MORE INVENTORS NEEDED We often overlook those very important people called “inventors”. They are those, who by discovering new gadgets, make tomorrow more pleasant, meaningful and profitable.
Right now, a time when everyone seems to be making vast strides into the future in so many fields of interest. We, are more than ever, in need of the subtle little touches which inventors find to make even better use of those things we have.
Such a man was William Painter, the son of a Quaker farmer in “the Freedom State” of Maryland who in 1892 patented a seal with a layer of cork glued to a metal disk which could then be crimped
around the lip of a glass bottle or metal container to seal it properly. Until that time hundreds of different materials had been used and none of them satisfactorily. The cork served well in many cases, yet it was subject to decay, damage during use when it could jam or break while being used. It would disintegrate and fall into the stored food or drink. Devises for “uncorking” were numerous consisting of implanted wires, clamps, pullers, stabbers, grabbers and other “unstoppers” of various kinds.
I am so much concerned right now about Bill Painter's inventions or those by other individuals such as he, who continue to make such wonderful little things which add so much to our enjoyment of things we all have in abundance. New inventors are being forged today to supply coming generations with better ways to use and enjoy and really make wide use of the tremendous inventions now being spread around the world. Much of that which we have considered to be in normal use, are quite new to re-born nations such as Afghanistan and Iraq.
Often we tend to,think of inventors as being eccentric individuals. For the most part they may be said to be “different” from the average run of people in that they accept and dwell on odd elements of living and need. Many of them have been inventors in a another sense in the composing of new music; the development of new plant or in the making of better communications and art forms. It is a wide open field for innovative action.
A.L.M. June 3, 2005 [c546wds]
