Inventing Entertainment Inventors and innovators solve a problem or meet a need When it comes to fun many inventors and innovators are kids just like you So next time you’re bored invent something Tomorrow’s kids could have a whole new way to play a way that’s all because of you All work and no play would be totally boring But thanks to hardworking inventors there are a million ways to have fun Do you own a Barbie doll a Frisbee or a bucket of LEGO bricks How about a snowboard a Slip N Slide or a television set These are just a few of the toys games and sports that make life more entertaining And none of them existed 100 years ago The American International Toy Fair takes place every year in New York Buyers and sellers gather to see the latest toys games and entertainment available for kids 4
Inventors and Innovators Inventors create products or processes no one has ever thought of before such as Silly Putty invented by chemist James Wright Innovators improve on an invention that already exists Thirteen-year-old Tom Spring created Putty Monsters an innovation with extra-soft silly putty and eyeballs to build monsters again and again In 1950 a toy store owner began selling Wright's invention in plastic eggs This new toy later named Silly Putty became a best seller Engineers use science and math to solve problems or meet needs Sometimes engineers can also be inventors and innovators when they make new solutions or improve on existing ones Inventors innovators and engineers all share the same traits such as curiosity and creativity 5
Moving Pictures Imagine your life without cartoons movies or videos One hundred years ago people didn't have any of those things because there was no television yet Inventors had created radio which sends sound through the air but sending moving pictures through the air was very difficult A few inventors had been somewhat successful sending moving pictures across distances but they were too blurry and hard to watch There had to be a better way It was a farm boy named Philo Farnsworth that came up with a better way to send moving pictures across distances 6
A Perfect Image In 1921 while plowing a field Philo Farnsworth noticed that his plow left straight lines in the soil Farnsworth believed he could split moving pictures into similar lines and then send them through the air as an electronic signal Television sets would catch the electric signal and put the picture back together This simple idea took six years to achieve Finally he demonstrated his new invention in 1927 Farmsworth's assistant blew smoke in front of a camera In a different room viewers watched the cloud of smoke travel across a 1 25 inch 3 cm screen The television had worked Today there are about 1 6 billion television sets worldwide Many of them have much bigger screens than the one shown here 7
