Insights
Invention from a Different Angle
May 26, 2014
- Buzz
- Invention from a Different Angle
When you hear the word invention, what comes to mind? Likely, it’s one or more of the world-changing inventions of the past—the telephone, automobile, computer, steam engine, or sewing machine. Each was useful, novel, and non-obvious, and impacted millions of people’s lives and changed history forever. There continues to be a need for inventions like these, but there’s also room to open the invention red carpet to off-the-wall inventions of the present.
The invention of the telephone made it possible to quickly share information across long distances. The automobile made it possible to efficiently travel long distances. The vaccine storage device made it possible to transport lifesaving vaccines long distances in developing countries. And the Perfect Bacon Bowl makes it possible to…wait, what? That’s right; we’re talking about an invention that lets users make an edible bowl out of bacon.
Inventors are diverse—from PhD scientists to research engineers to average Joes/Janes—and so are their inventions. Some solve for the eradication of global diseases, and some solve for solutions to everyday household problems. What unites them is a philosophy that ideas are valuable.
Using that lens, let’s focus on this week’s National Inventor Month cliffhanger, Movie Monday’s last screening. Raise the curtain for the final duo—Flubber and Back to the Future. Each features a zany inventor, a before-its-time invention, and a pre-2000 sensibility. Cue some Huey Lewis and the News and then fade to black.
Did you miss one of the films in our National Inventors Month Movie Monday series? Flip through our favorite flick suggestions.
