WHAT IS NEEDED?
Think about it. What are people going to need in the future?
Make a list of ideas which come to you from time-to-time ... a list of gadgets the
average homemaker of the future will find useful once someone invents them.
Over the years I have kept such a list in these pages and written at length
concerning many such ideas. They occur to you more readily than you might think, too.
Writing them down is a good idea and a worthwhile exercise in writing, as well. Our writing
about an idea may be the spark that is needed to fire up the creative urge in some one
who can take the concept on step forward and make something useful of it.
Don’t be worried about who gets the credit for doing whatever is done, either. So
many inventions are evolved over the years in many minds and through trial and error
thinking and testing which leads to something that may resemble the original quest, but
not exactly. No one person invents anything, I’m convinced. Someone does claim and
get the credit eventually, and the profits from the idea. But the most important thing is
that a useful thing has been created which will enable society to advance and to live a
better life because of it.
Here a few of the things I have listed over the years:
We need custom made footwear. Customer’s visit an office location rather than a
“store”; see samples of the available styles in shoes. Computers then measure the foot of
the customer both standing and seated and provide a reading of the exact dimensions
required. That information, when sent to the actual manufacturing facility, becomes
template which results in a personal set of footwear designed specifically for that person
alone. I have read since setting the idea down ,that the Japanese have done such a
thing but it still demands a marketing promotional effort. I like one idea the Japanese
added. They actually make the buyer wait a full week for the shoes which were available
same or the next day after the order was sent in. They find that anticipation is one of the
most important factors concerning the acquisition of new shoes or of any such personal
item. O.K. I was late on that one...waited too long. There are some quirks to be worked
out before such a process could become readily acceptable in the United States.
Then, I have long had a theory of accumulated light in mind. If we can bend a
beam of light, if we can make a light bean go around a corner. why is it so odd, then, to
consider making a light beam which will pile up, accumulate as a glob or globe of
brilliance at a specific point... especially if it meets another beam coming from the
opposite direction? Imagine a bright glow in the upper center of a room caused by two
small, pencil-like units installed a fool below ceiling level on each side wall of the room to
cause steady, central glow. Or, imagine a football field with a globe of gathered light
above it, or an airport fogged-in but showing globs of light up through the fog at regular
descending levels from small units along the runway below. Think of highway alight from
such globes of accumulated or “stopped” light! We will see it some day.
Another idea has to do with reviving the once fertile Sahara desert in Africa. It’s an
idea which has been around for many years but has lacked the creative spark which will
make it a reality. The idea is to siphon water from he Mediterranean across the Atlas
Mountains. It will seek the lowest levels and form an inland salt sea from which prevailing
winds will take it north to fall as on non Atlas range. Then, in turn, it will
trickle down the slopes to irrigate now useless areas. Not my idea you see, but I have a
part in it and so do you Make your move. Make it work.
Or, how about a bellows arrangement fitted under my computer chair to exercise
my feet with varied pressures to keep them from going to sleep and to provide fan
advantages as well. I called it a “Robo-chair” when describing it here several years ago.
Or, in the kitchen, a simple rack I made which we used in the house in which we
used to live. Two strips of wood - actually those used in the bottom edge of old window
shades; four 6”x6: 1/4” plywood scraps . Slots are cut in the plywood to allow the stripes to
be inserted ...barely...two at the upper edge and three at the bottom end and one on
the keel area. The no-nail rig was used for storage of plastic lids of all sizes in order so the
proper size could be selected with ease. Tupperware could make the thing.
I have a back scratcher in mind which would be a product sold with a whimsical
touch. It is a bathmat with varied stubble, and suction cups on the back so it can be
fitted against flat surface... a wall, a closet door, a filing cabinet at the office . The chronic
back-itcher, and I find we are numerous, stands against it and scratches up and down, or
sideways, to suit his or her need. It could be made by Rubbermaid and it has a
mandatory shape. It would be sold as humorous novelty, called “An Angel’s Wing”. Ah,
blessed relief!
One more idea then, I’m outta here! And, you are on your own.
I have always liked to eat raw turnips right from the garden. So, I find, do others.
I think a Turni-chips would sell. A company in the potato chip business could blend turnips
and potatoes to a creamy state and press then into tasty new snack treats. Think what
that would do for the hard-pressed turnip growers of America as well!
They sound silly, don’t they? Most inventions are comical in their earliest stage of
development. I’d be interested in hearing about your zany ideas as well. Use the e-mail
link on the TOPIC home page and tell me about some of the things you would like to see
invented or improved.
A.L.M. July 25, 2002 [c1061wds]
