Surprising Inventions by Famous People

By Allison Ford, DivineCaroline

Some people just have a gift. They may already be talented musicians, actors, artists, or mathematicians, but some prolific thinkers have minds that work in overdrive in multiple different areas. Many of our world’s greatest minds were multi-taskers—musicians and mathematicians, theologians and writers, or artists and inventors. Some very famous inventors originated items that we still use every day, and even those who didn’t fill sketchbooks full of ideas sometimes had a flash of brilliance that resulted in a product that has lasted until our modern age.

Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton may be best known for formulating the laws of gravity and thermodynamics and singlehandedly developing calculus, but he was also an animal lover, and many sources credit him with inventing the first cat door. Supposedly, when Newton was studying the physical properties of light, his cat often tried to get into the room to be with him. Nudging the door open, though, allowed in extra daylight and ruined the experiments. Newton, who liked having his feline companion nearby, cut a hole in the door and covered it with felt, so that kitty could come and go without disturbing his laboratory. When the cat had kittens, he even cut tiny flaps into the wood for them to use.

Mark Twain

What did novelist Mark Twain, née Samuel Langhorne Clemens, have in common with 21st century moms and craft aficionados? He had an avid scrapbooking habit. Twain kept scrapbooks detailing his journeys and travels, and he filled them with notes and pictures from along the way. Back in the mid-1800s, though, scrapbooks required regular glue to keep the items on their pages, a process that Twain found messy and irritating. He had the idea of covering each page with a thin strip of glue to make adding items and changing them around much easier. He took out a patent for his “self-pasting” scrapbook in 1872, and it was immediately successful. In fact, it was his only invention that ever made money. Even today, photo albums and scrapbooks use self-pasting pages.

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Read more: Health, Basics, Cats, Crafts & Hobbies, Fun, General Health, cat door, margarine

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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Val G.

4:40PM PDT on May 26, 2011

Thank you Mel.

send a green star

Mable E.

9:56PM PST on Feb 24, 2011

Thank you for sharing. Very interesting.

Elizabeth M.

12:50PM PST on Jan 16, 2011

Thanks for sharing this. Very interesting. Too bad for Hedy Lamar, that the invention was not used until 1962 and the patent had run out. Brilliant woman.

Jay E.

2:52AM PST on Jan 14, 2011

interesting

Milena N.

9:09PM PST on Dec 26, 2010

Newton was a professional inventor anyway, wasn't he? With a bunch of other people he hired he was working on new inventions everyday. Strange job, but without him we wouldn't have so many practical things today... And this cute reddie is glad, too.

9:32AM PST on Dec 13, 2010

nice, ty

Past Member .

3:24PM PST on Dec 4, 2010

Thanks.

beverly g.

5:58PM PST on Nov 19, 2010

thks thats nice to read. I had heard recently of Sir Isaac Newton. wot a nice man eh ?

Bente S.

2:57AM PST on Nov 19, 2010

Nice.

Charlene S.