The popular saying about invention is “Necessity is the mother of invention”. Shuji Nakamura who is a noble prize winner said, “Anger is the mother of invention”. We need to add frustration to the list as well.
Some of the fascinating inventions are created by accident. They brought a distinct change in our history. For example, X-Ray, Penicillin….They generated a Eureka moment.
We are going to talk about inventions that came from frustration and anger which had a lasting impact on some people.
Potato Chips has that kind of history. In fact, it’s one of the greatest culinary inventions according to me. Story started in a NY restaurant in 1853 by an unhappy customer. He kept on sending food back into kitchen complaining that potatoes were too thick and soggy. Chef George Crum got so frustrated he cut potatoes into thin slices, fried them, salted and served. Customers loved them. Thus, our potato chips were first made. We never looked back. We didn’t have to.
Whenever we are frustrated or angry, we complain and move on. Some people refuse to move on. Emotional impact is so much that they had to do something about it. Chef didn’t know that he is creating the greatest snack of all time. At this point, potato chips have become an essential part of people’s lives.
Patent attorney Chester Carlson faced similar frustration in making multiple copies of legal documents daily was a tedious and irritating task. At the time, duplication was a cumbersome process requiring carbon paper placed between sheets before typing. Producing hundreds of copies this way was daunting.
Being a physicist as well, Carlson began experimenting. In 1938, he successfully created the first copy in the kitchen of his Queens, NY apartment. However, it took him a decade to find a company willing to commercialize his invention. Eventually, the Haloid Company took interest and named the process “Xerography,” derived from the Greek words Xeros (dry) and Graphos (writing), emphasizing the dry copying method instead of wet copying.
The company later became known as Xerox, revolutionizing the way offices functioned.
Doctors get frustrated too.
Dr. Jonathan Bertman was motivated to focus on electronic medical records (EMRs) primarily due to his frustration with the inefficiency and costliness of paper charts and existing EMR systems. This frustration drove him to create Amazing Charts, an EMR system that prioritized affordability, usability, and fairness
He bought a software program that promised to streamline the management of his practice. But that experience just frustrated him further. The program was filled with many choices that doctors really didn’t need. Software is very expensive. Bertman purchased a book “Visual Programming for Dummies” and started developing his own software. He called it “Amazing Charts. It’s easy to use Electronic Health Records software. After using successfully for his practice, he started offering to friends and others. It became popular. It’s free to try and cheap to buy software. He started selling the license later.
The ball hopper was invented by Jake Stap, a tennis camp instructor and gym teacher, in the 1960s. Frustrated with constantly having to pick up tennis balls after his students, Stap came up with the idea of modifying a wastepaper basket by adding a rigid wire handle and bars across the bottom. This allowed the basket to pick up balls by pressing down on them, causing the balls to squeeze through the bars and stay inside the basket. Stap applied for a patent and started Ball Hopper Inc. in 1968, assembling the hoppers with the help of his family.
In 1886, Josephine Cochrane grew frustrated with her delicate China getting chipped during handwashing and the long wait for replacements. Determined to find a better solution, she designed wire compartments perfectly sized for plates, cups, and saucers, placing them inside a rotating wheel cage housed in a copper tub. She then developed a hand-powered motor that spun the wheel while hot, soapy water sprayed the dishes.
As the word spread, friends and local businesses began ordering, and soon the invention became known as the “Cochrane dishwasher.” Before long, restaurants saw its potential and started placing orders, revolutionizing commercial dishwashing. You never know some frustrations could change the world forever.
Tim Berners-Lee who is a software engineer at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research), was incredibly frustrated to access and compare documents from all over the world that were stored on incompatible disks and computers. He imagined a “virtual documentation system in the sky.” He came up with a solution. He developed HTML markup language and protocol which he called World-Wide Web. That’s how WWW is born in 1989. This has changed the world forever. It is so powerful that human history can be divided into the Pre-Internet and Post-Internet age.
Les Paul was frustrated when his acoustic guitar was drowned out by other instruments and background noise. This frustration was a major motivation for his early experiments with electrifying the guitar. Les Paul wanted his instrument to be heard clearly in noisy venues, which led him to develop various pickups and, eventually, the solid-body electric guitar.
My son when he was a kid was afraid that some planet which is not revolving in an orbit might collide with planet earth. He got very worried. Worry faded away as he grew.
In the 1990s, NASA aerospace engineer Jeanne Lee Crews was so troubled by the possibility of orbiting space debris colliding with a space vehicle. She and her team created multi-shock space shields to protect satellites, shuttles, and the space station.
Natural calamities that cause massive devastation might prepare us for the future. Not able to have access to what’s happening in a region frustrated a young man.
Sean Higby was frustrated by being unable to get videos and images from mainstream TV, especially during major events like the 2012 tsunami in Japan. This frustration, particularly his concern for relatives and friends and the lack of comprehensive media coverage, motivated him to create the mobile app Newsala. The app was designed to connect viewers to every video and photo taken in any region in the world as events happen, offering more immediate and diverse information than traditional TV news channels.
“Frustration is the mother of inventions to sometimes”.
