Come June, there's going to be some new blood in the club. And it's about time. When Don Reaches his 75th birthday in June he's planning on retiring from all club activities.
After foregoing too many personal activities in order to write or contribute to the newsletter or some kind of club job like treasurer, or secretary, or president, political emissary or whatever, the jobs will be taken over by someone new. And that's a good thing.
There's a book to be finished, for helping inventors, some special pictures to be taken, home repairs to be finished, product to be marketed and trips promised, but never taken. So much left to do and so little time.
Yeah, it's time. The NIA is about to become an official nonprofit corporation, ready for corporate donations, and grants, in order to grow and help more inventors. We've come a long way from the five people who met in an insurance broker's office back in 1987. (Dick Allen and Len Schweitzer will remember).
So please folks, let's think about the offices of Treasurer, Secretary, Editor and political representative. We've got over 70 top quality members now and the NIA future looks good.
Goto the bottom of page.
In the December newsletter I said there would be some information about marketing firms on the internet, or for the internet. Well, there are firms who do offer these services, but not every inventor is using the internet yet, so I'll try to give the contact information plus the rest of their statistics. (addresses and phone/fax numbers)
There are many, many more, to be sure, but I did promise, and you know what they say -- "gotta start somewhere." Please add to this list when you find another one, OK? I don't mean your list... I mean call me or let me know the information about the company so everybody can benefit. Marketing is something we all can't get too much knowledge about, so let's help each other -- build the list.
First place to look, always. Inventors' Digest!! You know how I nag about that at every meeting. Every inventor should not only subscribe, but use it. In the back is the Inventor's Mart for early exposure of your invention, then there's the Inventions Wanted section. No less than fifteen companies were listed in the last issue. So do companies read the Inventors' Digest? You better believe they do. Speaks for itself.
www.inventorsdigest.com
310 Franklin St., Suite 24
Boston, MA 02110
(617) 367-4540 Fax (617) 723-6988
New Product Source (NPS) is an organization that sounds interesting. They're developed by inventors for inventors. I'll give a couple quotes from their web site: "Our Company is an Integrated Commercializer for inventions and other new products. We are made up of `volunteers including inventors, manufacturers, distributors, and professional people. There are no salaries and no wages. Hundreds of people volunteer to do whatever they can to help reemploy America and create new wealth through commercializing inventions. Our plan is to build companies around inventors' products."
"NPS never charges the inventors or product developers any money for including their products as part of this great effort. On the contrary, NPS pays the inventors and product developers a royalty."
There is a form to fill out on a web page describing your invention and giving your personal statistics and product history. As I said, it looks pretty interesting because there is no charge to inventors.
www.wonderlink.net/~caldwell/invent/front
New Product Source
P.O. Box 477
Oak Grove, MO 64075-0477
No phone or Fax Nos. yet
E-mail address is ronf@discoverynet.com
"The Hook" That's Hal Meyer III's Company. He wrote a terrific article in the last issue of Inventors' Digest titled "Say What?" Hal's company is a performance based licensing, marketing and new product development company.
www.thehooktek.com
The Hook Appropriate Technology
52 Bank Street
New Milford, CT 06776-270
Phone & Fax Nos. not available
Jack Kimball is President of a company that offers the full spectrum of serices from product evaluation to product development to negotiations with clients. I believe him to be sincere and ethical. It doesn't hurt to check out his web site, or call, and ask for a price menu and brochure. He does offer an internet development service.
www.sover.net/~jwkassoc
JWK Associates, Inc.
One Washington Center, Suite 303
Dover, NH 03820-3831
(603) 749-7111
E-mail info@jwkassoc.com
Royal Appliance Mfg. Co is looking for profitable products in the Home & Garden maintenance field, like wheelbarrows, lawn mowers, etc. They have successfully marketed the "Dirt Devil" hand vacuum.
Kenneth Robbins, Agent
Royal Appliance Manufacturing Co.
c/o BKV, Inc., Buckhead Centre
2964 Peachtree Road, Suite 700
Atlanta, GA 30305
Arthur D. Little Enterprises (ADLE) must be mentioned. They are 40 years old, have 2,700 staff members in 45 offices around the world. They have a division devoted to invention management with an online submission form for patented technology.
Http://www.adlittle-us.com/
Manager, New Business Development
Arthur D. Little Enterprises, Inc.
15 Acorn Park
Cambridge, MA 02140
(617) 443-0309 Fax (617) 498-702
Goto the bottom of page.
This from Newsweek: There's a wealth of information on the internet, but how do you figure out which is trustworthy? Or worth spending time on? The Encyclopedia Britannica is waiting to be explored. Remember when we were kids and whatever was quoted from the "Britannica" was gospel? Well check out this web site: www.ebig.com
Their information guide pares things down to 65,000 rated web sites that have been selected as the best and most reliable in each of 14 categories. Imagine that! All on one internet web site. It's proof that less can be more.
Super site Want to know what's happening? Check out Inventors Digest web site:
www.inventorsdigest.com
Goto the bottom of page.
Perhaps by the date of the meeting, Sat. 24th, there will be some information about a trade show in Long Beach, CA that involves "Telemarketing."
I received a call from a lady who is a producer of trade shows. The Telemarketing people who are having their show in April are looking for new products for their marketing style.
Apparently this is purely television marketing and the full spectrum from the guys who want the inventor to pay for everything (no risk sales) to the outfit who will develop the product for a larger percentage of the income.
She sounded like the exhibitors at the show will mostly be large organizations who have the bucks to do it all. If one of our NIA members has a product suitable for TV, but not yet market ready, it may be worth checking out. She said she could get us compasses for the show even though it is for the industry only, not the public.
She said she would E-mail me the information, but I haven't seen it yet. By meeting time I should have some information. Sounds interesting.
Goto the bottom of page.
Thanksgiving in January? ? I'm sure some are thinking old Don's slipped over the edge, grasping at anything for newsletter copy. But when you think about some of the things I'd like to say about that, maybe we should all be giving thanks. Thanks to America's inventors, that is.
Not many folks have remembrances about life in America before World War Two, some maybe not much personal experience since the 60's or 70's. Well, being born in 1923 I have some very clear memories about life and how our parents and grandparents coped around 65 years ago. Because of the independent inventor (folks just like you) incredible changes have happened that make our life better, longer and sweeter.
So it's January... It's cold, especially at night and in the mornings, so we just turn up the thermostat in the morning, plug in the coffee pot, and pretty soon we're comfortable, right? Think about this -- When I was kid, in Mina, about 160 miles south of here, getting to the school bus by 7:30 was not too bad for me because I had some hot mush or pancakes in my belly, lunch all packed in a bag and it was getting light enough to see all the railroad tracks I had to cross. (Never got used to the outdoor toilet in the winter, though)
What my grandmother went through to get me and my brother and sister out of the house that early was another story. She got up around 4AM, rubbed her aching arthritic hands, stuffed some paper, kindling and wood into the kitchen and dining room stoves to get a good fire going. Broke up some coal to poke in on top of the blazing wood to heat water for three sleepy kids so they could brush their teeth and wash their faces after they crowded around the stove in the dining room to dress without burning themselves on the stove trim.
While all the action was going on she fixed some pancakes or oatmeal for us to gobble while she was making sandwiches to bag, along with some of last night's pie.
Now think about that. No thermostat, no furnace, no hot water, no thermopane windows or fancy insulation in the walls, not even carpeting for her to walk on -- just linoleum. That place was COLD in the mornings. I wonder if visions of gas or electric stoves, or furnaces, or automatic water heaters ever danced through her head? Probably not. But some inventors did wonder about that lifestyle, all across rural America. And like inventors today, struggled to change it. Can you imagine how remote the concept of a supermarket, home freezer, micro-wave oven or electric blanket must have been to Grandma?
After the kids were off to school, there was the laundry (more wood and coal in the stove) to be hung all over the kitchen (It's January, remember?) mending and sewing on her treadle machine, getting supper ready for when the whole family would be throwing their feet under the table at 6:00 O'Clock sharp. That might even be one of those wonderful roast chicken dinners that Grandma could create on that old stove.
Incidentally, getting a chicken to the oven was a little different then. When she sent us kids to the store for a chicken it was not to buy a chicken carcass... It was to buy a real live chicken, which of course, Grandma would introduce to the same chopping block she used for cutting kindling. Whack! One chicken on its way to being plucked, cleaned and skillfully cooked.
Then after washing all the dinner dishes (more wood and coal in the stove) there might be time to listen to Amos & Andy or Jack Benny on the living room radio. (but first, more wood and coal in the stove -- it's still January) Maybe a bath in the wash tub for three dirty kids. (more wood and coal for plenty of hot water) Stand guard at the door while my sister was bathing, then nag the kids 'til they finished their homework.
Sounds like a wonderful life, right? Not for Grandma, it wasn't. So let's fast forward to the 90's. Now it's time to start giving thanks to America's inventors. We still have chicken dinners, but oh so much easier. Life is better when inventors go to work to make it so.
Automatic lives demand automatic appliances and things. During the years that slip by there has become a lifestyle for Americans that seems to have evolved so seamlessly that we're rarely aware of its changes. I wonder how many folks realize that little old Reno had dial phones before Las Vegas? It's true! When I first went to work in Vegas, in 1952, the phone system was under construction to become a new "dial" system, but we still had to wait and wait for that magical phrase "Number please?." (My gawd, that was only 45 years ago. Not the same Las Vegas it is today) New gadgets and technology every year? Sure. But haven't we come to expect that, and even plan on it?
Grandma and my Grandfather, with a couple of kids, hauled a printing press, paper, lead type fonts, ink and all the furniture, clothes, food and living gear across west Texas and up to Nevada in a covered wagon in August of 1897. (No exaggeration -- sure, autos were invented, but...) She even had a baby boy on the Texas trail, who unfortunately only lived a few days.
Do we think about that while cruising in an automatic climate controlled car or airplane? No, and why should we? We're not living in the past, under past conditions. But do we think about the inventors who made our lives change so drastically that it's almost like science fiction? No, but should we? I think so. I think all Americans should be thinking about that and giving thanks that we live in America with American technology. Grandpa was a "Tramp Editor" who produced a little two page newspaper in mining boom towns. (what we call a newsletter today) Could he have possibly dreamed of the future, when inventors would bring the newsletter technology to the point of just creating one on a home computer? (Wow!)
Our homes, our cars, our computers have so many automatic things it's difficult to imagine that they weren't always there. We can make a phone call by pushing a button. We don't even have to be tethered to the phone. Let's not even mention TV and where it's going. Grandma would not have been able to grasp the concept of TV, cell phones, jet planes or video tapes. Maybe it's just as well. I sure do remember listening to her humming a little tune most of the time. I confess, I don't hum much. Could it be she was happier than I? I wonder.
Anyway, thank you inventors... And thank you America... I love living here and now.
or goto Articles or Titles
Page done by Vince Chemist.
Created on Feb. 7, 1998
Updated on November 29, 2005