O.T. - article about the person who invented "super soaker" squirt guns.
January 17, 1999
Scientist Develops 'Super Soaker'
Filed at 8:09 p.m. EST
By The Associated Press
SMYRNA, Ga. (AP) -- On Lonnie Johnson's office wall, right next to his
patents for a thermostat, hair-drying rollers and a wet diaper detector, is
patent No. 4,757,946 -- for the flow actuated pulsator.
The Super Soaker, as it's known to millions, is a little more advanced than
your typical water gun. This high-powered weapon has drenched many
backyard warriors and revitalized the toy gun market.
And unlike his work in the design of three NASA space probes that earned
him a plaque, this homemade gadget turned the rocket scientist into a
millionaire.
''Obviously, it was a cut above anything that was available but I never
expected it would set the standard worldwide in water guns,'' said Johnson,
49, sitting in his suburban Atlanta research and development office.
A native of Mobile, Ala., Johnson's career had its start in 1968 when he won a
state science fair competition with Linex, a remote-controlled robot he built
using batteries, compressed air and tape reels.
''Back then robots were unheard of so I was one of only a few kids in the
country who had his own robot,'' he said.
Not bad for a black kid who was told while growing up in the South that he
didn't have what it took to be an engineer. Although disheartened, Johnson
persevered, earning a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a
master's in nuclear engineering. He holds wide-ranging patents -- 49 in all --
and is working on an additional dozen or so.
As an engineer at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's
acclaimed Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Johnson worked on
Voyager, Mars Observer, and Galileo.
''I came up with the idea of a memory keeper power supply that would
operate even if there was a short circuit aboard the spacecraft,'' he said of his
work on Galileo, which was launched in 1989.
At the time of his most lucrative stroke of creative genius, in 1982, Johnson
was an engineer at the Strategic Air Command in Omaha, Neb., working in
his spare time on a new type of heat pump that would use water instead of
Freon.
He hooked up a model of the pump to the bathroom sink in his home.
''I turned around and I was shooting this thing across the bathroom into the
tub and the stream of water was so powerful that the curtains were swirling
in the breeze it sent out,'' he said. ''I thought, 'This would make a great water
gun.'''
The Pneumatic Water Gun was what he dubbed the first prototype. He
received the patent -- No. 4,591,071 -- for the squirt gun in 1986, but he
decided not to manufacture the plastic gun himself after determining it would
cost $200 per gun for the first 1,000.
Then in 1989, he met some executives with Larami Corp. at a toy fair. Two
weeks later, he was sitting in the company's conference room with a model of
the Super Soaker he had created out of a plastic Coke bottle, PVC pipe and
Plexiglas.
''I pumped it up and fired it across the conference room,'' he recalled.
''Wow,'' was the reaction from the suited executives. ''From that point it was
a done deal.''
The Super Soaker, for which Johnson received a patent in 1988, was
introduced into the market in 1990 with a pumped-up reservoir capable of
firing a stream of water up to 50 feet. It blew away plain old water pistols.
Today, more than 250 million of the high-tech water weapons have been sold,
according to Al Davis, Larami executive vice president.
''That's four guns to every kid in the United States,'' Davis said, noting that
the plastic toys also found a surprise market among adults.
The giant water guns range the gamut from a $5 pocket-size version to the
$50 CPS-3000, a gray, blue and red plastic weapon with a 2-gallon backpack
guaranteed to soak its target.
The toy's success extend beyond the hot weather.
''It contributes to profits year-round,'' said Chris Byrne, editor of Playthings
MarketWatch, a toy trade publication. ''It's mainly a spring and summer toy,
but that doesn't mean in places like Florida and California kids aren't getting
Super Soakers for Christmas.''
Royalties Johnson has earned from his invention have helped him open his
own research firm in Smyrna where his staff of 18 are busy working on what
Johnson hopes is his next multimillion-dollar idea.
Johnson, a soft-spoken modest father of three, refused to disclose exactly
how much his toy invention has earned him.
''I'm doing quite well,'' he said with a smile. ''Put it like this, I could close this
place down and go lay on the beach if I wanted to.''
Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company |
