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Water toy tells story of innovation and entrepreneurship SOMETIMES SERIOUS WORK LEADS to serious play — with seriously successful results. Did you know that the Super Soaker water gun was an accidental invention by NASA rocket scientist Lonnie Johnson? Johnson was passionate about inventing not only at his “day job” as an engineer working with hundreds of colleagues but also working on his own inventions in his spare time. In 1982, Johnson was in his home workshop developing an environmentally friendly cooling system. To test his idea of using circulating water and air pressure — instead of the chemical Freon — Johnson connected a high-pressure nozzle to his bathroom faucet, aimed the nozzle, turned it on and then blasted a powerful stream of water into the bathtub. He quickly recognized its potential as a toy — a pressurized water gun that didn’t require batteries and was safe enough for kids to play with. Johnson quickly produced a prototype using Plexiglas, PVC pipe, a two-liter soda bottle and other materials. Over the next few
ONLINE See other toys from the 1990s in The Henry Ford’s Digital Collectionsc
years, he continued to make improvements. In 1989, Johnson licensed his design for the Super Soaker to Larami. The company launched the toy on the market in 1990. Kids loved it! Within two years, the Super Soaker generated over $200 million in sales, becoming the top-selling toy in the United States. Improved versions of the Super Soaker debuted during the following years. By 2016, Super Soaker sales were approximately $1 billion. Johnson didn’t just take his royalty money and retire. It was a means to achieving his real goal — to establish his own research company, Johnson Research & Development. Today, Johnson has more than 100 patents and is currently developing innovative technology to efficiently convert solar energy into electricity with world-changing results. Johnson’s Super Soaker, familiar to millions of kids, can inspire new generations of inventors and entrepreneurs. The message? Creative play can lead to great achievements. — JEANINE HEAD MILLER, CURATOR OF DOMESTIC LIFE
WATCH Episode 98, titled “Super Soaker Inventor,” from season 4 of The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation thf.org/explore/innovation-nation/ episodes/super-soaker-inventorc
ANOTHER NASA SCIENTIST Lonnie Johnson isn’t the only NASA scientist who’s a bit of a kid at heart that has caught the attention of The Henry Ford. In 2009, Charles Elachi, who was then head of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), was interviewed as part of The Henry Ford’s OnInnovation oral history project. He talked about the solar system being his team’s playground: “Having fun is a big part of being passionate about what you do. Every time we launch a spacecraft, we have to be very serious about it because we are spending taxpayer money and people have spent years and years designing these missions. “On the other hand, the work has to be fun or who is going to come here and work 60, 80 hours a week until the job is done? “Every morning, I look forward to whatever problem I might face because I am going to learn something new, be enriched and maybe become a little bit smarter. I think most of the people at JPL think about it that way. That this is a playground, but a serious playground.” To read or watch the full interview with Elachi, visit thf.org/explore/stories-of -innovation/visionaries/ charles-elachi or view the feature story in the JanuaryMay 2015 issue of The Henry Ford Magazine at issuu.com/ thfmagazine.
PHOTO INSET FROM THE HENRY FORD ARCHIVE OF AMERICAN INNOVATION
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