Lonnie G Johnson (1949- )

Lonnie Johnson



Background:
    Born October 6, 1949 in Mobile, Alabama, Lonnie Johnson would soon grow fond to tinkering with objects to see how they work. Lonnie and his dad (a world war II veteran) even built a pressurized Chinaberry shooter out of Bamboo shoots before he was 13; and at 13 was already racing on the highway with a go-kart that he fixed together with a lawn mower (I still playing my playstation 2 at this age). Growing later to tinker with more ambitious feats, and even winning  a national inventing competition for a compressed air power robot, he named "Linex", in his senior year of highschool.

    He eventually graduated from Tuskegee University with a B.S in Mechanical Engineering, and then furthered his education with a Masters in Nuclear Engineering. After his Masters, Mr. Johnson joined the air force where he was later assigned to the Strategic Air Command (helping developement of the stealth bomber program).


Inventions:

*Most notable inventions

*    Super Soaker- While still working with in the Strategic Air Command, he still had inventions of his own that he was working on, and accidently while working on heat pump that was environmentally friendly (that used water instead of Freon). While testing his prototype heat pump one night, he blasted a stream of water in his bathroom, and like everyone's first time shooting one of these, was astounded by its power. He later spent several years marketing and testing it out, and when it finally was mass produced ranking among the worlds top 20 toys bestselling every year since its creation.

*    JTEC ("Johnson Thermoelectric Energy Converter")- One of Lonnie G. Johnsons most recent projects is an advanced heat engine that will convert solar energy into electricity with double the efficenty of current methods. It's only a prototype so far, but perfecting this would allow means of gaining solar power competitve with that of coal; allowing the dream of effiecient renewable solar energy to come in to fruition.


Other inventions- Johnson has 40+ patents, and continues to invent in toys as well thermo- fluid dynamics. As well as his work for NASA, Johnson and his company are also working on an improved radon detector for the home, as well as many other projects.



Legacy:     Going strong, and receiving numerous honors, Lonnie Johnson still continues in creating new inventions for the future; but no one can forget about one of his most enjoyable and classic creations, the "Super soaker".














Refrences:


http://www.biography.com/people/lonnie-g-johnson-17112946?page=2

http://www.african-americaninventors.org/inventors.php?cat=&limit=18&page=2

http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/johnson.html


Image Lonnie Johnson property of:
http://www.african-americaninventors.org/inventors.php?cat=&limit=18&page=2

Toygun: http://www.freeclipartnow.com/toys/toy-sniper-gun.jpg.html