World Report: May 2, 2003 Vol. 8 No. 25
- This Issue:
- Table of Contents
- Cover Story
- Cover Story - Spanish Version
- Mini-Lesson
- Comprehension Quiz
- Teacher's Guide and Worksheets
Magic By Design
When Lonnie Johnson was 18, he spent more than a year working on a remote-controlled robot. It stood three feet tall, and its parts came from the local junkyard, a jukebox, the neighborhood hardware store and his siblings' toys. The patchwork robot won first prize in a national competition at the University of Alabama. Thirty-five years later, Johnson is still a wildly imaginative inventor.
His best-known invention is the Super Soaker, the first high-powered water gun. Twenty years ago, Johnson was working in his bathroom on a new kind of heat pump to cool refrigerators. Suddenly, the pump shot a powerful blast of water into the tub. That gave him the idea for the mother of all water weapons. The Super Soaker is the world's best-selling water gun. More than 40 million have been sold since 1990.
As a child in Alabama, Johnson would take toys apart and figure out how to put them back together. He went on to earn a master's in engineering at Tuskegee University.
Next, he joined the Air Force, where he received the Air Force Commendation medal twice and eventually became a captain. That led to a job at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where he received many awards from NASA for his work on spacecraft system designs.
"Engineering is the closest thing to magic," says Johnson. "You can imagine things that don't exist and make them appear for you." In 1985, he started his own company, Johnson Research and Development. His staff develops toys, advanced space systems and many other inventions.
Johnson has 83 patented inventions, and he isn't finished making magic. "I don't think I will ever be without an idea," he says. Now, he is working on model rockets, remote-controlled cars and--take cover!--a new, improved Super Soaker.
