The Invention of the Summer Fun Super Soaker was by a scientist at NASA

You might think it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to invent a squirt gun like the Super Soaker. But Lonnie Johnson, the inventor who devised this hugely popular toy that can drench half the neighborhood with a single pull of the trigger, actually worked on the Galileo and Cassini satellite programs and at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Johnson holds more than 120 patents on a variety of products from lithium batteries, heat pumps, hair drying curlers, wet diaper detector, the technology used in CDs and DVDs, toy rocket launchers and yes the Nerf Super Soaker Blaster. Lonnie struggled for years to find a company that could turn his idea into a commercial success, but no one was interested. Today it’s a billion dollar selling toy, and the royalties he receives from the Super Soaker and Nerf Blaster have surpassed anyone’s dream. Now at age 72, Lonnie is currently working on the next generation battery that will charge faster and last longer and will surpass today’s lithium, making it obsolete ……Ed

Source: David Kindy /Photo: (COURTESY LONNIE JOHNSON)