Water Issues Require Invention

Today is Blog Action Day. Bloggers around the world are writing about water as a global issue. In response to this topic, I want to put a call out to inventors reminding us of our role in solving problems.

Let's start with a little history.

In 1880, inventor Lester Allen Pelton applied for a patent for the Pelton water wheel. By 1890, Pelton turbines were generating thousands of horsepower to drive all kinds of equipment. By the time of his death in 1910, Pelton's turbines were in use at hydro-electric plants all over the country.

In almost every type of power plant today, water is a major cost. In fact, our power sources would be impotent without water. Plug your iPhone into an electric socket for charging and half a liter of water must flow through miles of pipes, pumps, and the heat exchangers of a power plant.

Two inventions arriving more than 100 years a part are intricately tied to one another by water. In terms of Blog Action Day, they can be connected to one of the biggest dilemmas in world history:

A human thirst for water is competing with a hunger for energy.

Nearly one billion people on our planet, many on the continent of Africa, lack access to clean water which causes untold struggle, including disease and death. On a single day in the US, more than 500 billion liters of water travel through power plants--that is more than twice the water flowing down the Nile River in a single day. The inequity is astounding.

Only radical new ideas can address this issue. Inventors, like Pelton, are needed to envision solutions. Even seemingly inconsequential inventions--such as those requiring limited technology or those made from recycled materials-- can be part of the solution.

Only by recognizing the problem can we take actions that will contribute to the solution.

Pockets of Inspiration

One of the women inventors in the The Right Sisters, talks about the importance of staying upbeat during trying circumstances. Beth Butler, who gives motivational talks at teacher conferences, tells teachers, "If you're not refreshed and rejuvenated to start your day, how can you deal with twelve or seventeen preschoolers?" Beth practices what she preaches by taking time for herself at the start of each day to pray or read inspirational material.

I've found a great way to insert a little pocket of inspiration into the start my day. Each morning, I get my cup of tea and head to the computer to check my email. Since I subscribe to "Inspire Me Today," I always find an inspiring message tucked in among the business messages.

Gail Lynne Goodwin's website and blog is a fountain of inspiration for she broadcasts words of wisdom and encouragement. At the website, you can subscribe to a steady flow of inspiration that arrives daily in your email inbox. If you are like me, you will often click into her website from the message to read more. For me, this little pocket of inspiration launches my day, filling me with determination and enthusiasm.

Fun Facts from Everyday Edisons

Everyday, human beings deal with problems. Inventors see problems and their minds click into action to seek a solution.

For example, Benjamin Franklin invented bifocals because he hated wearing two pairs of glasses.

Everyday Edisons, the award winning PBS series, documents this problem solving process by closely following inventors as they develop an invention. For the past couple of years, I've had the privilege of participating in the casting calls for Everyday Edisons. What a privilege it is to hear from people across the country who have inventive minds.

The program developers know that inventors find inspiration in hearing about other inventors. Not only have they created an awesome television program, they also have a newsletter that includes inventor updates and casting calls.

Here are a few fun facts I gleaned from the most recent newsletter:

Melting ice cream inspired the invention of the outboard motor. It was a lovely August day and Ole Evinrude was rowing his boat to his favorite island picnic spot. As he rowed, he watched his ice cream melt and wished he had a faster way to get to the island. At that moment, the idea for the outboard motor was born!

The Band-Aid was invented by a Johnson & Johnson employee whose wife had cut herself. Earl Dickson's wife was rather accident prone, so he set out to develop a bandage that she could apply without help. He placed a small piece of gauze in the center of a small piece of surgical tape, and what we know today as the Band-Aid band-aid was born!

My favorite invention story is one that I think epitomizes the thinking of so many inventors, that is the desire to make the world a better place:

British-born Tim Berners-Lee is the inventor of the World Wide Web, but he never made a cent on this invention which revolutionized the computer world. In 1989, he envisioned a way to link documents on the Internet using "hypertext" so "surfers" could jump from one document to another through highlighted words. Berners-Lee decided not to patent his technology because he feared that if he did, use of the Web would be too expensive and would therefore not become used worldwide. He passed up a fortune so the world could learn and communicate.

To learn more about inventors, tune into Everyday Edisons AND go to their website and subscribe to the newsletter.

The Birth of an Idea- Part 2

Wanda Plimmer is the inventor of the Nursing Nest, a device that supports a nursing baby. Wanda is one of the inventors featured in The Right Sisters.

Wanda's idea for the nursing nest was born following an emergency C-Section to deliver her first child. She describes the conditions that prompted her invention this way: "My incision hurt, my lower back hurt, my shoulders hurt, and I had Carpel Tunnel from holding him up for so long. I was falling asleep sitting upright on the bed in the middle of the night, and twice I dropped him onto the bed. I couldn’t believe how unsafe I felt dealing with this tiny baby when I was exhausted and hurting."

Inventors often create out of a sense of frustration. Many people feel like there has to be a better way when frustrated, but inventors use that feeling as their source of inspiration.

Wanda was terribly frustrated after the birth of her son as she tried to nurse him. She turned to books and health care practitioners who explained that she could nurse laying down if she used blankets to prop her baby. But even though this helped a lot, she was still frustrated. Here is a excerpt from The Right Sisters describing her moment of inspiration and what she did about it.

The only problem was that for each feeding when I needed to reposition to the opposite breast, I had to shift all the blankets and pillows that I had arranged. One night about midnight as I was nursing Joel Walter, I had this sudden image of what I needed to make this work so much better. I got out of bed as soon as the baby fell asleep and went to the kitchen to find the electric carving knife. Then I grabbed a slab of foam that I happened to have. I didn’t know exactly what the end product was going to look like, but I had a good sense of the shape it needed to be. That night, I created the first prototype for the Nursing Nest.

The thing that distinguishes inventors from other dreamers is their pro-activity. When they imagine a solution; they get to work to make it happen as Wanda Plimmer did. Tell us how you were pro-active in bringing your idea to life.

The Birth of an Idea-Part 1

Folks are often curious about when, where, and how an inventor first gets an idea for an invention. That's one of the questions I asked the women inventors whom I interviewed for the the book I'm writing: The Right Sisters: Women Inventors Tell Their Stories. Their answers to these questions illustrate the creative mind at work on a very practical level.

I thought my blog readers might enjoy reading a few excerpts from The Right Sisters that zero in on the birth of an idea. Here is a short segment describing the moment when I got the idea to make my first invention:

My younger son Joe wanted to make a gift for his basketball coach. “Mom,” he said, “Can you help me make a dry-erase board with a diagram of the basketball court? And can we get some markers with erasers on the end? Coach is always erasing with his hands and then he wipes his hands on his pants and he’s covered with black smudges.” My fingers were also black at the end of the day as were my fellow teachers because we used our hands to erase rather than reach for the block eraser. I went on the Internet to look for a marker with an eraser, and I quickly discovered that there was a 1.8 billion dollar marker business, but not one company had designed an eraser to go on the end of the pen. Joe and I both had the same thought: A person wouldn’t buy a pencil without an eraser, so why buy a marker without an eraser? Right then I thought, “This is it! I’ll invent an eraser and I’ll take it to market.

Little did I know the challenges that lay ahead that would change my life forever. Best of all, that little eraser helped send Joe to college!








Stay tuned for more excerpts from The Right Sisters. And please if you have your own story about the birth of an idea, drop us a note in "Comments."