10 Best Examples of Necessity is the Mother of Invention
Real stories with proof!
Human lives are full of problems and uncertainties. With diseases, poor work systems, or harsh climates, we constantly face troubles threatening our existence and growth.
But the greatest of inventions have taken place in such distressing situations.
So let’s look into the 10 best examples proving that necessity is the mother of invention.
#1: Jacuzzi’s son contracted rheumatoid arthritis and experienced continuous joint pain. Therefore Candido Jacuzzi invented J-300 portable water pump to help his son with hydrotherapy treatment.
Candido observed that his arthritis-affected son benefitted from hydrotherapy baths, but the problem was there was no way to have it at his home. So he worked hard to make J-300 portable water pump to reduce his son’s pain. Candido also patented his invention for mass adoption we today know as the “Jacuzzi.” (source)
#2: John Crowley’s two infant children contracted an unknown and incurable genetic disorder. However, Crowley did not lose heart and pioneered an experimental enzyme therapy to save his children’s lives.
Even the doctors who examined Crowley’s children knew nothing about the rare genetic disorder, Pompe disease. However, the father didn’t give up; he left his job in the finance sector and teamed with one glycobiologist to develop Enzyme Replacement Therapy (ERT) that ultimately saved his children and “made them stronger.” (source)
#3: Sir Tim Berners-Lee was frustrated that he had to manually go and ask what data was uploaded on his colleague’s computers. So he worked to solve this problem and created the World Wide Web to connect millions of computers.
Sir Berners-Lee was a British computer scientist who worked as a software engineer at CERN. He was irritated asking about uploaded data to his colleagues and thought to exploit the potential of the internet to make information sharing easier. He laid out his vision, which eventually transformed into the world wide web we know today. (Source)
#4: Chester Greenwood was tired of wearing an itchy scarf to warm his ears from freezing weather. So, with elementary-level education, he invented earmuffs in 1873.
Chester was one of six children who grew up on his father’s farm. He barely had his ends meet selling eggs, candy, and sweets. Chester never liked to wear an itchy scarf to warm his ears from icy weather. So with the help of his grandmother, he designed the first earmuff, for which he was awarded U.S. patent no. 188,292. (source)
#5: In the 1900s, bread had to be turned manually; therefore, most cafeterias served burned toast. Charles Strite didn’t want to accept this, so he invented the pop-up toaster in 1921.
Strite was an American who worked in a manufacturing plant during WWI. At his workplace, he was often served burned toast, but he didn’t want to accept this like his colleagues. So Charles worked to create a toaster that would eject bread slices after they got fully toasted. He received a US patent for his invention on 18th October 1921. (source)
#6: Floyd G. Paxton opened a bag of peanuts in an airplane only to realize there was no way to reclose it. So, using his expired credit card and pen knife, he invented the bread clip in 1952.
Paxton was a second-gen manufacturing engineer involved in nail-machine production during WWI. He was on a flight eating peanuts when he realized that he could not reclose the bag to have some of them later. In this tricky situation, Paxton used his creativity to make the first bread clip out of an expired credit card and pen knife. (source)
#7: The eruption of Mount Tambora led to climate change, outbreaks, and famines, so much so that horses were slaughtered for food. The world needed a new way of transport, so Karl von Drais invented the first bicycle.
Karl von drais was a german inventor who saw the transportation crisis post-Mt. Tambora eruption. Karl was creative enough to devise a transportation medium that didn’t rely on animal power. You can peddle it with your legs, and we call it ‘cycling’. (source)
#8: David Aguilar was born without a forearm. So he made a prosthetic arm completely from Legos.
Aguilar is from Andorra and didn’t have a forearm because of a rare genetic condition. As a kid, he was fascinated with Legos and played with them alone as he was bullied in school for being weird. He gathered 700 lego bricks to make a fully functional leg arm and got a Guinness world record. (source)
#9: It was expensive to import ice from US and Norway. So an Australian journalist used sulphuric ether to invent the first ice-making machine in 1854.
The Australian journalist was James Harrison, who founded the Geelong advertiser newspaper. In his time, there were no mechanical means to make ice for beverages. The sizeable cost of importing ice prompted him to look for options when he saw how mechanical sulphuric ether could be used to make ice. He patented his invention, which made him the “father of refrigeration.” (source)
#10: During the polio epidemic in the 1940s and 50s, children were forced to quarantine themselves. To cheer the children, a school teacher invented Candy Land to offer an illusion of movement.
The school teacher was Eleanor Abbott of San Diego, who cared for children in polio wards in the 1940s and 50s. Polio patients were confined, and healthy children feared moving out, so Abbott invented a board game where players race down a linear track, giving them an illusion of movement. (source)
Which real story inspired you the most? Share your thoughts in the comments. Don’t forget to clap and follow me for more such inspiring stories!
Have a good day, readers!
