Creative thoughts and ideas I've always been aTinkerer, taking things apart either to fix or see how they work. I enjoy building things from items that are broken, I've received some very nice comments about things I've made from odds and ends. Lastly I enjoy thinking about ideas that I can't build because I don't have the means or the skills, but that doesn't make it any less of a good idea. I don't consider myself an inventor because I've never taken anything to a manufacturer. I have built some items in my basement and sold them at the flea market, but I've never tried to sell my ideas to a large commercial company. I was watching a show on TV about Barbie dolls and how they got their start. Mattel took a risk with coming out with an adult doll for children when the norm had been babies. I know very little about toy dolls, but got this idea, what if you took a doll that starts out as a newborn and gradually grows year by year from there. In other words you have a 1 year old doll, 2 year old doll and on and on. Every year a doll would come out that's one year older in looks and features than the prior doll. They have software that can show the progression of age, so you could see the resemblance right from a baby thru it's teen and adult years. Maybe they have something like this already I'm not familiar with it just a thought. If you have ideas let's hear it, could be a new item, modification of an old item, something you'd like to see, whatever.
We actually have those we had a Russian exchange student here many years ago and she brought some from Russia for us. We've used them as a display piece not something to play with, I believe we've given them to my daughter when she had a cafe for display. For children they would enjoy stacking them, However changing clothes on a doll, putting them to sleep would be equally fun for child.
I made delay windshield wipers for a car I had long before they became standard equipment. I noticed that if I turned the wiper on momentarily it would wipe once and stop. Since I knew electronics, I built a simple circuit to do the same thing when it was turned on so I did not have to do it manually. I understand that later, another guy had the same idea but he got a patent for it and died rich.
It's a shame you couldn't get the patent first. You may have another idea to pursue. Keep thinking. I once had an product stolen from me, I was making a different style picture frame in my basement I was selling them at the flea market, few months after I came out with it, it was on the market.
Einstein's Refrigerator, a Forgotten Invention Patent Officer "Albert Einstein. In June of 1902, Einstein was offered a job as a technical expert (third class) at the Bern Patent Office. For an annual salary of 3,500 francs, he was responsible for deciding whether submitted inventions were deserving of patent protection, whether they infringed on existing patents, and whether the products actually worked". Inventor "Of the approximately 50 patents that Albert Einstein was granted, the Einstein Refrigerator patent from 1930 is perhaps one of his greatest patents and is beautifully simple". " Einstein refrigerator Gas absorption heat pump . Did Albert Einstein invent the refrigerator? It was jointly invented in 1926 by Albert Einstein and his former student Leó Szilárd, who patented it in the U.S. on November 11, 1930 (U.S. Patent 1,781,541 )."
That happened to a late acquaintance of mine. He was a bow hunter and had an idea for a new kind of bow sight. He sent it to a manufacturer but never heard back. Later he saw it for sale in a magazine. I think the inventive minded and the profit minded don't always reside in the same person.
Joe, No thank you I don't need a job, I think you're missing the whole point of this thread. Anybody can look up and copy what the great inventors like Einstein, Edison did Etc. This is for members to show what ideas they have had, and encourage them to create. It can be something that is just a thought/idea or something they built for their use, or something that was manufacturable for the market.
Ed, I agree I've had one manufacturer send me forms to fill out for an idea I had, I never filled them out I don't trust them the idea is still hidden in my head. I wasn't concerned about the money but the recognition that it was my idea.
This will sound corny but I once had an idea for a control system that was sketched out on a napkin. To make a long story short, several companies saw promise in the idea and paid the company I worked for to have a prototype built. A prototype was built, a patent submitted and later issued. The patent owner (i.e, the company I worked for) failed to realize what they had, which was symptomatic of a greater stupidity that led them down the porcelain facility several years later. Inventing inside a large corporation was a laborious and agonizing ordeal that redirected whatever creativity I had down other paths (i.e., free from interference by outside people or parties). I was never again bitten by the bug to seek venture capital for an idea, either within a company or outside on my own.
John, I can feel your frustration. I have had ideas that I showed to my family, and got a HoHum reaction, they just couldn't see the Merit in it like I did. All I can say is I enjoy creating having ideas even if it's just for me.