"The little-known secrets behind the men & women who shaped America"

Famous Hannibal resident was a successful inventor

By Paul Niemann

[February 05, 2009]  One of the most famous residents of Hannibal, Mo., was born in 1902. No, I'm not talking about Mark Twain, but about an inventor named Bill.

Bill invented two major products. One of these is a product that we use nearly every day, even though most people have no idea who invented it; while the other is used by only a small percentage of people, but nearly everyone recognizes the name.

Bill's family moved from Hannibal to Chicago when he was a boy, and Bill relocated to Quincy when he was 20. In fact, Bill had a granddaughter who was three years ahead of me in high school here in Quincy.

In the early 1960s, Bill created a tape cartridge with multiple tracks that would lower the price of tapes without losing any of the music quality. Originally known as the "Stereo-8 player," Bill had improved upon the four-track stereo tape cartridge system that was already in use, and he achieved mass-market status with it in Ford cars and in households, beginning in 1965. His Stereo-8 player became known as the eight-track tape player.

We all know that the eight-track tape player would later lose out to cassette players and record players and eventually CD players. You can't blame Bill for not knowing in advance what the future would bring, though, as his eight-track tape player became a huge success back in his day.

What was Bill's full name?

Bill Lear.

One reason why Bill Lear was able to get the eight-track tape player used in Ford cars was because he was well-known among auto industry executives for one of his other inventions: the car radio.

Along with his friend Elmer Wavering, Bill Lear co-invented the first practical car radio in 1922. To promote their car radio, Bill and Elmer attended a major automotive trade show in Chicago and, unwilling to shell out the big bucks required to get a booth at the trade show, they parked their car near the building's entrance and cranked up the volume on their radio. This was at a time when nobody had ever heard of a car radio.

Everyone who attended the trade show walked right past their car and heard the car radio. As a result, Lear and Wavering wrote up more orders that day than either of them could have imagined. They later sold the rights for their car radio to Galvin Manufacturing Co., which became Motorola. The car radio became Motorola's first major product.

In case you're wondering if this is the same Bill Lear behind the Learjet, it is. He founded Learjet in 1962, and it went on to become the world's premier supplier of corporate jets in less than five years. He also produced one of the first automatic pilot systems for airplanes. Altogether, Bill Lear received more than 100 patents in the audio, automotive and aircraft industries during his career as an inventor, from the 1920s to the 1960s.

[By PAUL NIEMANN]

Paul Niemann's column is syndicated to more than 70 newspapers, and he is the author of the "Invention Mysteries" series of books. He can be reached at [e-mail].

Copyright Paul Niemann 2009

(Other columns)