Frank Epperson's 1905 invention has been popular with kids for a century.=pic
Sometimes a very simple concept–so simple it can discovered by accident–can create a new American classic.
One particularly cold evening in 1905, 11-year-old Frank Epperson was sitting on his porch in San Francisco stirring a stick through his cup of water mixed with powdered soda. He left the cup out on his porch and discovered the next morning that he had accidentally created a delicious treat, which he named after himself — the Epsicle. As a child, he made the Epsicle popular among his friends. As an adult, he gave it to his own kids–they called it a “Pop’s sicle,” and the name stuck, Gizmodo reports.
Epperson applied for a patent in 1923, which he sold in 1929. The frozen treats, selling for five cents a pop, became popular quickly. Epperson passed away in 1983 at the age of 89.
4. Hot Wheels on One Wheel
Ben Gulak of Toronto, Canada with the "Uno," which he invented at age 18.=pic
Ben Gulak of Toronto was the first person to roar down the street on only one wheel. Gulak invented the world’s first “unicycle” motorbike when he was 18.
The bike, which he calls the Uno, actually uses two wheels placed side by side — giving it the illusion of being a powered unicycle, though easier to balance and ride. The Uno is powered by the same electric and gyroscopic technology used by Segway scooters. Gulak was inspired to make the bike a zero-emissions vehicle after visiting China and seeing that the sky was constantly covered in smog, The Daily Mail reports.
5. A New Sport (and a New Legal Precedent)
Windsurfing, invented independently by several people one of whom was a 12-year-old boy, became the subject of a tense legal battle.=pic
When Peter Chilvers, a 12-year-old English boy attached a sail to a surfboard in 1958, he invented a new water sport that is now popular worldwide–and set himself up for an ordeal of legal battles decades later.
An American inventor who developed a similar device independently began marketing it under the name Windsurfing International. But when another manufacturer challenged the validity of Windsurfing International’s patent in the 1980s, it offered evidence that Chilvers had originally invented the windsurfer ten years before Windsurfing International filed its patent.
Lawyers for Windsurfing International accused Chilvers of lying in his claim that he had invented the windsurfer as a schoolboy. But being friendly with the old lady next door paid off for Chilvers: neighbors who witnessed him windsurfing as a schoolboy verified his claim.
Since Chilvers’s board used the same universal joint that was a key part of Windsurfing International’s patent, British courts upheld the validity of Chilver’s patent, finding that the developments made by Windsurfing International were merely “obvious extensions” of Chilvers’s design. The case acknowledged Chilvers as the original inventor of the design and set an important legal precedent for the “non-obviousness” standard of new patents, the BBC reported in 2009.
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