Summary of a summary produced here: http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/assets/documents/inventors_summary.pdf

The origins and early history of the Kryptonite lock, up until the K4

Calculates and cuts planed timber slats to produce complex joints for wooden structures.

"JOYN MACHINE is following an “all-in-one concept” covering the entire production chain from designing a wooden structure, to processing the raw material (wooden slats), to manufacturing the wooden parts that can then be assembled into the designed structure.
The idea of providing one tool that combines all these skills is achieved by closely linking software and hardware components, but also by the construction of the hardware itself: With a weight of about 100 kg, JOYN MACHINE is portable. At the core, it is a three-axis milling machine with a rolling conveyor for the y-axis positioning the wooden slats, including mechatronic, automatic calibration. In practice this means that the user will take a wooden slat and “feed” it to the machine which then does all the rest."

Small enough to be checked as luggage. Can sleep in it.

"The Archimedes Drive is based on the same configuration as a planetary transmission, however uses friction instead of gear teeth to transmit torque. "

Claims reduction ratios of up to 10,000 per stage.

Jan. 11, 2019 | WSJ | By John D. Stoll.

The iPhone is arguably the most valuable product in the world, representing the backbone of Apple Inc.’s AAPL -0.98% half-trillion-dollar hardware business and undergirding its software-peddling App store. It remains the envy of consumer-product companies world-wide.

If history is any indication, though, America’s favorite handheld device will someday take up residence with the digital camera, the calculator, the pager, Sony’s Walkman and the Palm Pilot in a museum. Although it’s hard to imagine the iPhone dying, change can sneak up rapidly on contraptions that are deeply entrenched in American culture......“Over time, every franchise dies,” said Nick Santhanam, McKinsey’s Americas practice leader in Silicon Valley. “You can innovate on an amazing mousetrap, but if people eventually don’t want a mousetrap, you’re screwed.” Kodak, Polaroid and Sears are all examples from the recent past of companies that held too tightly to an old idea.....Apple, for the better part of the 2000s, was the master of the next big thing: the iPod, the MacBook Air, the iPad, the iPhone. Apple wasn’t always first, but its products were easier to use, thinner, cooler.

With the success of the iPhone since it arrived on the scene, the next big thing has been harder to find. Apple has had no breakthrough on TV, a modest success with its watch, a stumble in music and a lot of speculation concerning its intentions for autonomous cars or creating original programming. Can Apple’s greatest strength could be its biggest weakness?.....Whatever shape it takes, Apple’s evolution will be closely watched if only because reinvention is so hard to pull off. A decade ago, Nokia’s dominance in handheld devices evaporated after executives failed to create a compelling operating system to make their pricey smartphones more user-friendly. Finnish executives have told me on several occasions that Nokia knew it needed to rapidly change, but lacked the urgency and resources to do it....The Model T almost entirely underpinned Ford Motor Co.’s rise a century ago, when the Detroit auto maker owned roughly half of the U.S. car market. ....Both Ford and Microsoft adapted and survived. Iconic vehicles like Ford’s Mustang coupe or F-150 pickup prove companies can live a productive life after the initial hit product fades. Microsoft’s transition to cloud computing with its Azure product, meanwhile, has vaulted the company back near the top of the race for the title of world’s most valuable company.

Ch1, table 1.3, inventions from college students.

> Robert Fulton (November 14, 1765 – February 25, 1815) was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing a commercially successful steamboat; the first was called The North River Steamboat of Clermonts. In 1807 that steamboat traveled on the Hudson River with passengers from New York City to Albany and back again, a round trip of 300 miles, in 62 hours. The success of his steamboat changed river traffic and trade on major American rivers.

In 1800, Fulton had been commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte, leader of France, to attempt to design a submarine; he produced the Nautilus, the first practical submarine in history.[1] Fulton is also credited with inventing some of the world's earliest naval torpedoes for use by the British Royal Navy.[2]

Fulton became interested in steam engines and the idea of steamboats in 1777 when he was around age 12 and visited state delegate William Henry of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who was interested in this topic. Henry had learned about inventor James Watt and his Watt steam engine on an earlier visit to England.

Company that specializes in helping people get and sell patents. Has a listing of clever modern inventions. Also has a clear model for the invention process.

ave you ever watched a commercial for a successful product and thought to yourself: "I should have thought of that!" Some of history's most successful ideas and inventions are simple, practical things that clever people have turned into something more convenient, efficient, or effective. Examples - Carol's Daughter lotions, AllerMates, Spanx, Pillow Pets, Slap bracelets.

Video of inventions made by regular people. Note Catherine Hettinger, who let he patent lapse on the fidget spinner, before the boom. Big mouth biggie bass, snuggies (a knockoff of two other inventions), doggles, koosh ball, plastic wishbone, billy-bob teeth, smiley face, slinky, pillow pets, pet rock.