THE
DREAM
M A K E R S
Some inventors make only one new discovery—for others, one leads to another and another.
Staying Power Magnified Opportunity
T
he product that became Elmer's Glue-All turned out to b e Ashworth Stull's wedding present to himself. Stull, a 1937 chemistry graduate, founded American Resinous Chemical Corp. and personally conducted the research effort to plasticize polyvinyl acetate, which became the "white glue." In August 1942, after attempting some 800 experiments, Stull was on the verge of giving up. On the afternoon before his wedding day, h e decided to carry out one final experiment before dropping the project, getting married and going on his honeymoon. When he returned from his honeymoon, Stull recalls, "that was the only stable product among 800." He sold his company to Borden Inc. in the mid1950s and Ash Stull's white glue became "Elmer's Glue-All."
R
ick Steenblik, a 1980 r mechanical engineering graduate n o w working with the Georgia Tech Research Institute, has develo p e d two creative inventions that so far have not realized commercial success. His latest invention, however, a n e w kind of microscope, has a waiting market. When Steenblik unveiled a spiral solar reflector in 1981, it was featured o n the covers of Science & Mechanics and Science News magazines. He invented the Georgia Tech Spiral Fresnel Reflector while still a student. Based on Fresnel principles, the coiled solar energy device was believed to have virtually unlimited applications, including cooking, water heating and pumping, absorption, refrigeration, pottery firing and crop
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drying. It is also believed to have industrial uses such as thermal or photovoltaic p o w e r generation. But the spiral reflector has not taken off commercially. Another Steenblik invention is a pair of 3-D glasses that use color to create a 3-D image from two-dimensional color graphics, photographs or illustrations. Technically called chromostereoscopy because the stereoscopic image is created by manipulating color, Steenblik is working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to perfect the o p tics for mass production. The glasses could b e used to give a 3-D effect to special television programs or cartoon shows, computergenerated images, laser shows and textbooks. Steenblik's latest invention—a low-cost, high-performance microscope— could b e a marketer's dream come true. Steenblik believes the microscope would b e practically indestructible, have superior optics, and b e so affordable that every child in a science classroom could have a personal microscope. Steenblik hopes to introduce the instrument before the e n d of the year.