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Necessity is the Mother of.......

Today is National Inventor's Day, I suppose because it's also Thomas Edison's birthday, and the man had over 1,000 patents in the U.S. alone. I don't know how many things he invented based on necessity or just based on dreaming.

I remember that scene in Young Tom Edison with Mickey Rooney—someone needed to have emergency surgery on the dining table of the Edison house, but there wasn't enough light in the room. Young Edison broke into the local general store in order to steal the big mirror that would reflect enough lantern light to brighten up the room. So, I can see why Edison might think a light bulb would be necessary.

Imagine if Edison hadn't invented the phonograph. There is no substitute for a live, musical performance, but we have become so conditioned to having our favorite recordings at our finger tips, and there is a massive industry revolving around our ability to record sound. It may not be necessary for sustaining life, but it would certainly be difficult to live without. The same goes for X-ray machine and batteries and the moving picture.

Some people might argue that humanity was better off before all this stuff, but I wouldn't volunteer to go back to pre-electricity days. I like things that plug in and turn on and off and make life easier.

The things I have wanted to invent don't plug in, though. When my kids were little and wore those one-piece fleecy sleepers with the plastic feet, I wanted to invent warm and fuzzy sleepers without the stink-makers. I thought the bottom of those things should be fleecy instead of plastic and with rubber treads on the bottoms so little people feet could breath but not slip on slick floors.

There have been other things I have wanted to invent but can't think of them at the moment. Maybe one of my patents should be for a search-and-find feature for the human brain, like a Ctrl-F button that would find those things that have been put in some obscure memory folder.

What would you like to invent, necessary or not?

Comments

Mrs. G. said…
I would like to invent a cure for cancer. All forms.
1:29 PM
Neponset River Bridge Dig said…
I'm all for convenience Robyn. Plus my commutes to work would be intolerable without music.

Good post!
2:01 PM
dive said…
A search and find button for the human brain.
Brilliant, Robyn!
Though I'm, not really too sure I'd want to look inside mine for fear of finding stuff better forgotten.
Eww.
4:01 PM
Cheltenhamdailyphoto said…
The feet idea is good, Robyn. You should still do it. Not sure daughter no. 2 would want to model them now though ;) Still, do it! Become a millionaire through it and invite us all to the launch.

I'd like to invent a piece of hair furniture which keeps my hair out of my eyes as superbly as my glasses do, on top of my head. No, not an alice band - not pretty or cool enough (oh groan i said cool, thank God my son's not looking), not a pony tail, just something...ELSE. I don't know what ...
7:29 AM
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