|
You probably figured out
that the headline to this story reads: "Great inventors deserve
great license plates." Some vanity plates, like those that could
belong to Alfred Nobel (see below) simply describe the inventor or
his invention.
See how many of these license plates from our favorite inventors
you can figure out. The answers are at the end of the column.
With his 1,093 patents, Thomas Edison set an American record that
might never be broken. His plates, if he chose to brag, might be: IM
NBR 1.
It might surprise you to learn that the inventor of the
multi-plane camera, Walt Disney, was afraid of a certain type of
small animal. His license plates might read: SCRDOFMCE.
The founder of the Nobel Prizes, Alfred Nobel, invented dynamite
and was sometimes referred to as "the merchant of death," so he
probably wouldn't be spotted with plates that read: KABLUEY.
Alexander Graham Bell filed the patent application for his phone
just two hours before runner-up Elisha Gray filed for his
patent, on the very same day in 1876. His plates could read: IGTHR
1st.
Samuel Morse, of Morse code fame, would fit right in with plates
that read: DTSNDSHS.
Bette Nesmith, inventor of liquid paper correction fluid and
mother of Monkees guitarist Michael Nesmith, could drive around in a
car with plates that read: WHITEOUT.
Clarence Birdseye's plates would read: FRZNFDS.
The license plates of Ruth Handler, inventor of the Barbie doll
that bears her daughter's name, could read BRBEWTHTKN since Barbie
and her longtime plastic boyfriend broke up last year. How sad.
[to top of second column]
 |
The Niemann family grew up playing hockey on our farm's pond
every winter. We would have loved to have one of Frank Zamboni's
machines, whose license plates would probably read: ISCOOP.
Here are the license pl8 answers:
-
Thomas Edison: IM
NBR 1 = I'm number 1.
-
Walt Disney:
SCRDOFMCE = scared of mice.
-
Alfred Nobel:
KABLUEY (self-explanatory).
-
Alexander Graham
Bell: IGTHR 1st = I got here first.
-
Samuel Morse:
DTSNDSHS = dots and dashes.
-
Bette Nesmith:
WHITEOUT (self-explanatory).
-
Clarence Birdseye:
FRZNFDS = frozen foods.
-
Ruth Handler:
BRBEWTHTKN = Barbie without Ken.
-
Frank Zamboni:
ISCOOP = ice scoop.
Even the official Invention Mysteries Jeep has a set of vanity
plates. The plates read: "NVNTRS," which should be pretty obvious if
you've been playing along.
If you have ideas for other inventor plates, send them to me in
an e-mail and I might just use some of them in a future column. C U
L8R!
[Paul Niemann]
Paul Niemann may be reached at
niemann7@aol.com. You can learn more about Invention Mysteries by
visiting the official
Invention Mysteries website.
Copyright Paul Niemann 2006
[Other
columns]
 |
