UNR offers yet another resource for the entrepreneurial inventor
In the southeast corner of the fourth floor of UNR's Ansari Business Building lies one of the greatest public
resources for anyone looking to make money from a good idea.
It's the Nevada Small Business Development center and the available resources include literature published by the
Small Business Administration, business onented penodicals, and numerous reference books on finding financing,
developing marketing and other business-related plans. But perhaps the greatest resource offered is the human element
with counselors like our September speaker, Rod Jorgensen.
Jorgensen's duties there "include counseling start-up and expanding business clients on general topics such
as marketing, financing availability, management, patents, copyrights, franchises, licensing and regulatory requirements,
business structure, etc.," according to his biographical information.
The nationwide network of Small Business Development Centers was established by Congress in 1977 to offer free,
confidential business counseling for start-ups and expansions.
Specific fields covered include geographic and demographic information and analysis, business environmental assistance,
and technology development assistance. Workshops offered range from basic bookkeeping to business plans to time
and life management. Other activities include information on employment law, environmental information, crime prevention,
and employment law. While basic counseling is free, many of these other services carry a nominal fee.
The Reno office is part of a statewide network with branch offices in other northern Nevada communities, as well
as several in southern Nevada. The program can also be accessed online at 'www.nsbdc.org'.
NSBDC Branch Offices
State Office College of Business Administration, UNR (775) 784-1717
Carson City Chamber of Commerce (775) 882-1565
Hi-Desert Development Authority (775) 623-1064
Great Basin College (775) 753-2245
Churchill County Economic development Authority (775) 423-8587
Carson Valley Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Authority (775) 782-8144
September 28, 2002
Rod Jorgensen Nevada Small Business Development Center
9 a.m.-noon Room 101 Washoe Medical Center
October 26, 2002
Regular Meeting 9 a.m.-noon Room 101
Washoe Medical Center
November 23, 2002 Regular Meeting
9 a.m.-noon Room 101 Washoe Medical Center
What do you get when you tell a creative genius something can't be done? Maybe a radio that will play off your
car's battery in an era when vacuum tubes ruled in the communications field.
The invention in the early 1930s that started us on the road to driving entertainment was the electromagnetic interrupter
which converted the battery's direct current to the AC needed by the radios of that day, and the inventor was a
man somewhat familiar in the Reno area: Bill Lear.
Lear descriptively named that first radio Motorola. Paul Galvin (who later became president of Motorola) was not
very impressed. "Aw come on Bill, don't come to me with your harebrained ideas, they will legislate against
in in Congress because it will be distracting to the driver," was his response. Lear, a consummate salesman,
eventually convinced Galvin to give it a try.
The first order for the radio, which Lear had also miniaturized to better fit inside the car, consisted of 100
units and sold out in 10 minutes on the street of the Chicago plant where it was manufactured. This technology
was state of the art for 25 years until th advent of the transistor.
Lear, a ninth-grade dropout and an Eagle Scout whose mother refused to believe he was making legitimate money with
his inventions, actually held seven patents by age 35, and had already been both "very rich and flat broke,"
according to his late widow, Moya Lear, in an account of their intreguing lives and turbulent marriage.
Bill Lear's other lifelong passion was flying. In the 1930s, he was working on an "automatic direction finder"
During World War II, Lear filed 43 patents, and after the war, he refined his automatic direction finder to what
we know today as automatic pilot. What he developed was "small, practical...and helped pilots fly in heavy
weather even at zero visibility." That invention, and allconsuming project, was completed in 1949 after less
than two years.
He loved solving problems and creating and producing products to implement his solutions. "He was the happiest
when he was engulfed in a project," Moya explained. Rather than savoring the accomplishment, he felt an emptiness
from the lack of a challenge.
Source: Bill and Moya Lear: An Unforgettable Flight by Moya Olsen Lear. published in Reno by Jack Bacon and Company
in 1996.
Check out www.inventorsmuseum.com
The home page of this informative web site describes it in these words:
Since the Museum opened, we've had over 3.5 million visitors and been featured on CNN and many other great web sites all over the Internet! In addition to the media attention, the Museum has received numerous awards from other websites and educators from all over the World. We are currently working with authors and publishers to review and provide content for their books.
Sign up as a Museum affiliate and we'll keep you informed about the museum, inventors issues and new features and news (we don't send junk mail and we don't ever sell stuff, or sell your information to third parties.)
If you want to contract the museum directly, the e-mail address on the site is erik @ inventorsmuseum.com.
Page done by Vince Chemist.
Created on Nov. 2 2002
Updated on November 29, 2005