You can be an inventor no matter what age you are


If you have a great idea, no matter what age you are, you should follow up on it. It could be the solution to one of the world’s problems. Some inventors did not let age get in the way of their creativity and have become inventors both at a very young age and also well into their retirement years. Some of these inventors have proved that age is just a number and is not a barrier to anything.

Louis Braille – Braille reading (15)

After suffering an accident that blinded him early in his childhood, Louis Braille excelled as a student. He quickly mastered his disability and at the age of fifteen developed a reading system for blind people that still largely remains the same to this day. Braille invented the system in the 19th century, presetting his reading device to people for the first time in 1984. This young Frenchman’s invention has been helping blind and partially sighted people read ever since, almost 200 years after it was introduced.

You can be an inventor no matter what age you are

Sam Houghton – Sweeping Device with Two Heads (5!)

Have you ever questioned what you have done with your life? Most of us can look to a handful of achievements that we make during our working lives that we can be proud of. Young Sam Houghton from the UK became a bonafide inventor at the tender age of five. Yep, five. At the age of 3, he watched his father struggle to sweep up leaves in the backyard using two brooms, one for large leave and another for the smaller bits of debris. Hughton figured there would be a simple solution to his father’s problem and invented the Sweeping Device with Two Heads by the time he was 5 years old. It was two brooms held together with elastic bands, something his father (a patent attorney) decided to file a patent application for. Sam was credited as the sole inventor and is believed to be the youngest ever person to receive a patent.

Charles Greeley Abbot – received patent at 99

From the youngest to the oldest. A serial inventor, Abbot went through his life inventing things. He made himself a wooden bicycle at the age of 13, and in 1920 he experimented with solar energy. He believed the world could use alternative fuels to gas and diesel and set about harnessing the power of the sun. His last patent came just two years before he passed away at age 101. He was a pioneer who foreseen the troubles the human race would have in depending on fossil fuels forever.

You can be an inventor no matter what age you are

George Weiss – Dabble (84)

Weiss had been sitting on his invention for years. In his basement, he came up with numerous ideas, but there was one he was sure was going to be a hit. It was board game Dabble, a word game that became the game of the year in 2011. The game requires moving tiles in what is a fast-paced version of Scrabble. The game was released as an app several years ago and proves that if you keep going and never give up on your dreams, someday they might just come true.
It just goes to show that on both ends of the age spectrum a great idea can come to you in a moment of inspiration. These incredible inventors have proven that age shouldn’t hold you back and with a little bit of ingenuity and creativity, you can introduce something to the world that will help change the lives of many people.

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