The Coolest Things Invented by Kids

Early television

One of the pioneers who helped bring us this life-changing technology was just 15 years old when he first dreamed it up. Philo T. Farnsworth created diagrams for an electronic television system in 1921, and it transmitted its first image six years later.

Snowmobiles(сноуборд)

Joseph-Armand Bombardier, 15, strapped(привязал) a car engine to four ski runners(лыжи) and a propeller to create the very first of these fun wintertime vehicles way back in 1922. He tinkered(возился) with it for years, before releasing the ultra-popular Ski-Doo.

Water skis

At 18, Ralph Samuelson wanted to combine his passion for snow skiing with his love of the water and aquaplaning. In 1922, he built his first water skis from strips of wood by softening the ends and bending them up.

Superman

The Man of Steel was first imagined by a pair of 17-year-olds, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, in 1933 and made his first appearance in comics in 1938. Some comic book historians believe the origin of the idea came from the death of Siegel’s father Mitchell in an armed robbery(вооруженное ограбление) at his store.

Christmas lights

Christmas trees used to be a big fire hazard, back in the day when lit candles adorned the trees. But in 1917, 15-year-old Albert Sadacca helped put an end to that by inventing less expensive strings of light bulbs to add pizazz to the holiday—without the potential for burning the house down.

Braille

Before 1824, when 15-year-old Louis Braille invented the raised series of dots(точки) that make up the Braille alphabet, visually impaired people read by feeling their way over raised letters—a slow and laborious process. After he was blinded by an eye injury at age three, Braille translated a type of communication used by the French military into an alphabet that could be easily read by the blind.

Earmuffs

In 1877, 15-year-old Chester Greenwood was tired of having cold ears when he went ice skating. So he built a wire frame and had his grandmother help sew pieces of beaver skin to it to keep his ears warm. The muffs were a hit—especially with soldiers during World War I.