25 Interesting Facts About Inventors and their Inventions

Here are 25 Interesting Facts About Inventors and their Inventions.

1-5 Interesting Facts About Inventors and their Inventions

1. The upside-down ketchup bottle earned its inventor Paul Brown $13 million. – Source

2. The inventors of Bubble Wrap, Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes, were originally trying to make 3d plastic wallpaper, which was a failure. – Source

3. Ruth Wakefield, the inventor of the chocolate chip cookie sold the idea to Nestle Toll House in return for a lifetime supply of chocolate. – Source

4. Robert Chesebrough, the inventor of petroleum jelly ate a spoonful every day, claiming it had tremendous health benefits. He lived to be 96. – Source

5. In 1904, tea bags were invented accidentally. The inventor, Thomas Sullivan, decided that it was cheaper to send small samples to potential customers in silk bags instead of boxes. The recipients believed they were meant to be dunked and soon Sullivan was flooded with orders for his “tea bags.” – Source

6-10 Interesting Facts About Inventors and their Inventions

6. NBC and AT&T used corporate and government bullying to destroy the life of Edwin Armstrong, the inventor of FM radio, leading to his suicide – Source

7. Robert Taylor, inventor of soap-in-a-pump-bottle (Softsoap), knew larger competitors like Colgate would try to copy his product. In order to ensure that they couldn’t copy him, he bought every small bottle hand-pump (100 million bottles) in the US. This resulted in a year of the market to himself. – Source

8. Ingo Potrykus, the co-inventor of golden rice (a genetically engineered, vitamin-A-rich strain of rice that could save millions of lives in developing countries), has called for his product to be distributed for free to poor farmers. – Source

9. The inventor of the LASER fought with both the US Patent office and LASER manufacturers for a period of 38 years before finally achieving the right to both obtain and enforce patents covering the LASER technology he invented. – Source

10. Mikhail Kalishnikov, inventor of the AK-47, greatly regretted having invented the weapon, and is quoted as saying “I would prefer to have invented a machine that people could use and that would help farmers with their work, for example a lawnmower.” – Source

11-15 Interesting Facts About Inventors and their Inventions

11. Lonnie Johnson, the inventor of the Super Soaker reinvested most of his earnings from the toy into energy technology research. – Source

12. The inventor of television Philo Farnsworth had the idea for how it would work at the age of 14 while plowing potatoes. He built the first working prototype 7 years later but died at the age of 64 in relative obscurity due to a series of legal battles. – Source

13. The bubble gum is pink because that was the only dye Walter E. Diemer (the inventor) had on hand at the time and it was his favorite color. – Source

14. Phillip Walter Katz, the inventor of the .zip format died of a peppermint schnapps overdose – Source

15. Joseph Bramah, the man who invented the first beer tap also invented the modern toilet – Source

16-20 Interesting Facts About Inventors and their Inventions

16. The inventor of the Game Boy, Gunpei Yokoi, was originally Nintendo’s janitor. The President of the company happened to walk by and was impressed by a toy he created out of boredom, leading to an illustrious career – Source

17. Volvo invented the three point seat belt and then gave free license to all other auto manufacturers to use it. – Source

18. Whoopee cushion was invented by a 14-year old Roman Emperor, who used it frequently on guests. He was assassinated by the time he was 18. – Source

19. The only head coach in University of Kansas basketball history with a losing career record is James Naismith, the inventor of basketball. – Source

20. Peter M. Roberts as a teenager invented a quick-release ratchet and offered the patent to Sears. Sears told him the patent was valueless and gave him $10,000, then went on to make $44 million selling the ratchets. – Source

21-25 Interesting Facts About Inventors and their Inventions

21. American psychologist B. F. Skinner invented a temperature controlled baby crib that he called the “heir conditioner”. – Source

22. Thomas Jefferson invented the swivel chair and sat on the first one while writing much of the Declaration of Independence. – Source

23. Pop Rocks were the result of Tang inventor William A. Mitchell’s attempt to create an instant carbonated soda. – Source

24. When Anders Celsius invented the temperature scale, he put 100 degrees as the point for freezing and 0 degrees as the point for boiling. Another scientist, Carl Linnaeus, waited until Celsius had died to change the scale to the way we read it today. – Source

25. The Gatling gun was invented by a doctor who noticed that the majority of soldiers died in the civil war due to diseases not gunshot wounds. – Source