Wednesday, February 20, 2002

Famous inventor to speak here In celebration of Black History Month, Lonnie Johnson, inventor of the famous Super Soaker water gun, will speak to students at North Fayette Elementary School tomorrow at 9 a.m. A former U.S. Air Force nuclear engineer and designer of spacecraft systems for NASA, came up with the idea of the water gun in 1982 while developing a chlorofuorocarbon-free heat pump in his bathroom. "I shot a powerful stream of water across the room into the tub and it dawned on me that this would be a great water gun," he says. The Super Soaker rose to become the hottest selling toy in American, generating some $200 million in sales since 1990. As a young black man growing up in the South, Johnson was told he did not have what it took to be an engineer. Now he holds more than 60 patents with more than 20 pending. He is founder and president of Johnson Research and Development Company Inc., an independent research and development company specializing in proprietary product development in the areas of heat transfer, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics and control systems. What do you think of this story? Click here to send a message to the editor. Back to the News Home Page| Back to the top of the page