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An invention is an original device or method – it is totally
new. An innovation is an improvement, or a new way of using something
that already exists.
Inventions
Thomas Edison, an American inventor, is probably one of the best-known
inventors in the world. During his lifetime he patented 1,093 inventions,
and his most famous invention was the light bulb.
David Warren, an Australian chemist, invented the Black Box Flight
Recorder. In 1953 Dr Warren was sent as part of a team to investigate
air crashes. Dr Warren would have liked to talk to the people who
probably knew the most about what happened and why the plane crashed
– the pilots. Unfortunately they were dead. So Dave Warren
came up with the idea of building a machine that would not only
record what the pilots and flight instruments said, but was also
strong enough to survive the crash. No one in Australia was interested
and he had to take his idea overseas, where they thought it was
a great idea. Today, every commercial plane in the world carries
a Black Box Flight Recorder. Unfortunately, Dave Warren never made
any money out of his invention.
Innovations
Innovations don’t necessarily need to be things. Sometimes
innovations are ideas. A Sydney property developer, Ian Kiernan,
took place in an around-the-world-yacht race in 1986-1987. He was
shocked by what he saw – everywhere plastic bags and other
rubbish polluted the world’s oceans. He decided to do something
about it, and in 1989 with the help of friends and volunteers he
organised a Clean Up the Harbour Day in Sydney. It was so successful
the next year it became Clean Up Australia Day. In 1994 it became
Clean Up the World Day. In 2000 more than 40 million volunteers
in 120 different countries did just that. In 1998 Ian Kiernan was
awarded the United Nations Environment Program Sasakawa Environment
Prize.
A Lot of Sweat*
The American scientist and inventor, Thomas Edison, once
said:
"Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration"
Thomas Edison was born in 1847, and after only three months of school,
his teacher thought he was such a strange child that his mother
decided to teach him at home. He was a voracious reader, with a
particular love of chemistry and electricity. At the time, electricity
was considered a novelty – there were no electrical appliances
and no one was quite sure what electricity could be used for. Thomas
Edison would change all that.
By the time Edison was twelve, he had a job selling newspapers,
and spent his free time reading at the library. He saved his money,
bought a second-hand printing press and began publishing his own
newspaper. After he rescued a child from the path of a train, the
child’s father was so grateful he offered to teach the young
Edison telegraphy (Morse code), which was in such high demand that
Edison quickly got a job. In 1868, Edison patented his first invention
– an electric vote-recording machine – but when he demonstrated
it he was told that it was not practical. Edison vowed he would
never again invent anything without first being sure it was needed.
In 1971, while Edison was waiting for a job interview, a telegraph
broke down and he fixed it while he was waiting. The company offered
him a better job, and Edison went on to invent an improved ‘ticker’
machine for reporting stock prices. He offered the machine for sale,
but he wasn’t game to ask for the money he wanted - US$5,000.
He let the buyers suggest a price and they paid him US$40,000! With
the money, Edison set up an ‘invention’ factory’
where he and his assistants turned out a steady stream of inventions
– a new patent every five days. In his lifetime, Edison patented
1,093 inventions.
Edison’s most famous invention was the light bulb, but he
also developed the phonograph for recording sound, and the kinetoscope
for viewing moving film. He improved Alexander Graham Bell’s
invention, the telephone. By the time Edison died, electricity was
no longer a novelty, and entire cities were lit by electric light.
*extract. Written In Blood: A brief history of civilisation (with
all the gory bits left it) Allen & Unwin, May 2003.
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