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Did You Know…

“If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”

That’s a quote from French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (you can see one of his airplanes at the Florianopolis International Airport in Brazil). Taking inspiration from this quote, here are three real-world inventions based on fictional gadgets and devices:

• The Cell Phone — Martin Cooper, inventor of the mobile phone, was inspired by Captain Kirk’s Star Trek communicator.

• The Taser — This self-defense device was invented by NASA researcher Jack Cover. The weapon was inspired by a 1911 adventure novel called Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle (Taser is an acronym for “Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle”).

• Ship Salvaging — In 1943, Disney released a cartoon where Donald Duck used ping-pong balls to raise a sunken ship. In the 1960’s, Dutch engineer Karl Krøyer used the same ping-pong ball method to refloat a cargo ship. Krøyer later tried to patent this system, but his patent was rejected because the Disney cartoon was considered “prior art.”