Happy National Inventors’ Day

Science

Stett Holbrook

Stett Holbrook is editor of the Bohemian, an alternative weekly in Santa Rosa, California. He is a former senior editor at Maker Media.

He is also the co-creator of Food Forward, a documentary TV series for PBS about the innovators and pioneers changing our food system.

View more articles by Stett Holbrook

February 11th, 2013 16

Edison-at_home_in_Ft._Myers_Florida_1914_detail_LC-LC-USZ62-131044_.tiff_adjusted — Thomas Alva Edison.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan declared Feb. 11, Thomas Edison’s birthday, National Inventors’ Day.

So said the Gipper: “Individual ingenuity and perseverance, spurred by the incentives of the patent system, begin the process that results in improved standards of living, increased public and private productivity, creation of new industries, improved public services, and enhanced competitiveness of American products in world markets… Key to our future success will be the dedication and creativity of inventors.”

We’ll leave discussion of the virtues of U.S. patent system for another day, but it would be interesting to hear from folks about their favorite inventors–foreign and domestic, living and dead. Edison is an easy one. There are certainly lesser known inventors out there worth celebrating. Any suggestions?