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Levi Strauss
(1829-1902) Twenty-four-year-old Levi Strauss left New York
for San Francisco in 1853 to open a dry goods store with his sister
and brother-in-law. They sold supplies to miners and other products
to the people of San Francisco during the Gold Rush days. One of the
customers had a method of making jeans with metal rivets and, unable
to afford the cost of a patent, he asked Strauss to pay for the
patent and go into business together. In May of 1873, the first
official blue jeans were made. I think you know how that turned out.
Clarence Birdseye (1886-1956)
The name of Birdseye is synonymous with frozen foods, yet many
people do not know that there was a person named Birdseye behind it
all. Clarence Birdseye's job prior to becoming an inventor is what
led him to become an inventor. As a biology major in college, he
went to work as a naturalist for the U.S. government and was
assigned to the Arctic. There he observed firsthand the ways of the
Eskimos who lived there. Birdseye saw how the combination of ice,
wind and temperature froze the fish that had just been caught. He
also noticed that the fish retained most of their taste when they
were cooked and eaten. When he returned home to New York in 1924, he
founded Birdseye Seafoods Inc.
King Camp Gillette (1855-1932)
The work of Gillette's parents laid the groundwork for him to
become an inventor. For a while, his father worked as a patent agent
and part-time tinkerer, and his mother created a cookbook in 1887
that remained in print for 100 years. Gillette became a
traveling salesman at age 17, and he often made improvements to the
products that he sold. He learned the importance that disposable
items had on sales and used this concept for his idea for improving
the safety razor blade. Production began in 1903, and 100 years
later, the company that bears his name rings up nearly $10 billion a
year in sales in more than 200 countries. Despite his first name and
the success that he had, King Gillette opposed capitalism, and he
wrote books in which he declared competition to be the root of all
evil.
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Ron Popeil (born 1935; still inventing)
Born in 1935, Ron Popeil is famous for demonstrating his
inventions on TV. His product line includes the Ronco Spray Gun,
Dial-O-Matic, Veg-O-Matic, Mince-O-Matic, Popeil Pasta Maker, Pocket
Fisherman and the Showtime Rotisserie Oven. What did this master
pitchman do before he began selling his inventions on TV? He pitched
his dad's inventions on the streets of Chicago in the 1950s, as it
was his dad who taught him the basics of salesmanship and
showmanship. Popeil's inventions have rung up more than $2 billion
in sales, and counting.
Rube Goldberg (1883-1970)
The term "Rube Goldberg invention" has led millions of Americans
to believe that Goldberg was an inventor. You won't find his name on
any patents or store shelves, though, because ol' Rube never
invented anything. After graduating with an engineering degree, he
worked as an engineer for a short time but hated the job, so he
began doing what he loved most -- drawing. Goldberg won a Pulitzer
Prize in 1948 for his cartoons depicting elaborate schemes that took
10 or more steps to accomplish a simple task. Goldberg is probably
the only "inventor" to be honored with both a postage stamp and
an adjective named for him, as in "our Rube Goldberg tax
system."
[Paul Niemann]
Paul Niemann may be reached at
niemann7@aol.com.
Copyright Paul Niemann 2006
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