Inventions

Brainchildren: Young Inventors

Horatio Adams

 Adams was only 16 when he assisted his father, Thomas, in his experiments with the chicle, the dried sap of a Mexican jungle tree. This led to the invention of chewing gum.

Louis Braille

He invented Braille, the raised-dot writing used by blind people, at the age of 15. Louis himself was blind.

Charles Babbage

Babbage was 19 when he first thought of the idea of the mechanical computer.

Frank Epperson

The Popsicle or ice lolly was invented by 11-year-old Frank Epperson of San Fransisco, California, in 1905. He had the idea when he left a fruit drink out during a freezing winter night and originally called it the Epsicle. He did not apply for a patent until 1923, by which time his son had renamed it Popsicle.

Peter Chilvers

Chilvers was 12 when he invented boardsailing (windsurfing) in 1958 off Hayling Island, UK.

Walter Lines 

British schoolboy Lines invented the scooter at the age of 15. He later founded Triang Toys, once a Britain's leading toy manufacturer.

Austin Meggitt

American schoolboy Meggitt was nine when he invented a device for carrying a baseball bat, ball and glove safely on the handlebars of a bicycle. In 2000 he received US Patent No. 6,029,874.

Chester Greenwood

Greenwood of Farmington, Maine, USA was aged 15 in 1873 when he invented earmuffs, He started Greenwood's Ear Protector Factory and made a fortune by supplying his product to US soldiers in WW1.

Crazy Inventions 

There is no end to the extraordinary items dreamed up by inventors - a self-raising hat (1896) for the polite man with his arms full; spectacles for chickens to protect the eyes from other fowl  that might attempt to peck them (19030; an automatic haircutter (1951); a motorized ice cream cone (1998) which rotates against the tongue. Here are some other examples.

Parachute fire escape

This invention was patented in 1879 by Benjamin B. Oppenheimer of Trenton, Tennesse, USA. It was made up of parachute attached to a helmet and padded shoes that would allow a person to leap out of a blazing building and land safely - if he was lucky enough not to break his neck,

Spider Ladder

This invention was perhaps not so crazy for people who are scared of spiders. British inventor Edward Doughney's 1994 patent helps spiders to climb out of a bath.

Elephant springboard

A British patent was issued to E. Wulff in 1904 for a springboard that would make an elephant turn a somersault. The animal's heavy landing was a problem that Mr. Wulff failed to solve.

Leonardo da Vinci

Italian genius Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is best known as a painter, anatomist, sculptor, and architect. His paintings The Last Supper and Mona Lisa are among the most famous of all time. But he also hailed as one of the greatest inventors who ever lived. Among his notebooks, he left plans for countless advanced machines, often with descriptions written in secret mirror writing. Many of them were never built, but they anticipated in modern inventions, often by hundreds of years. They include the following :

Air Conditioner                                                                                    Alarm Clock

Ball-Bearing                                                                                        Chemical and Biological warfare

Clock with Minute and Hour Hand                                                     Crane

Diving Suit and Diving Bell                                                                Double- hull ship

Dredging Machine                                                                               Flying Machine

Gas Masks                                                                                           Gears

Giants Catapults and Crossbow                                                          Helicopter

Lifebelt                                                                                               Magnetic Compass

Mileometer                                                                                         Mechanical musical instruments

Multi-Barrelled Machine Gun                                                             One-Person Battleship

Parachute                                                                                            Pedometer

Revolving Stage                                                                                 Screw Making Machine

Shrapnel Bobm                                                                                   Spectacles

Steam Engine                                                                                     Tank like an armored vehicle 

Telescope                                                                                            Water Clock

Water turbine