Former 'Monkee' Mike Nesmith had a rather creative mother,
Bette Nesmith Graham. Her invention, liquid paper was initially
rejected by IBM so she set up her own cottage industry to make
and sell the now famous stationery item. |
Did you know that Parker Bros. intially rejected inventor Clarence
Darrow's board game Monopoly due to '52 fundamental playing
errors'. He thought they were wrong so started production himself.
Once the success of the formula became apparent, Parker Bros.
decided to take on production after all. |
Canadian inventors Chris Haney, Scott Abbott and John Haney
struggled with the board game trivial pursuit. While it only
took them 45 minutes to create the concieve, they lost $45,000
trying to market it in over four years before it finally became
a hit.
Unemployed artist Michael Wurstlin had designed the board and
logo for five shares in the company. Despite the early failure
his shares were valued at $2,500,000 by 1986. |
The Bic pen was named after its French Inventor Marcel Bich.
However they decided to drop the 'H' from the name fearing
that the American market might pronounce the name 'Bitch'. |
The British Museum was the conduit for the invention of the
Rawlplug. They needed electrical fittings installed in the
walls without damaging the masonry but traditional methods
weren't good enough. Local builder John Rawlings solved the
problem by inventing a fibre plug, made from jute and bonded
with animal blood. He called it the Rawlplug and the original
design is still in production today!
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