Better Mousetrap Dept. : Eccentric or Ingenious, Inventors Show Off Their Latest Creations at Pasadena Convention
An important rule of the invention business is that one can’t be too shy about letting the world know about about one’s better mousetrap.
As it happens, Los Angeles inventor Clarence E. Smith isn’t a very talkative fellow. So Smith brought along associate Roger Morgan to the second annual Invention Convention--which opened Thursday at the Pasadena Center--to explain the delicate subject of his labors.
While many inventors do their tinkering in the garage or the basement, Smith, who actually makes a living as a Hughes Aircraft silk-screen printer, has spent a lot of time in the bathroom during the past 20 years.
His offerings: a mechanical toilet stool ventilating device designed to flush bathroom odors and prevent them from escaping into the air, and a toilet tank top that includes an A.M./F.M. radio, digital clock, telephone and automatic fragrance dispenser. The ventilator “will put Lysol out of business,” Morgan declared.
Venture capitalists, marketers, patent attorneys and the public will have an opportunity during the next three days to make their own judgments about the work of Smith and some 175 other inventors. (Public days are Saturday and Sunday only). The convention, produced by International Convention Services of Hollywood, is designed to showcase new ideas and give inventors the opportunity to talk to financiers and marketers who know how to get ideas to the marketplace.
Last year, almost half of all American patents went to foreigners, said Stephen P. Gnass, president and chief executive of ICS. “Our future in America will belong to the independent inventor. The idea of this convention is to rekindle America’s creative spirit. The inventor needs to be the hero of America,” Gnass said. In America, inventors are too often seen as eccentrics, and that’s not a good image for young, creative people, he added.
While Gnass spoke, the serious, the high-minded, the whimsical, the fanciful and the just plain entertaining vied for the attention of the press and professions getting the first look at exhibits Thursday.
The hall was abuzz with speculation about a man who had not yet arrived. Yoshiro NakaMats, the Japanese inventor who gave the world the floppy disk and holds a record 2,363 patents, had promised to unveil a “brain chair.” Reportedly, the chair stimulates the flow of blood to the brain to heighten sensitivity and awareness. The chair is said to “increase intelligence and sexual performance,” Gnass reported. Some samples of items already on display:
- Ernst G. Knolle, a retired California Public Utilities Commission mechanical engineer, would like to whisk travelers to Las Vegas from Los Angeles on a 200-mile-per-hour train that gets speed from magnetic levitation and forward motion from the kind of linear-induction motors used in the Disneyland people movers. The Knolle Magnetrans can also be used as an intercity rapid rail transport also, said Knolle, a resident of South San Francisco. It can be built at a cost of $2 million a mile, far less than the cost of conventional rail system and would use one-tenth the fuel, he said. The magnetic technology is simple and rapidly improving, Knolle said, but the major problem is “getting through the politics of it.”
- . Laaly, a Los Angeles roofing materials consultant, declared flatly that his new “photovoltaic single-ply roofing membrane” is “revolutionary.” Laaly, considered an expert on roofing materials in use today, offered a roof with features built in to collect solar energy and convert it into electricity for household needs. Among the many advantages of the roofing material, he said, are that it is flexible and can be applied to any shape roof, it is easily installed in one layer, it is fireproof and will last 30 years with no maintenance.
- The Advancement of Prosthetic Services, a nonprofit foundation co-sponsoring the convention with the U.S. Small Business Administration, showcased new, lightweight and flexible artificial limbs. “The greater function, lightweight and natural cosmetic appearance of this prosthesis enables an individual to be in public with minimum social difficulties, especially children,” accompanying brochures said.
- Changing automotive oil is simple to do in the garage. The problem is collecting the oil and avoiding a mess on the floor. Al Guerrero, owner of Gro Innovations of Walnut, Calif., has produced a prototype oil-absorbing pad to put under the car. The pad would retail for about $10, he said.
- Frank S. Sparrevohn, a retired Air Force pilot from Long Beach, offered a tempered steel device to replace the standard door chain that allows one to get a safe peek at visitors. “You can’t cut it or break it,” he said. Meanwhile, his son Fred D. Sparrevohn offered a telephone attachment that prevents members of a household or office from listening in on others’ conversations.
Finally, there was Jeffrey Armstrong, alias Saint $ilicon, the inventor of CHIP--the Church of Heuristic Information Processing. It’s the world’s first computer religion, he said. Armstrong, a humorist, who once made a living toiling in Silicon Valley, distributes the Binary Bible, which he claims was dictated to him by the Giver of Data, or “G.O.D.” It’s the faith that asks “Has Your Data Been Saved? Are you bored again?” Other religions have prophets. This one has profits, said Armstrong, who receives fees of $3,000 or more for speaking at conventions and such. Saint $ilicon is the “fourth-quarter profit.”
Armstrong, wandering about in a priest’s garb with computer chip icons, added that his invention isn’t sacrilege. “It is Hakerilege.”
