Back to Clever People, Clever Solutions

Before You Read:
Solutions Large and Small

People use inventions every day to solve problems. If their soup gets cold, they heat it in the microwave. If their shirt gets wrinkled, they press it with an iron. Most of us take these inventions for granted. None of them just appeared in stores one day, though. Each was invented by a clever person—or maybe several clever people working together. These inventors looked for ways to solve problems—both little and big—and gave us the gadgets that make our lives easier.

What inventions do you use to help you solve everyday problems? Work with a partner to make a chart like the one below. List a few items you use a lot and the problems they solve. Remember, each of these items was once a new idea. When you are done, click here to read about some other inventions and the people behind them. Were any of the inventions in your chart?

Item	Problem That It Solves
Telephone	It lets you talk to people who are far away.

Whose Bright Idea?

• When you go for a walk on a dark night, how do you find your way? You probably use a flashlight. You might be surprised to know that the flashlight started out as a completely different invention — an electric flowerpot. Inside the flowerpot, there was a tube with a battery and a light bulb inside. The light bulb would shine on a flower or plant in the flowerpot. Not many people needed an electric flowerpot, however. Then a Russian immigrant named Conrad Hubert saw a way to use this invention to solve a real problem — seeing in the dark. He took the tube out of the pot, made it longer, and created the first electric flashlight. People saw the flashlight's usefulness right away. Conrad Hubert started the Eveready Flashlight Company. Now that was a really bright idea!
• You might wonder who invented the refrigerator, the coolest home improvement ever made. No one person can make that claim, but Dr. Mary Engle Pennington had a lot to do with making refrigerators work better. Pennington solved the problem of humidity control. If humidity gets too low in a refrigerator, food dries out. If humidity gets too high, food spoils. Thanks to Mary Engle Pennington, you can keep the humidity in a refrigerator just right. That means you can keep leftover birthday cake without its getting moldy or stale and eat it two days later!

Now read about two other problem solvers whose bright ideas have given us good quality clothes and shoes. You might even be wearing the product of one of their ideas now.

Go to Ideas You Can Wear.