How to be a Good Inventor
By Jon W. Mooney
Copyright 2012 Jon W. Mooney
Smashwords Edition
illustrated by
Matthew R. Mooney
www.jwmooney.com
This book is dedicated to the inventive kid who likes to take things apart just to see how they work.
You know who you are.
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Hi! I'm Max IQ.
So you want to be an Inventor? Great!
I started inventing when I was a kid like you and I'm still at it. Let me tell you some important things I've learned about how to be a good inventor.
What things do you consider to be inventions? Most people only think of things like computers and lasers but all new products which are unlike anything seen before are inventions too. The first personal stereo, the first electric toaster and the first baseball game were all new inventions once.
My favorite inventor from history is Ben Franklin. Not only was Ben a good inventor but he was also a smart LEGISLATOR. When he and the other founding fathers wrote the Constitution of the United States they made sure to include an article which encourages people to invent. This article says that inventors can receive a PATENT for their invention. A patent says that nobody can use the invention without the inventor's permission. This guarantees that the inventor will make the most money from the invention.
The founding fathers thought that this one little article in the Constitution would help the new country grow quickly. And they were right. People started inventing all kinds of things.
All of these new inventions needed to be made out of PARTS and RAW MATERIALS. Some of them needed fuel. To fill these needs the United States' NATURAL RESOURCES were developed. Trees were cut for wood, mines were dug for coal and minerals. Oil wells were drilled.
To move these raw materials by wagon and flatboat was very slow and difficult so better methods of transportation were built. Canals were built so that towboats could be used to carry heavy loads. Railroads were built to transport people and material long distances in a short time. Roads and finally the INTERSTATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM allowed parts and raw materials to be delivered by truck to the exact place they were needed.
To build the new products that were invented, factories were constructed. Machines were made to put in the factories. Tools were made to build the new products.
Factories, machines and tools are called CAPITAL RESOURCES.
The country grew fast!
Lots of workers were needed to run the machines and work with the tools in the new factories. So people from all over the world came to live and work in the new United States of America.
People are the country's HUMAN RESOURCES and they are the most important resource.
Why do people invent stuff?
Well, back in the time of the Roman Empire a philosopher named PERSIUS said that the stomach is the source of all inventions. I think he was trying to say that people invent things to solve basic needs — like inventing a fork so you don't have to eat spaghetti with your bare hands.
Back in the 1600's, a playwright named FRANCK wrote a play in which one of the characters says, "Necessity is the mother of invention."
That certainly makes a lot more sense than Persius!
Today, people have more free time than people used to. Inventions no longer are made just to solve basic needs. Inventions are made for fun also. Some people think that inventions made for fun are silly. The famous author, Agatha Christie once said, "Laziness is the mother of invention."
Before you can invent something, you first need a problem. An invention is always a solution to a problem. The problem may be one of great public concern, like the spread of disease in contaminated milk for which Louis Pasteur invented the process of PASTEURIZATION ( Look on your milk carton at lunch!) The problem may be trivial, like what to do on rainy days for which many inventors have invented games.
You don't need to go hunting for problems; they usually will come and find you. The next time you find yourself saying, "Why don't they make something like..." or " If this thing only had..." STOP! You found a problem!
Now that you have a problem, the next step is not to find a solution — it's to find all the possible solutions to the problem that you can. Write all of the solutions down - even the ones that might sound a little goofy.
It's also a good idea to have a BRAIN STORMING SESSION. This is where a group of people sit in a room and think of all the solutions they can. A person in the front of the room writes all the ideas on a chalkboard. If you do have a brain storming session make sure no one makes fun of another's idea (unless it was meant to be funny). If someone gets laughed at, that person will probably feel embarrased and won't share any more ideas. This would be terrible, especially if their next idea was the best solution!
The next step to inventing may sound simple but it's actually one of the hardest — pick the best solution.Most inventors who try to pick the best solution to a problem can't because they have a favorite solution. An Atom Nailer 2000 might be fun to build and use but a hammer is the best solution. The hammer is light, costs less and fits into a tool box.
Big companies do MARKET ANALYSES to pick the best solutions. You may have seen people with clipboards standing in the mall asking people questions. That's what their doing — trying to find the best solutions.
To pick your best solution, ask people who might use your invention to vote for the best one. The one with the most votes wins!
The next step is one that all but the good inventors skip.
Write down everything that your invention will do. Try not to think about how your invention will do these things. Also don't think about what your invention will look like yet.
The important thing is to come up with a PRODUCT SPECIFICATION that has all the important FUNCTIONS of your invention listed. Go over your list a couple of times and cross out any functions that aren't really necessary — they will just make things harder for you later.
You're doing great!
Now comes the fun part; DRAW! Not like the drawings you scribble in your notebook when you're not paying attention to the teacher in class. These drawings should be neat and IN SCALE which means that you need to use a sharp pencil, a straight-edge and a ruler. Some inventors have a special notebook with graph paper pages to keep all of their inventions in.
Start a collection of catalogs from electronics and gear manufacturers. Browse through these to get ideas on how to design your invention.
This is fun, so don't be in a hurry to get done. Have fun!
Once you have your drawings done, gather the parts you need and build your first PROTOTYPE. It's a neat feeling to build something that you've created.
You should test your prototype to make sure that all of its functions are working. (MURPHEY'S LAW says that all of them won't the first time.) You'll probably have to make a couple of changes to make your invention work exactly the way you want it to but that's half the fun of inventing.
Show your prototype to some of the people who might use your invention and ask them what they think of it. They will probably give you some more ideas to make your invention even better.
Well, that's about all I wanted to tell you about inventing. I hope you had fun and learned a lot.
Ask your librarian to help you find other neat books about inventing and inventors.
GLOSSARY
BRAIN STORMING SESSION -
A meeting in which people try to think of as many solutions to a problem as they can.
CAPITAL RESOURCES -
Money or property which is owned or used by a business to make more wealth.
FUNCTIONS -
A purpose for which something is designed.
HUMAN RESOURCES -
People, especially those who work for a company.
IN SCALE -
A drawing or model made in proportion to the real object.
Example: 1 inch equals 1 foot.
INTERSTATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM -
A network of U.S. highways which connects all the states except Hawaii and Alaska. This was begun under President Eisenhower back in the 1950's.
LEGISLATOR -
A person who makes laws.
MARKET ANALYSES
The process of finding out who will buy a product and what they like.
MURPHEY'S LAW
A joke that says "If something can go wrong, it will." Murphey was a cartoon character who constantly messed things up.
NATURAL RESOURCES
The natural wealth of a country like land, forests & water.
PARTS
Pieces of a machine or tool.
PASTEURIZATION
Process of heating food to destroy certain germs.
PATENT
The right granted to an inventor to prevent others from making, using or selling an invention.
PRODUCT SPECIFICATION
A detailed description of the functions and size of a product.
PROTOTYPE
The original or model of a product.
RAW MATERIALS
Material before it is made into final form.
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