Gwynne <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="thomas edison" width="400" height="300" /></p><p>According to an early and frequently quoted aerodynamic model, bumblebees cannot possibly fly. Of course, any entomologist or gardener knows that the fuzzy insects make it into the air with great success; the model simply had it wrong.</p> <p>As with bees, so it is with business. Researchers have long held the conceit that innovative entrepreneurship is impossible. &ldquo;They assert that &lsquo;entrepreneurs can&rsquo;t do anything new in the economy,&rsquo;&rdquo; says Daniel Spulber, a professor of management and strategy at the Kellogg School.</p> <p>This is because established firms have several advantages when it comes to taking inventions to the market. &ldquo;They have all kinds of assets that are complementary to innovation,&rdquo; Spulber says, including established corporate structures, marketing channels, an existing customer base, and access to capital. To go it alone, on the other hand, the inventor must undertake the cumbersome effort of setting up a new firm and dealing with the uncertainty that any new invention faces in the market. Even Joseph Schumpeter, perhaps the greatest advocate of entrepreneurs, suggested in his classic book <em>Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy</em> that only large companies have the resources and market power necessary for innovation.</p> <p>&ldquo;Yet we see innovative entrepreneurs all the time&mdash;<a class="hidden_link" href="">Larry Page</a> and <a class="hidden_link" href="">Sergey Brin</a> at <a class="hidden_link" href="">Google</a>, <a class="hidden_link" href="">Pierre Omidyar</a> at <a class="hidden_link" href="">eBay</a>, <a class="hidden_link" href="">Mark Zuckerberg</a> at <a class="hidden_link" href="">Facebook</a>, and <a class="hidden_link" href="">Jeff Bezos</a> setting up <a class="hidden_link" href="">Amazon</a>.com,&rdquo; Spulber points out. Plainly, then, the negative view of entrepreneurship&rsquo;s contributions to the economy has as little credibility as early bumblebee aerodynamics. &ldquo;So if you have a great idea that would result in an innovation in the marketplace&mdash;why not just transfer it to an existing firm?&rdquo; Spulber asks rhetorically. One reason may be tacit knowledge: the fundamental understanding that inventors possess about their own creations.</p> <p><strong>The Entrepreneurial Advantage</strong><br /> As part of a broad project to discover why we need innovative entrepreneurs, Spulber applied game theory to model the economic importance of tacit knowledge. Such know-how &ldquo;is difficult to transfer to others,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I conclude that tacit knowledge can be an explanation for why inventors become entrepreneurs.&rdquo; Just as composers can often conduct their own works with more authority than professional conductors, entrepreneurial inventors can translate their own findings into marketable products more effectively than established organizations that buy or license the rights to the findings.</p> <p>&ldquo;The main idea is that the inventor and the existing firm have to choose to compete or cooperate,&rdquo; Spulber explains of his model. In the first of three stages, &ldquo;inventors invest in R&amp;D and produce an invention. Existing firms may themselves invest in invention, but they also invest in capacity to absorb the inventions of others.&rdquo; In the second stage, he continues, &ldquo;inventors decide whether they want to share that invention through licensing or sale of patents. Existing firms have to decide whether they want to stick with what they&rsquo;ve got or buy ideas from others.&rdquo; In the third stage, collaboration or competition commences. The model attempts to specify how much inventors will invest in developing their tacit knowledge and how much existing firms will invest in absorbing the knowledge of others.</p> <p>&ldquo;The inventor&rsquo;s tacit knowledge is important because it can overcome the competitive advantages in technology implementation that existing firms derive from complementary assets,&rdquo; Spulber writes. That is, the difficulty of transferring tacit knowledge puts the existing firm at a disadvantage, and however effective the transfer, existing firms cannot possibly know as much as the inventors about their inventions.</p> <p>And there are other benefits to an innovative entrepreneur. Says Spulber, &ldquo;having entrepreneurship available means that inventors will invest more in developing inventions, because they may be able to develop them themselves.&rdquo; He continues, &ldquo;This persuades them to invest more in the entire effort of inventing. It is the payoff from more original invention.&rdquo;</p> <p>In addition, innovative entrepreneurship tends to result in greater returns on increasing R&amp;D investments. This is because the innovative entrepreneur must cut prices to compete with existing firms, thus driving up sales. Greater sales then lead to greater returns from improved products and more efficient production processes.</p> <p>Finally, Spulber&rsquo;s research indicates that the character of any particular invention determines the route it takes to the market. &ldquo;If you have a very high-quality invention&rdquo;&mdash;that is, one with great market potential&mdash;&ldquo;and the associated tacit knowledge is very difficult to transfer, you&rsquo;re more likely to become an entrepreneur,&rdquo; he explains. &ldquo;Lower-quality inventions are more likely to be transferred for a given amount of tacit knowledge.&rdquo; The development of online book sales, for instance, exemplifies a high-quality invention. &ldquo;Jeff Bezos must have contemplated the possibility of working with traditional booksellers Barnes &amp; Noble or Borders,&rdquo; Spulber speculates. &ldquo;But he struck out on his own and created;</p> <p><strong>Implications for Public Policy and Management</strong><br /> Spulber, who is completing <em>The Innovative Entrepreneur</em>, a book slated for publication next year, notes that his work has public policy implications. &ldquo;The important purpose of patent systems is to provide inventors with the right to exclude access to their invention in return for asking the inventor to disclose details to others,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Recognizing the tacit knowledge of the inventor indicates that patents don&rsquo;t contain everything. That fact makes patents even more important. By protecting inventors&rsquo; intellectual property, we want to encourage them not only to disclose their knowledge in the patent but also to commercialize their invention and hence share their tacit knowledge, or apply it through entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs benefit from patent protection.&rdquo;</p> <p>Corporate executives should also take note. Spulber refers to Shuji Nakamura, the engineer who invented blue, green, and white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and the blue laser. Nichia Corporation, the small Japanese company that employed him, gave him very little help. &ldquo;Nakamura purchased the machine needed to manufacture the LEDs, took it apart, and reconfigured it until he made it do what he wanted it to do,&rdquo; Spulber points out. &ldquo;He achieved what many others with more funding and personnel were unable to do. The information he published&mdash;even though his company did not want him to&mdash;had a lot of value. But his effort must have involved a lot of tacit knowledge known to him alone.&rdquo;</p> <p>Then, after Nichia gave him a bonus of just $180 for his invention, Nakamura not only sued the firm, eventually settling on a $9 million payment; he also decamped to the University of California, Santa Barbara. &ldquo;Tacit knowledge can be quite important to corporations,&rdquo; Spulber observes, &ldquo;as this &lsquo;asset&rsquo; has legs.&rdquo;</p> <p>That example carries a message for companies that encourage &lsquo;intrapreneurship&rsquo;&mdash;entrepreneurial behavior within the corporate environment. &ldquo;Companies need to understand that just having access to products invented by their employees is not the whole story,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Talented employees have plenty of knowledge in addition to the inventions they make available to their employers. Employers should consider involving those employees in the process of developing their inventions rather than just taking the inventions and running with them.&rdquo;</p> <p><strong><em>Related reading on</em> Kellogg Insight:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="">The Global &ldquo;Idea&rdquo; Market</a></li> <li><a href="">Age and Great Invention</a></li> <li><a href="">Patently Unfair</a></li> </ul> <p><em>Peter Gwynne is <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">a freelance writer and editor who covers science, technology, and business from his base in Sandwich, Massachusetts.</span></em></p><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> 5 Famous Scientists Who Started Their Work As Teens Mon, 21 Jan 2013 09:57:00 -0500 Ken Myers <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="einstein" /></p><p>Not all of history&rsquo;s most significant scientists were college graduates when they began their works. In fact, history is full of scientists who have shaped the world due to their work as teenagers.</p> <p>If they were disregarded simply because of their age, many things we take for granted today may not exist.</p> <p>Through their own determination and thirst for knowledge, these teenagers impacted the world far greater than they would realize long after their deaths.</p><h3>1. Isaac Newton</h3> <img src="" alt="" /> <p><p>During Newton&rsquo;s formative years, it was common place for the young man to develop various devices while attending school. His devotion to studies and high marks in school were impressive to many.</p> <p>Although his mother attempted to make a farmer of him by removing young Isaac from school, the schoolmaster and his uncle suggested to his mother that he return to school to finish his education.</p> <p>Isaac Newton attended Cambridge University upon finishing school in 1661. He developed a variety of scientific methods and discoveries including those in optics and colors.</p></p> <br/><br/><h3>2. Albert Einstein</h3> <img src="" alt="" /> <p><p>In his younger years, Albert Einstein had always shown a great interest in mathematics and science. Einstein attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic examinations in Zurich.</p> <p>Although his scores were below standard in many of the required subjects, his mathematics and physics skills were exceptionally high.</p> <p>From there, Albert Einstein attended Aargau Cantonal School in Aarau, Switzerland where he graduated with passing grades in some subjects and receiving the highest grade scale possible in mathematics and physics.</p> <p>His theories have laid the ground work for many scientists of today and is most notable for the Theory of Relativity.</p></p> <br/><br/><h3>3. Galileo Galilei</h3> <img src="" alt="" /> <p><p>While at the University of Pisa studying for a medical degree at the age of 17, Galileo Galilei became enthralled with how movements of air currents could cause a chandelier to sway in a rhythmic pattern.</p> <p>Setting up a set of differentiating pendulums, Galileo discovered that regardless of the size difference the pendulums kept time with each other.</p> <p>The young man changed his degree from medical sciences to mathematics after attending a lecture on geometry. A the age of 22, Galileo published a book on the design of a hydrostatic balance he had invented.</p></p> <br/><br/><a href="">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> Billionaire Inventor James Dyson On Why Failure Is So Valuable Wed, 19 Dec 2012 15:05:00 -0500 Max Nisen <div id="story_body"> <div class="paginated_content"> <div id="_page1" class="page current"> <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="james dyson" /></p> <p>James Dyson is best known for designing a bagless vacuum cleaner, but his success didn't come without a few failures.</p> <p><a href="">Bloomberg Businessweek interviewed him</a> on one of his biggest flops, the Contrarotator Washing Machine. It was both innovative and effective, but Dyson says it failed because he charged too little and made it too complex.&nbsp;</p> <p>"As a washing machine, it was a great success. As a business, it wasn't," Dyson says.&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="">Here's what he had to say</a> on why he has no regrets:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>"</strong>A huge amount of what we do is wasted because it doesn&rsquo;t work or it&rsquo;s the wrong direction or whatever. That&rsquo;s the nature of being an engineer<strong>. That&rsquo;s the nature of R&amp;D. We spend two and a half million dollars a week on R&amp;D, and a lot of it is failure.&nbsp;</strong></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong></strong>....But you learn a lot from all that failure. Making this washing machine was the most wonderful educative failure. <strong>Success is not always as enjoyable as you might think. When something&rsquo;s a success, the results are clear. Failure is an enigma. You worry about it, and it teaches you something.&rdquo;</strong></p> <p><strong></strong><strong>NOW READ: <a href="">15 Lessons From The Greatest Business Failures Of All Time</a></strong></p> </div> </div> </div><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> After A Freak Accident, This Sea Captain Created A Device That Helps People Walk Again Tue, 21 Aug 2012 09:39:42 -0400 Rob Wile <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="Jon Christiansen" width="400" /></p><p>In 1985, Jon Christiansen's&nbsp;leg was severely damaged when it was caught in the rudder of a boat he was helping to pilot.</p> <p>Over the next 18 years, the commercial boat captain underwent 42 knee surgeries, including three knee replacements, to deal with the pain of a freak accident that had mangled his left leg. By this time,&nbsp;Christiansen&nbsp;had lost all sensation in his foot.&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">That caused some problems.&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">"I was welding on a ship one day, smelled something burning, and a piece of slag fell on my knee &mdash; I didn't even know it."</p> <p>The final straw was a spill in 2003.</p> <p>"I was stepping off a gangway, and just went straight down," Christiansen explains. "So my wife said, 'We've gotta come up with something that tells you where your foot is.' "</p> <p>That's when Christiansen enlisted the engineering skills of two loyal friends to devise a technology that would help him walk again.&nbsp;After nearly a year of trial and error, the team came up with <a href="">Sensastep</a>.</p> <p>The two-part device uses sounds to reteach your brain to know when to send a "step" signal to your leg, after it has forgotten how to do so [<a href="">See how Sensastep works in detail</a>]&nbsp;</p> <p><span>"It's basically like a jumper cable between where a foot should be, and a brain," Christiansen said. "</span>I&nbsp; can almost feel my foot &mdash; my brain thinks it can feel where my foot is," he said.</p> <p class="p1">The device is small and relatively unnoticeable. It only requires 30 minutes of use before your brain can recall the tone pattern on its own. Then you can discard the device for the rest of the day.&nbsp;</p> <p>Christiansen calls it a lifesaver and says the product&nbsp;will benefit anyone who has lost sensation in their legs, including diabetes sufferers, Parkinson's disease patients and even stroke victims.</p> <p>While there's been some progress in neurology studies to restore sensation in these patients, there is nothing &nbsp;as cheap and simple that hacks one of the main underlying problems of being insensate. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Christiansen&nbsp;<span>recently underwent an amputation after</span>&nbsp;the pain in his leg became too great. &nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">But he instantly incorporated Sensastep into his prosthetic.</p> <h3 class="p1"><strong><a href="">See how this small insole can help people walk again &gt; </a>&nbsp;</strong></h3> <div id="content" class="content"> <div class="clear-both"> <div class="KonaBody post-content"> <h3><strong><a href="">See our list of Game Changers: 30 Innovations That Will Change The World &gt;</a></strong></h3> </div> </div> </div> <div style="position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; visibility: hidden;"><iframe width="0px" height="0px" src=""></iframe></div> <div style="position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; visibility: hidden;"><iframe width="0px" height="0px" src=""></iframe></div><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> This Small Insole Helps People Who Have Lost Feeling In Their Legs Or Feet Walk Again Sat, 18 Aug 2012 07:21:00 -0400 Rob Wile <p><a href="">Sensastep</a> is a breakthrough assisted walking device that helps individuals who have lost feeling in their legs or feet walk normally again.</p> <p><a href="">Inventor Jon Christiansen</a> devised the technology after he was involved in a freak boating accident. &nbsp;He says that diabetes sufferers, Parkinson's disease patients and even stroke victims stand to benefit.</p> <p><strong>How It Works &nbsp;</strong></p> <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="Sensastep" width="400" /></p> <p class="p1">The first element, an insole with sensors, tracks your gait. When pressure is applied, a transmitter wrapped around the ankle and attached to the insole picks up special tones. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="Sensastep" width="400" /></p> <p class="p1">The transmitter sends signals &nbsp;to a device that goes over the ear.&nbsp;The earpiece can distinguish tones used for the&nbsp;heel and toe because they are transmitted at different frequencies.</p> <p class="p1">The tones vibrate a cochlear nerve which, over time, the brain learns to interpret as walking signals.</p> <p>Christiansen says he is still&nbsp;shopping deals with prosthetic manufacturers but that commercial production is almost certainly imminent.</p> <p>The company has also approached the military, although Lt. Gen. Paul K. Carlton, Jr., M.D.,&nbsp;<br />who serves as Director of the Texas A&amp;M Health Science Center, Office of Homeland Security, said that for the time being, most leg-related injuries in combat are too severe for a Sensastep-based therapy.</p> <p>Watch a demonstration video below:&nbsp;</p> <p><iframe width="618" height="373" frameborder="0" src=""></iframe></p> <div id="content" class="content"> <div class="clear-both"> <div class="KonaBody post-content"> <h3><strong><a href=""><span>Discover the inspirational story behind the Sensastep &gt;&nbsp;</span></a><span><br /></span></strong></h3> <h3><strong><a href="">See our list of Game Changers: 30 Innovations That Will Change The World &gt;</a></strong></h3> </div> </div> </div><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> Thomas Edison's 1888 To-Do List Will Make You Feel Like A Total Underachiever Mon, 04 Jun 2012 11:06:00 -0400 Dina Spector <p>It's not surprising that same man who brought us recorded sound and electric light had a very packed schedule. &nbsp;</p> <p><a href="">Maria Popova of Brain Pickings</a> has dug up <strong>Thomas Edison's</strong> five-page list of "things doing and to be done" dated Jan. 3, 1888.</p> <p>This was just a couple years after Edison moved to his new laboratory in West <a href="" class="hidden_link">Orange</a>, NJ &mdash; the place where he <a href="">mass produced phonographs and built the first motion picture studio</a>.&nbsp;</p> <p>The notebook of ideas and tasks comes from <a href="">The Thomas A. Edison Paper Project</a> at Rutgers University, which has digitized nearly 175,000 documents from the inventor's life. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>What types of things were on the agenda?</p> <p>Oh, just a cotton picker, deaf apparatus, electrical piano and a hand turning phonograph, to name a few. &nbsp;</p> <p>You can see more of Edison's notes and drawings <a href="">here</a>.&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="" border="0" alt="Thomas Edison To-Do List " width="618" /></p> <p><img src="" border="0" alt="Thomas Edison To-Do List " width="618" /></p> <h2><strong><img src="" border="0" alt="Thomas Edison To-Do List " width="618" /></strong></h2> <p><strong><img src="" border="0" alt="Thomas Edison To-Do List " width="618" /></strong></p> <p><strong><img src="" border="0" alt="Thomas Edison To-Do List " width="618" /><br /></strong></p> <h2><strong>SEE ALSO:</strong>&nbsp;<a href="">9 Common Misconceptions About Modern History &gt;</a></h2><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> A New Jersey Man Has Invented The World's Most Annoying Alarm Clock Tue, 10 Apr 2012 06:32:00 -0400 AP <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="alarm clock" /></p><p>HOBOKEN, N.J. (AP) &mdash; There is no snooze button. If you unplug it, a battery takes over. As wake-up time approaches, you cannot reset the alarm time.</p> <p>It could be the world's most exasperating alarm clock.</p> <p>Once it goes off, to stop it you must get out of bed, go into the kitchen or bathroom, and punch the day's date into a telephone-style keypad. That's the only way to stop the loud 'ding-ding,' designed to sound like a customer angrily banging on a concierge bell at a hotel.</p> <p>It was invented by Paul Sammut, a 25-year-old engineer who lives in Hoboken. During the day, he builds and researches underwater robots and vehicles at the nearby Stevens Institute of Technology.</p> <p>He started working on the gadget because he was finding it hard to get up and make it to work on time after college.</p> <p>"I wanted to make something that would essentially force me to get out of bed when I wanted to get out of bed the night before," said Sammut. "And I was thinking about ways of doing it and I thought about how in high school I had the perfect solution to this, which was my mother, and how she would, if it was time for me to wake up, she would force me out of bed."</p> <p>He built the prototype in his spare time and uses it every day.</p> <p>"Now I wake up before it goes off," said Sammut. "I subconsciously fear it and know I have to get up."</p> <p>After a friend suggested he try and sell the device, he made a video demonstrating it, and posted that on That's a website where the general public can support creative ideas by investing in them financially.</p> <p>"We raised over $150,000 over a month and a half and we currently have over 400 orders," said Sammut.</p> <p>Sammut has formed a company and is now trying to fill all the clock orders by the end of the summer.</p> <p>He acknowledges there is one way to stop the alarm without getting out of bed.</p> <p>"You could smash it," said Sammut.</p> <p>But with a $350 price tag, that would be a really expensive way to sleep in.</p> <p>___</p> <p>Online:</p><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> Legendary Inventor James Dyson Explains Why Innovation Is Dying In The West Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:50:43 -0400 Kim Bhasin <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="james dyson" /></p><p>Industrial designer James Dyson, best known for his bagless vacuum cleaner creation, has a bone to pick with the Western world.</p> <p>Doug Saunders at The Globe and Mail recently&nbsp;<a href="">spoke with the legendary inventor about manufacturing and innovation</a>.</p> <p>Dyson says that the West&nbsp;has "lost its will to invent and make things," and "fears it may be too late" to catch its rapidly growing Asian counterparts.</p> <p>Innovation of physical goods is dying in the West and that's not the way to go, says Dyson.</p> <p>He&nbsp;<a href="">explains the problem</a>&nbsp;in his home country of Britain:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>&ldquo;We're traders and exploiters, we're the City of London, that's our culture. So you have a greater status if you go into banking than you do if you go to a manufacturing firm in Birmingham and make something real and export it, and create wealth that way. That's the problem &ndash; it's historical. It's in our schools, it's in our culture and it's in our government.</span></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">&ldquo;The trouble with Britain is that it built its success on the riches of its empire, rather than building its success on a manufacturing economy &ndash; we went out to the empire and flogged them what products we had, and took their resources, and made money off it. There was no need to be the best.&rdquo;</p> <p>And that culture shift has contaminated those closest to the UK, such as Canada.</p> <p>Dyson admits that American companies are "very strong on technology," but the country still has major problems in its education system, and it needs to be restructured fast.</p> <h3><strong>NOW SEE: <a href="">11 Groundbreaking Inventions Of 2011 &gt;</a></strong></h3><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> This Is How Coffee Went From Being A Cheap Commodity To A Gourmet Drink Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:41:00 -0500 Erik Sherman <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="mens-gifts-coffee-mug-the-office" /></p><p>If the martini was the fuel of the Mad Men set, then espresso drinks are the life blood of the start-up entrepreneur. But that concentrated essence of coffee bean has more to offer: How it came about is an instructive story every founder should know.</p> <p>Many entrepreneurs confuse invention and innovation. The former has to do with discovering or devising something new. Innovation, on the other hand, is bigger than invention and more complicated. It's an entire process&mdash;getting the brilliant idea is only the start.</p> <p>You see this lesson nowhere more clearly than with the invention of espresso. The commonly identified&nbsp;<a href="">father of espresso</a>&nbsp;was Milanese inventor Luigi Bezzera, according to Jonathan Morris, a research professor of modern European history at the University of Hertfordshire. But the road between invention and <a class="hidden_link" href="">Starbucks</a> was long and Bezzera's experience offers five important tips for entrepreneurs.</p> <p><strong>1. Finding the real benefit of a product</strong></p> <p>Bezzera lived before widespread use of electricity, so keeping a pot of coffee at a regulated temperature was difficult. That meant single-shot brewing, which bothered business owners who didn't want to lose the time. Bezzera invented espresso as a way to force hot water through coffee more quickly than other methods and to reduce the time between a consumer placing an order and getting a cup to under a minute.</p> <p>Can you imagine considering an espresso as a&nbsp;<em>quick</em>&nbsp;way to get a coffee fix today? Over time and further refinements, it became clear that the espresso method could deliver a better cup of coffee by maximizing the flavor and minimizing less pleasant tastes that accompany a long brewing time. Never assume that the primary benefit you identify is the one that will actually resonate with customers. It might be something you think is less important, but that people value more highly.</p> <p><strong>2. Innovation is an ongoing process</strong></p> <p>Bezzera was only one step closer to modern espresso. According to author Ian Bersten, Angelo Moriondo was the&nbsp;<a href="">first to patent steam-driven brewing</a>, and that was in 1884. Bezzera was a refiner&mdash;as important in innovation as original invention&mdash;who added features and moved Moriondo's concept from batch to single-shot brewing.</p> <p>Innovation didn't stop with Bezzera, either. Desiderio Pavoni added an&nbsp;<a href="">important pressure relief valve</a>&nbsp;still found on machines today, while Giovanni Achille Gaggia replaced steam, which burnt the coffee, with a manual pump to create the pressure that made possible the frothy cream atop the beverage we know today as espresso. The lesson: You are unlikely to get it right the first time, so don't rest on your laurels and let someone else upstage you.</p> <p><strong>3. Good ideas need a lot of support</strong></p> <p><a href="">Bezzera didn&rsquo;t have the cash</a>&nbsp;to successfully market his product. He sold his patent to Pavoni, who then produced a successful line of machines. The idea itself was clearly not enough; success meant selling and running a business. Pavoni had the resources to get to market on a larger scale. Your work isn't over, even when you think you've perfected your invention.</p> <p><strong>4. Don't let being first blind you</strong></p> <p>Bezzera did have&nbsp;<em>some</em>&nbsp;canniness in business. When he sold the patent to Pavoni, he struck a licensing deal under which he could&nbsp;<a href="">continue to manufacture and sell</a>&nbsp;his own line of espresso machines. He traded an exclusive on the market for the ability to continue his participation. Rather than focus on protecting his status as inventor, he figured out a business model that would work for him and his invention.</p> <p><strong>5. Pull off your idea, and you might change the entire world</strong></p> <p>Who would have thought that an initial attempt to speed workers through their coffee breaks could influence culture, style, and fashion? You never know in advance how large an impact you can have on the world. Work steadily, but keep an eye on the market and be ready to take advantage of opportunity if and when it comes.</p> <p><strong><br /></strong><em>This <a href="">post</a> originally appeared at <a href="">Inc.</a></em></p><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> 11 Groundbreaking Inventions Of 2011 Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:02:00 -0500 Eric Goldschein and Dina Spector <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="lung cancer cells" /></p><p>There are countless inventions throughout the year, but only a few have the capacity to change the world.&nbsp;</p> <p>From a sassy digital personal assistant to a mirror of the future, here are our picks for the most impressive breakthroughs in science, technology and medicine.&nbsp;</p><h3>The Medical Mirror takes your pulse by analyzing your face</h3> <img src="" alt="" /> <p><p><strong>Inventor: </strong>Ming Zher Poh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate student</p> <p><strong>What is it? </strong>Did you know you could measure your heart rate through your face? If you did, you're probably a graduate student at MIT. Poh's mirror, using a web cam behind the glass, measures the amount of light your face is reflecting and uses it to <a href="">calculate your heartbeat</a>.</p> <p><strong>Why it's important: </strong>We'll be able to track our heart health on our own, without a visit to a doctor and tons of sticky electrodes or sensors (which are painful for burn victims and the infirm). The mirror will hopefully be able to tell us our respiratory rate and blood-oxygen saturation levels as well.</p></p> <br/><br/><h3>A vibrating belt that helps soldiers feel their way through the dark </h3> <img src="" alt="" /> <p><p><strong>Inventors</strong>: Researchers at the Army Research Office led by Elmar Schmeisser and Linda Elliott</p> <p><strong>What is it?</strong> A belt <a href="">equipped with accelerometers and a digital compass</a> that vibrates to let soldiers know they're moving in the right direction at night.</p> <p><strong>Why it's important:</strong> The silent, hands-free device is seen as no-fuss alternative to GPS devices or a traditional map and compass. Elliot told <a href="">New Scientist</a> that soldiers loved the technology "because they didn't need to put down their weapon or take their eyes off their surroundings." <br /><br /><br /></p></p> <br/><br/><h3>The Stark Hand combines the utility of a hook and the aesthetics of a cosmetic model</h3> <img src="" alt="" /> <p><p><strong>Inventor: </strong>Mark Stark<strong><br /></strong></p> <p><strong>What is it? </strong>A <a href="">prosthetic hand</a> that is both visually pleasing &mdash; it looks like a real hand, albeit a bit mechanical &mdash; and, yes, handy: it moves like a high-end electronic version at a fraction of the cost.</p> <p><strong>Why it's important:&nbsp;</strong>People with missing appendages, especially arms and hands, have a rough time choosing between something expensive and something helpful. The Stark Hand can bend to the user's whim, and a shrug of the shoulder can pick up irregularly shaped objects like light bulbs with ease. By using cables and harnesses rather than electronics, Stark has put the full range of motion within the grasp of every amputee.</p></p> <br/><br/><a href="">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> MARK CUBAN: Another Inventor Gets Screwed Over By Patent Law Sun, 18 Dec 2011 03:56:00 -0500 Mark Cuban <p>I got this email this morning.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">Mark, I&rsquo;ve been following<a href=""></a> for a loooong time.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ve recently come up against a patent related issue and figured I give it a shot in running it by you since you write about patent law often.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll be brief&hellip;</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">I spend the last year developing an extremely valuable piece of technology. &nbsp;I have caught the eye of a Fortune 500 company that would benefit most from the technology and they want to make a strategic investment in my small company. &nbsp;The problem is they are big, stodgy and paranoid&hellip; and they are hung up on my software possibly infringing on patents. &nbsp;As you know that it is almost impossible to create new software nowadays that is not at risk of possibly being interpreted to infringe on prior art.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">And I&rsquo;m sure their overpaid legal team will find *something* that they will vaguely relate to justify their salaries.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">I&rsquo;ve done plenty of software deals in the past and have never quite run up against an inventor that has been so paranoid.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">You are an investor&hellip; Is there anything I can say to them that will ease their concerns? &nbsp;Any way to structure the deal to ease their concerns?</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">Any advice is appreciated.</p> <p><strong>My Advice ? There is nothing you can do. If some patent troll or someone else wants to attack you with a lawsuit, there is no way you can proactively protect yourself. &nbsp;It is an unfortunate cost of doing business these days.</strong> <br /> <a href=""></a> <a href=""></a> <a href=""></a> <a href=""></a> <a href=""></a> <a href=""></a> <a href=""></a></p> <p><strong>Read more posts on <a href="">Blog Maverick &raquo;</a></strong></p><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> Five Things You Need To Know About The New Patent Reform Law Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:05:00 -0400 Jon Terbush <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="idea" /></p><p>Last week, Congress approved a major overhaul of the nation's patent system that will soon be signed into law by President Obama. The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act updates the way patents are processed, reviewed, and even challenged.</p> <p>And at a time of sluggish job growth, it's being touted as a streamlining measure that could help businesses create new jobs.</p> <p>So what, exactly, does the new law do?</p> <ul> <li>The central piece of the new law will change the patent system from a "first to invent" to a "first to file" system, putting it in line with most other industrialized nations. With the change, the first inventor to file a patent application for a given invention &mdash; and not the first inventor to actually come up with the invention &mdash; will get dibs on the patent. This change has riled some small business advocates who argue that it could favor larger businesses that have more resources at their disposal, and can thus move more quickly toward filing new patent applications.</li> <li>The new "first to file" system does, however, come with a big caveat. The AIA also creates a one-year grace period in which inventors can file a preliminary disclosure about an invention before filing for the actual patent. As long as an inventor files the final patent application within one year of the initial disclosure, that inventor is entitled to the patent.</li> <li>The AIA decreases the percentage of invention-related royalties that must be given to the government, while upping the percentage that goes to small business firms.</li> <li>The new law also reduces the filing fees charged to small entities applying for patents, and allows the Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office to set and adjust other fees.</li> <li>The AIA updates the supplemental examination process such that the patent office can, "consider, reconsider, or correct information believed to be relevant," at the request of a patent holder. That examination can be used by a patent holder to bolster the strength of an their existing patent, thus protecting it in the event that a third party tries to have the patent declared unenforceable.</li> </ul> <p>The changes will gradually go into effect over the next two years, with some of the most significant changes, such as the switch to a "first to file" system, kicking in 18 months after Obama signs the bill into law.</p><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p>