Jan28

soaked.

Posted on by
Standard

never heard of lonnie johnson? now you have. in high school lonnie was the only black person at the science fair. he went on to get his phd and work at nasa. while experimenting at home, he had the idea of a pressurized water gun, and he built prototypes with pvc and a soda bottle. his invention eventually became the super soaker. he was paid for the super soaker in royalties when Hasbro bought the super soaker line, but when they used his system in other nerf guns, he was not paid. in 2013 he sued hasboro and was awarded $73 million in unpaid money. all the while he was building rockets, and built and designed the water gun in his spare time. never mess with an inventor, lest you get soaked.

Syracuse Herald-Journal reporter Bob Niedt gets a cool surprise introduction

to the summer of 1992’s hottest toy the “Super Soaker 200” water gun.

Niedt’s sons Ben and Bryan, do the soaking.

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“to invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.”

-thomas edison

 

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credits: history hustle, bob niedt, Syracuse Post-Standard

64 responses »

  10. I loved the story of Lonnie getting his just dues from wonderful mind, Beth. Then lo and behold I scroll down to find the photo of my former newspaper colleague — one desk over the latter years, even — and pal Bob Niedt! Thank you for this morning’s big, big smile.

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  13. I will forever remember Lonnie Johnson~what a wonderful man (and so thankful he gotvwgar was due!) Super soakers were past investments that kept me scrambling at times! And cooled off during some camping days. Thank you, Beth!

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