The giant squirt gun, the Super Soaker, which has been the center of summer fun since 1989 was invented by a NASA engineer named Lonnie Johnson. Lonnie’s father was a WW2 veteran without much money and welcomed Lonnie to this world on October 6, 1949. As a child, Lonnie was interested in the world and how it works. As he grew up in Alabama in the 50s, segregation was the norm in schools. Most of his family didn’t even expect him to make it to high school. Luckily integration happened just as Lonnie turned to 9th grade. During high school, he was turning into a great engineer, once he graduated Lonnie enrolled in Tuskegee University and earned a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering, two years later he got a master’s in nuclear engineering. After College Lonnie joined the Air Force as an engineer. He was moved around many times and worked long and hard hours designing for the military. Despite the work, he also had time to do his inventions. One of his longtime pet projects was an environmentally friendly heat pump that used water instead of Freon. Once Johnson completed the prototype and tested it a strong water beam got squirted out. Johnson loved it and began to improve on it. After 7 years he left the military to pursue the business he finally did it he made his super soaker. In only a few years he had over $200 million in sales. Propelled by the success he started the Johnson Research and Development lab.
Related Documents
https://www.invent.org/inductees/lonnie-johnson
https://www.biography.com/inventors/lonnie-g-johnson
http://lonniejohnson.com/timeline/
https://www.invent.org/blog/inventors/lonnie-johnson-super-soaker
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