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This month is dedicated to inventions that did not work the first time and accidental inventions!! Ever heard the phrase, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!” That is an important phrase to keep in mind when inventing. Some of the greatest inventions came about because the inventor did not give up.

Inventions that Failed but Led to Success:

Thomas Edison is a great example. Thomas Edison was a firm believer in the importance of failure. Failure was what led him to success. Once, when he was working on developing a better battery, a discouraged assistant came up to him and suggested that Mr. Edison must be ready to quit after having performed 50,000 tests without success. Despite the assistant’s ideas of quitting Edison felt he made progress. “At least we know 50,000 things that won't work!” In the end he developed a nickel-iron alkaline battery that is still used today-more than 90 years later!

Charles Darrow You might not immediately know who he is by his name but you definetly know his invention. Charles Darrow invented the game of Monopoly. He manufactured the games himself and sold them for $4 each! Despite all of his success he was rejected at first. Parker Brothers rejected his idea for Monopoly and even cited 52 flaws they had with the game!!! When they saw the success he was having selling it on his own they agreed to buy the rights from him. Charles was determined and although they rejected his idea he continued to sell the game himself!

Robert Hutchings Goddard was an American physicist and inventor who is known as the father of modern rocketry. After many years of failed attempts and public ridicule, Goddard's first successful rocket was launched on March 16, 1926 from a relative's farm in Auburn, Massachusetts. It was a liquid-fueled 10-ft. rocket that he called Nell. The flight lasted 2 1/2 seconds; the rocket flew a distance of 184 feet and achieved an altitude of 41 feet.

Wilson Greatbatch one of the country's greatest inventors with more than 140 patents. His most famous invention, called the cardiac pacemaker, keeps the rhythm of millions of heartbeats and helps people live longer and better. What distinguishes Greatbatch perhaps is a persistent commitment to improving his invention. Greatbatch kept learning from mistakes. Like all inventions, problems arose with different aspects and each time he fixed them, or made them better.