Mark Twain was much more than an accomplished author. He was also an inventor who was awarded patents for three different innovative devices. Ironically, because of his inventions, this well-known author’s most profitable […]
Patent #6,784,792, issued in 2004 to inventors Bernhardt Mattes and Gottfried Flik, is a sensor that will tell you whether your car has struck a pedestrian. Presumably the pedestrian doesn’t have to […]
Sir Isaac Newton was a genius, but he was also a bit absent-minded. When confronted with the distraction of his cats wanting in and out of the house throughout the day, Newton […]
Paul Winchell and Tigger Paul Winchell (1922-2005) may be best known as the voice of Tigger in Winnie the Pooh, Gargamel in The Smurfs, the characters in Green Eggs and Ham and […]
In what was surely one of the most important leaps forward in human technological advancement, Thor Bjørklund of Norway invented the cheese slicer in 1925. Bjørklund was apprenticed as a cabinet maker, […]
Katherine Marie LeBeau received Patent #3,517,423 on June 30, 1970 for a “Fluid-Operated Zipper.” These are for the moments when the need to go is so great that you can’t spare the […]
Thomas V. Zelenka was awarded Patent 3,552,388 in 1968 for a motor-driven device that attaches to a baby crib and gently pats the sleeping baby on the bottom with a padded mitten. […]
Franz Reichelt (1879-1912) fell to his death off the first deck of the Eiffel Tower while testing his invention, the coat parachute. It was his first ever attempt with the parachute. He […]
Abraham Lincoln holds the distinction of being the only US President to have obtained a patent.
Eastman Kodak research Harry Coover discovered Superglue years before he figured out what to do with it. At first, its stickiness infuriated him. Coover first came across cyanoacrylates (the chemical name for […]
Mark Twain lost more than a half million dollars in his lifetime from the failed inventions in which he invested. The invention that cost Twain the most was one in which he […]
Thomas Edison, the inventor of the lightbulb, was afraid of the dark. Read more fun facts about Thomas Edison. Read more fun facts about inventions. Read more fun facts about phobias.
Thomas Edison electrocuted an elephant in 1903 to prove Tesla’s AC current was dangerous. source
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