Inventor

A Day in the Life of a Inventor

Inventors are some of the icons of American history; they industriously work to create new products for the American public. The image of Alexander Graham Bell inventing the telephone in a relatively primitive lab is firmily printed on our mind’s eye. Engineering and development costs have dramatically increased, and invention today more often occurs in corporate labs and research and development departments; still, 20 percent of U.S. patents are issued each year to private inventors. A skilled inventor can still transform good ideas into significant sums of money. There are great rewards in designing a product that is better than any that have come before it. In addition to being creative, successful inventors must also be effective businesspeople. Developing a useful product is only the first step in the process. The inventor must also be able to negotiate a favorable licensing contract with an established manufacturer or have the wherewithal to become an entrepreneur and go into the business of manufacturing his or her ideas. Designs must be developed that avoid infringing on existing patents, and investors must protect themselves from others who would copy their existing design. Knowing the fields or backgrounds of inventions makes inventors’ lives much easier, both when they develop new products and assess the value of inventions as they are developing them. As a full-time career, inventing provides an uncertain living for all but the most talented. Developing new products is time-consuming and often expensive, and income doesn’t start to flow until a marketable prototype is ready. Many inventors work part-time as inventors and spend the rest of their time in jobs as engineers, corporate research scientists, or in academia. Still, a good idea can be worth pursuing.

Paying Your Dues

With rare exceptions, a background in science or engineering is a must. Many private inventors spend years working as designers for private corporations before they develop the ideas that let them set out on their own. Experience in product design and development is crucial, as is knowledge of the new product’s potential market. Years working in industry or in academic research are the best methods to acquire the skills of a successful inventor.

Present and Future

Archimedes is the first legendary engineer. The notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci contain visionary sketches and plans for literally hundreds of devices—although many, such as his designs for submarines and flying machines, ventured beyond his ability to “invent” them, given the limited resources available at the time. In more modern times, invention became central to the American self-image with the onset of the industrial revolution, when improved mass manufacturing techniques made it possible to rapidly make fortunes from a design for a useful new product. In turn, large manufacturing corporations built on the profits of the inventions of private inventors arose. Those corporations built up the large research and development staffs, which have largely displaced the role of the individual inventor. Private inventors and entrepreneurs are likely to continue playing a role in the development of the American economy.

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Quality of Life

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