Highview Middle School Technology Education 6 Inventions and Innovations Unit 1 Part 1 - Vocabulary Tony Riemensnider Technology Education VCSU-TECH 665 Summer 2007

INVENTION From wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn we find that an invention is the creation of something imagined through study and experimentation, it is the creation of a new device or processwordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn the act of inventing Generally speaking, an invention is a new and non-obvious human- made device or process. considered by many to be the greatest agricultural researcher in American history, showing that almost anything can be made from farm products and agricultural waste. Mistakenly crowned as the inventor of peanut butter, Carver developed hundreds of products out of the peanut. A cultivator of marijuana and hemp, Carver found many uses for hemp, including hemp as a fuel source. Many of Carver’s ideas were used by his friend Henry Ford in the building of his early line of cars.( ) George Washington Carver

tells us that invention is “the act of striving to create a new method, solution, process or device by testing or studying an idea or groups of ideas. Invention may or may not result in a desired outcome, that is, a solution may not be reached to the satisfaction of all participants. See: Innovation.” And now we have a new term……

INNOVATION According to the Merriam Webster dictionary innovation means to introduce “something new, a new idea, method, or device : NOVELTY “NOVELTY To innovate is to bring something new to an environment, or a better way of doing things. It could be argued that the invention of the ‘Super Soaker’ squirt gun by Dr. Lonnie Johnson in 1989 was really an innovation.( teacher.scholastic.com )

DISCOVERY Discovery is one of those words that seems to be hard to define without using some root form of the word in the definition. For example, most dictionaries define discovery as the act of discovering, or something discovered. Some related words are more specific such as breakthrough – making an important discovery or success that permits further progress, as in technology; or find – to come upon or discover through effort. Lee Rybeck Lynd was working on an organic farm during the summer of 1977 where he discovered, for himself, the amount of heat generated by a compost pile. It was this basic discovery that began a lifelong search for ways to use compost as a heat source. ( (

CREATIVITY Without creativity there is no invention or innovation. However, just as it was difficult to pin a definition on discovery that makes some sense, creativity is equally if not more difficult. gloss.htm defines creativity as “The experience of thinking, reacting, and working in an imaginative and idiosyncratic way which is characterized by a high degree of innovation and originality, divergent thinking, and risk taking.” More simply put, creativity is the ability to solve problems that are worth solving. According to Websters’ creativity is marked by the ability or power to create, or to produce through imaginative skill. gloss.htm Bored at a wedding in 1990, Joel Glickman began playing with drinking straws. As his imagination wandered he soon realized that with some simple connectors these straws would make a great building set. From Glickman’s ability to turn boredom into a creative experience, the plastic rod and connector set known as K’NEX was born. (

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights Patents are a means to provide protection or security to inventors, granting specific, exclusive rights to manufacture a product for a period of time. The inventor is granted the patent protection to manufacture the product and in turn, the inventor will share the details, or technology of the device with the public. Trademarks give individual or corporate rights to help identify products by means of a graphic symbol. Unlike patents, trademarks generally do not have a time limit. Copyrights differ from those of patents and trademarks, as they are related to written, graphic, or musical material. Unlike the patent which grants exclusive manufacturing rights to the inventor, or trademarks which grant rights of identification through symbolism, copyrights provide the authors of written material the right to profit from the sale of their product for a period of time.

Highview Middle School Technology Education 6 Inventions and Innovations Unit 1 Part 2 – Mechanisms of Invention and Innovation Tony Riemensnider Technology Education VCSU-TECH 665 Summer 2007

MECHANISMS James Burke, famous author of history and the effects of technology, has identified several mechanisms that influence invention and innovation. Seven of those mechanisms are presented below. Deliberate search – you know what you want the end result to be. Example: Thomas Edison and the light bulb. Edison knew that he wanted to invent the light bulb, it just took 6,000 or so attempts to get it right. Deliberate search for one thing, leading to something else. Example: William Perkin in 1800’s England, was given the task to try and separate quinine from coal tar. The project failed but the end product of Perkins’ work was anilene dye, dominant in all colors in the world today. Unrelated developments having an extreme affect on the main event. Example: As a young physics student C.T.R. Wilson developed a ‘cloud chamber’ to help him understand why the colors in a ‘glory’ are backwards. A glory is dispersion of light on clouds, appearing much like a rainbow with reversed or backwards colors. Wilson’s research and development of the cloud chamber didn’t impress the meteorological community much but was very instrumental in helping nuclear scientists to see what they were doing when splitting atoms.

MECHANISMS Military needs or inventions fuel the fires of development efforts and an equally significant social change can occur. The invention of the “stirrup” gave warriors the ability to do their combat on horseback, bringing in the age of the armored knights. This era lasted several hundred years until another military invention, the Swiss Pike proved to be more effective and efficient than the mounted knights. The Swiss Pike evolved into what today is known as the bayonet. Religion can influence invention or innovation. Example: Early Islamic religion required prayer at various times of the day and night which led to the development of the astrolabe, an early scientific instrument that enabled astronomers to calculate the position of the sun. Weather and other natural forces. Example: A mini-ice age in 12 th century Europe stimulated the development of the chimney. Colder temperatures prompted someone to bring the fire in from the outside which in turn sparked the need for a way to get the smoke out of the cottage. Astrolabe - Pure accident. Example: Popsicles were invented when someone left a pop with a straw in it outside and overnight at below freezing temperatures. Coca Cola was originally designed as a headache medicine but the developers found it tasted better than it worked as a medicine.