Enjoy 18 of the more than 150 fantastic inventions collected in the book, WOWideas! A collection of the World’s Greatest or otherwise notable United States Patents!

WOWidea! Teacher of the deaf invents a speech transmitting system! Underwritten by his future father-in-law, Bell, with help from his assistant, Thomas Watson, Jr., beat their rival, Elisha Grey, to the Patent Office by just a few hours, securing what many consider to be the most valuable United States patent ever issued--- the telephone.

WOWidea! One among his 325 peanut creations! Born into slavery, George Washington Carver became the foremost expert on crops specifically designed to renew the cotton and tobacco fields of post-Civil War South. By 1940, peanuts were the South’s biggest cash crop and farmers around the world had adopted his growing ideas.

WOWidea! Idleness can lead to success! Unemployed Philadelphia-based Charles Darrow drew upon his earlier trips to Atlantic City to create Monopoly® as an antidote to boredom. During the height of the Depression, Parker Brothers at first turned him down saying the game was too long, too complicated, and had no clear goal.
WOWidea! 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration! Thomas Edison searched the world over and experimented for years before settling on something simple, sewing thread, which he “carbonized” to make a long-lasting lamp filament. He shared the spotlight with Englishman Joseph Swan who had created a similar light bulb 20 years earlier.
WOWidea! Move the parts not the people! Henry Ford invented many automobile components, like the carburetor. He also patented a transmission and even an entirely soybean-based plastic auto body. But his real success came from creating a moving assembly process, paying decent wages and a one-size-fits-all mentality.
WOWidea! His dome could cover a city! Buckminster Fuller, an architect, engineer, and futurist, was asked to create assembly-line housing for aircraft workers. His work led to the self-bracing triangle design, often called the geodesic dome, it was lighter, stronger and cheaper than most every other conventional overhead enclosure.

WOWidea! Instead of wearing down the rock, it pulverized it! Howard Hughes Sr. was drilling for oil when he discovered much more. This one idea would some day make his son the richest man in the world-- providing enough wealth to spur the growth of the aircraft and movie industries and even the gambling mecca of Las Vegas.
WOWidea! Corsets were bound to be updated! Oppressive clothing, long the bane of women during the 1800s, got a boost from this woman inventor. Mary Jacobs gained status with this improvement of the brassiere, or bra for short. This patent is acknowledged as the liberating design that only a woman could conceive or appreciate.

WOWidea! Toy springs to life by accident! Richard James, a Philadelphia Naval Shipyard worker, noticed that a torsion spring that accidentally fell to the floor acted “funny”. Experiments took two years before Slinky® was ready for sale at a local department store. Since then, hundreds of millions have been made.

WOWidea! Being told “no” was a blessing in disguise. Cousins Edward Knabusch and Edwin Shoemaker were young furniture-making entrepreneurs from Monroe, MI, when they approached a department store buyer with their wooden-slat reclining porch chair. He wouldn’t buy it unless they upholstered it– the La-Z-Boy® was born!

WOWidea! Future U.S. President applies his boyhood ingenuity while working on the Mississippi River! Noticing that boats often got caught on the shoals hidden beneath the river, Abraham Lincoln conceived this system of buoys. Later in life, as a leader, his ability to seek solutions to other vexing issues would become his legacy.

WOWidea! Leading lady thinks outside the box! Better known as actress Hedy Lamarr, this former wife of a World War II Nazi arms supplier, wanted to lend her learned expertise in warfare to the U.S. government. Along with her composer/writer co-inventor, they developed what would become an important form of wireless signaling.
WOWidea! Let farmers reap the rewards! Cyrus McCormick perfected hay gathering and introduced a revolutionary form of business, which included standard parts, a guarantee, direct-mail advertising and testimonials. With eventual competition from Nantucket-based rival Obed Hussey, the American system of free enterprise boomed.

WOWidea! Parents’ encouragement makes for success! Elijah McCoy’s family moved to Canada to escape slavery and as a boy he loved to take things apart and put them back together. His first of 57 patents was for a very reliable lubricator that dripped oil onto train car couplings. Copied by competitors, buyers would ask for “the real McCoy”.

WOWidea! Famous artist paints a picture of success! Samuel F.B. Morse was a portrait painter, but his greatest masterpiece was the ability to transform the hottest technology of the day, electricity, into a workable system to relay information. The telegraph was born along with his ingeniously simple code of dots and dashes.

WOWidea! Turned combat into cooking, by accident! Percy Spencer, a noted World War II innovator within the field of military radar systems at Raytheon Corporation, happened to be in the radar lab when a candy bar melts in his pocket. He transforms this “Aha!” experience into the first microwave oven, known then as the Radarange®.
WOWidea! Start with what you know! James Ewell Brown Stuart (JEB Stuart) invented this sword holder for the cavalry and tried selling it to the U.S. government. Before switching sides in the Civil War, he graduated 13th in his class at West Point, which is where he met his friend and future Confederate army commander, Robert E. Lee.

WOWidea! Warped wings helped lift the load! The Wright brothers were high school dropouts, bicycle shop owners and most importantly, mechanical contraption enthusiasts. They eventually convinced the skeptical U.S. Patent Office that they invented the first “controlled, man-carrying, heavier-than-air, motor-driven, flying machine.”