African American Inventor's creation inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame

[FSogol]

In 1989, years after coming up with a fancy water gun no one seemed to care about, Lonnie Johnson was at a crossroads. The inventor and engineer, who had worked with NASA on the Galileo mission to Jupiter, had been under pressure before. But, awaiting an interview with Larami, a toy company who could make or break him, he was young, gifted, black — and alone.

“Most of my career as an engineer, I was put in environments where I was the only person of color in the room,” he later said.

Johnson went in to sell Larami on his strange-looking homemade water cannon. The executives’ question: “Does it work?”

Sometimes, a powerful jet of water launched across an office is the best pitch. Johnson let fly. Soon, water covered a conference room wall.

Whole article by Justin Wm. Moyer and Fred Barbash of the Washington Post here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/11/06/how-a-black-inventor-beat-the-odds-to-create-the-super-soaker-just-inducted-in-the-toy-hall-of-fame/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_optimist



PS. The National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester New York is a fun place too
http://www.toyhalloffame.org/

[polly7]

1. That's so great!

Water-gun fights at the lake our family gathers to camp at are a tradition for us - sometimes they carry on for days. Some of my favourite memories include my dad being targeted by every one of his grandchildren and him trying to hide behind whatever he could find, then jumping out once they gave up finding him to soak them all .... squealing, running and laughing ........... sooo much fun.

This man should be a legend, and what an interesting story about him.

[marble falls]

2. The Super Soaker story is fun, his story is inspiring. Thank you the link to this story!

[JimDandy]

3. Too bad it was shaped like a gun. Wouldn't let my kids have one

because of that.