Flying Solo
In basements, garages, and start-up companies, lone inventors are still on the quest for "Eureka!" moments
Two years later, Page was convinced that it would work and that a market existed. Then came three years of working out kinks, searching patents, and setting up a business, which he named for the product, Crosskate, in a suburb of Boston. "Fourteen-to-18-hour days were absolutely the norm," he says. "If I wasn't sleeping, I was doing Crosskate."
Even after coming up with a final version, it took a year to get the Crosskate into a few stores--"that's very quick, but it seemed like a long time to us," says Page. The young entrepreneur projected five-year sales of $50 million but then ran headlong into last year's recession. He now expects his company to be bought out before hitting the $50 million mark, and that's OK with him. He has more ideas.
FROM THE PATENT ARCHIVES
WINDSHIELD WIPER Mary Anderson patented the "window-cleaning device" in 1903. It was hand-operated but had features of today's wipers, including a spring-loaded arm and a rubber blade.
PHOTOCOPIER Physicist Chester Carlson patented the process used in the Xerox copier in 1942. Developed in his kitchen, it converted an image into a pattern of electrostatic charges, which attracted a powdered ink.
IMPLANTABLE PACEMAKER Pacemakers were cumbersome devices until independent inventor Wilson Greatbatch invented one that could be sewn into the body, patented in 1962.
STAIR-CLIMBING WHEELCHAIR Inventor Dean Kamen's creation can cross rough ground on all wheels and balance on two to lift an occupant to standing height, as well as climb stairs. He and colleagues won this patent last year.
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