Sixth-Grader’s Invention Burps an Infant’s Bottle, Not the Baby

As a third-grader, Tylene Pommer won a science contest with her “Bounce, Bounce, Bounce” project, which showed the effect temperature has on the height of a rubber ball’s bounce.

Well, the years have passed and her knowledge has expanded, so she entered the more ambitious Irvine Valley College’s “Astounding Inventions of the Future” competition with her burp-less baby bottle--and won first prize.

Now a sixth-grader, Tylene received a $50 savings bond for her award.

“I think this would be good in the marketplace,” said the 11-year-old student at Turtle Rock Elementary School in Irvine. “I’ve got a lot of testimonials from parents who have used it, and I think a lot of people would buy it.”

Tylene’s burp-less bottle is similar to other baby bottles with collapsible inner bags, except in her version, air is also pushed out of the bag by shoving it down on a solid post.

“When I baby-sit babies, I use my bottle and parents like it,” she said.

Tylene added that she is developing an appliance that would not only contain the device to remove the air but also would contain an element to warm the milk or other baby food in the bottle.

“I just don’t have the time to fully develop it now,” she said.

“What I’d really like to invent is something that would help blind and deaf people,” said Tylene, who thinks that she may pursue a career as a pediatrician or psychologist.

“I don’t like to see people depressed, and I’d like to help them get their spirits raised and make them feel good about themselves,” she said.

In the meantime, she is wondering what judges in a national invention contest scheduled in May will consider the standards for that level of competition. “I don’t know if they’ll look for a cute idea, something that could be marketable or something that would help people,” she said.

It’s that type of inquisitiveness, according to Del Self, Tylene’s sixth-grade teacher, that shows the depth of her thinking.

“She’s a bright girl,” Self said. “She has the best study habits, and when she starts a project, she finishes it.”

Don Rickner, dean of outreach and community relations at the college, was surprised by Tylene’s beneficial invention, as well as other student inventions that had wide application.

“At first I thought we would get some cute little things. But instead, the students turned out to have fresh ideas that could be practical tools,” Rickner said. “Some of them made me feel like we wanted to head straight to the patent office.”

He said the idea behind the contest is to stimulate creativity in children while they are learning traditional subjects.

Former Costa Mesa Mayor Donn Hall’s retirement dinner and roast drew many of his friends, including Jim Ferryman, a real estate broker in Costa Mesa, who presented some funny vignettes of Hall’s political life.

“I was the treasurer of the campaign when Hall was running for the county water board,” Ferryman said. “He started to use the nickname ‘Landslide Hall.’ He won by 6 votes.”

A bogus telegram from the Shock Absorbers Manufacturers of America talked about Costa Mesa streets during Hall’s 12 years on the City Council--twice as mayor--this way: “We can only hope that your successor is as oblivious to the condition of Costa Mesa streets as you were.”

County residents who had their marriage ceremony videotaped can share the biggest day of their lives by allowing the Fullerton Museum Center to show it in “Document: Orange County, 1989,” part of the county’s centennial.

“We will only be using films of the actual ceremony and will return all tapes in their original condition,” museum director Joe Felz said.

The tapes will be used with a section on county marriage statistics. For information, call (714) 738-6589. The deadline is Feb. 28.