Small Inventions

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Small Inventions

• That Make a Big Difference

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Recipe for an Invention

• 1 part imagination
• 1 part knowledge
• a little common sense
• hard work
• patience

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DID YOU KNOW...

• February 11 is Inventors Day in honor of the
  birthday of Thomas Edison. He received more than
  1000 patents for new inventions or for
  improvements on old ones.

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Jigsaw Puzzle Invented

• Around 1760 an Englishman named John Spilsbury
  thought that children might learn their geography
  more easily if it were a game. He painted maps on
  slabs of wood. Then he cut the wood along
  boundary lines, making the first jigsaw puzzles.

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Yo-Yo Started Out As Deadly Weapon

• It is believed that people in the Philippine
  Islands used the yo-yo thousands of years ago for
  hunting.
• In the late 1920s, Donald Duncan manufactured it
  as a toy to do tricks.

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Slave Inventors
Some Afro-Americans used herbs and other plants
to cure illnesses and help heal injuries.
Sometimes slaves were freed when the remedies
they made worked.
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300 Peanut Products Invented
George Washington Carver was born a slave but
became a world famous black scientist who
invented three hundred products made from
peanuts.
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Pet Rock Invented
The Pet rock was one of the all-time sill ideas,
and yet, in less than a year, over 500,000 sold.
It was just a small, smooth rock put into a box
and given as a gag gift.
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The Hula-Hoop Is Invented
The Hula-Hoop was invented in 1958 by Richard
Knerr and Arthur Melvin. In six months, 20
million Hula-Hoops were sold at 1.98 each.
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Alice in Wonderland

• Lewis Carrol was the one who invented the two
  books about Alice and her adventures.
• He began telling nonsense stories to three young
  daughters of a friend.
• One of the girls was named Alice, who loved the
  stories so much, he made the stories into a book.

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Did you know The Inca Indians grew this
exploding corn in Peru. The Indians of North
America popped corn and ate it as a food, used it
as a decoration, and used it in religious
ceremonies? In New Mexico archaeologists found
some popped corn in a bat cave? It was thought to
be over five thousand years old. Today the United
States grows nearly all the worlds popcorn.
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Ferris Wheel is Invented
Americans first rode the Ferris wheel at the
Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago in
1893. It was 264 feet high and carried 2,160
passengers as it towered over the entire
fair. George Washington Gale Ferris designed it
because he was challenged to originate something
for the fair that was more impressive than the
Eiffel Tower in Paris.
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Who Discovered Chewing Gum?
Long ago people in different parts of the world
discovered that some trees produce a gum which
can be chewed without disappearing. At first the
gum from the black spruce tree was used. Today
most chewing gum is made from chicle, the sap of
the sapodilla tree which grows in Central and
South America.
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Video games came out in the 1970s. However,
1980 marked the beginning of an era of video
console games. Pac-Man was the king of video
games in 1983.
Video Games Arrive
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Kids Inventions
In 1968 a ten-year old girl named Betty Galloway
invented a bubblemaking toy.
A fifth grade girl, Wendy Jonnecheck, invented
a new style of jump rope.
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Unusual Inventions
In 1922, George and May Southgate designed
jumping shoes to encourage children to run and
jump. They were worn over shoes with a buckle to
hold them in place. The six steel legs
were strong and springy so a child could jump
farther than was normally possible.
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What is a Patent?
A patent is a special piece of paper issued by
the United States government, which gives an
inventor sole control over the invention
for seventeen years. No one is allowed to copy
his idea. After that, its released to the
public domain. Since its founding in 1790, the
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued over
four million patents.
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Famous Inventors
Our history books and library reference
books tell us about the most famous inventors,
people like Benjamin Franklin, Eli Whitney,
Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, George
Eastman, Charles Goodyear and Robert Fulton, to
name just a few.
You are going to research a famous inventor. You
will give us facts about the inventor and his or
her invention.