Ben Ikenson - Ingenious Patents: Bubble Wrap, Barbed Wire, Bionic Eyes, and Other Pioneering Inventions

I admired the works of artists, but to my mind, they were only shadows and semblances. The inventor, I thought, gives the world creations which are palpable, which live and work.

Nikola Tesla

I n centuries past, the patent was a certification of achievementan inventors final validation, in writing, that the creation of a device belonged to him or her. It represented hours of labor, a seemingly endless series of trial and error, and dozens, if not hundreds, of failures before the final invention came to fruition.

Today, patents fulfill a slightly different role. Yes, they can still be the final seal of approval for the rightful inventors of a new product, but the corporate use of the patent and the evolution of technology have changed things. Now, companies patent hundreds of devices, products, inventions, and ideas that they have not built and may never build, in an attempt to predict the future. The absurdity of patents ranges from a neck tattoo with a built-in microphone and lie detector, from Google, to a wheel that pops off your car so you can ride it like a scooter, from Ford. These exist so the companies can turn a profit just in case the inventions ever actually come to be.

Rarely do todays inventors tinker away in dark basements until the fruits of their labor finally, one day, after innumerable scalded hands and broken components, become something truly new to human civilization. But the Nikola Teslas of the world are not gone. They simply partake in a new processa process of collaboration and evolution that defines technological advancement in the twenty-first century.

As a broad survey, Ingenious Patentscelebrates all branches of the patent family tree, whether they stretch back centuries or are newly sprouted. The patents for Bubble Wrap and barbed wire can be just as intriguing as the patent for a bionic eye. A patent doesnt just outline an invention and describe how it works; patents are also a record of our values, our idiosyncrasies, and the spirit of invention that is fundamental to human nature.