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Lonnie Johnson: The father of the Super Soaker
- fastball 10y agoI had no idea that the inventor of the Super Soaker designed real weapons systems as well. In retrospect, it makes a lot of sense.
- n00b101 10y agoFascinating interview! I had just learned about Lonnie Johnson yesterday! I was reading up on the Lingo programming language[1] and found out that it was invented by a Jamaican computer scientist named John H. Thompson [2], which led me to learn about Lonnie Johnson. > "After I had settled into my new job and home, I set to work making the parts of the plastic water gun on a little lathe and milling machine in the basement." It would be super interesting to find out which lathe and milling machines he had used. It sounds like they might have been Sherline machines. [4] I wonder how easy it would be today to 3D print a SuperSoaker prototype given the difficulties due to overhangs in the geometry of SuperSoaker parts (e.g. tube, barrel). Something tells me that manually fabricating it on a small lathe/mill like Lonnie Johnson did would be much faster for prototyping than 3D printing, even today ... but I could be wrong. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingo_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingo_(programming_language) [2] http://www.black-inventor.com/John-Thompson.asp http://www.black-inventor.com/John-Thompson.asp [3] http://www.black-inventor.com/Lonnie-G-Johnson.asp http://www.black-inventor.com/Lonnie-G-Johnson.asp [4] http://sherline.com/ http://sherline.com/
- yincrash 10y agoCan 3d printed parts handle higher pressures very well?
- auxym 10y agoFDM parts are actually porous and won't hold pressure at all. In my limited experience SLA can be made to work.
- derefr 10y agoCome to think of it, is there a 3D-printing process that involves a rotating lathe for some parts, when you know you need part of the object to be a tube?
- farva 10y agoWouldn't that be a CNC lathe?
- nibnib 10y ago>Something tells me that manually fabricating it on a small lathe/mill like Lonnie Johnson did would be much faster for prototyping than 3D printing, even today ... but I could be wrong. I think you are correct, and this is true for many designs. Widepsread love for 3D printing doesn't change that. When all you have is a hammer etc.
- chaostheory 10y agoNot to diss the Super Soaker, it is an awesome invention, but that wasn't the only big thing that Lonnie Johnson worked on. The man was part of NASA's Galileo engineering team and he also worked on the B-2 Stealth Bomber among other things. http://www.theymadethat.com/people/2oon4p/lonnie-george-johnson http://www.theymadethat.com/people/2oon4p/lonnie-george-john...
- selimthegrim 10y agoJohnson gave a talk at my department about the J-TEC. He really was quite polished and answered some tough questions we had.
- js2 10y agoA couple prior HN discussions on him from when he's previously been in the news: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6702535 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6702535 (Super Soaker creator awarded $72.9M from Hasbro) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1785189 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1785189 (Super-Soaker inventor may have solar-powered fuel cell breakthrough)
- S_A_P 10y agoI remember a 60 minutes or 20/20 type story about him a while back. He was running the R&D lab. I would like to know more about the battery he developed- has that been commercialized?
- phonon 10y agohttp://www.johnsonbatterytech.com/our-technology/ http://www.johnsonbatterytech.com/our-technology/
- weaksauce 10y agoI always loved the supersoaker growing up. Glad to see that he didn't get screwed out of his royalties like a lot of inventors/creators did.
- Rolpa 10y ago"I had no idea what to say to him. In the end, I said, 'Well… you know… I think we should have more of that.'" I love it.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- jemfinch 10y agoWhat happened to real Super Soaker guns, like the 50, the 100, or even the 300? When I search for "super soaker" on Amazon I see only a few Nerf branded guns that look like cheap knockoffs.
- qbrass 10y agoHasbro bought Larami then rebranded them as Nerf guns.
- avn2109 10y agoWait they threw away the Super Soaker branding on purpose? This is madness.
- yincrash 10y agoThey still use the branding but as "Nerf Super Soaker". Also, the guns look totally different than what Larami toys looked like. http://nerf.hasbro.com/en-us/toys-games/nerf:super-soaker http://nerf.hasbro.com/en-us/toys-games/nerf:super-soaker
- elsurudo 10y agoI don't know if it's just my shoddy memory, or maybe it's hard to tell from the pictures, but those look a lot "cheaper" than the classic Super Soakers I remember.
- davidhariri 10y agoAwesome article. What a legend!
- flippyhead 10y agoThis guy is my new hero.
- massysett 10y agoAs a black man there is no way I can give my kid any toy that looks even remotely like a gun. That a black guy invented this thing makes this even more ironic.
- redwood 10y agoA powerful comment: thank you for sharing this. I hope your own kids will not need to feel this way when they become parents.
- agumonkey 10y agoIf only Super Soaker were the only gun people carried.
- yardie 10y agoAs a black father as well I've had this very same discussion, repeatedly.
- barking 10y agoSupersoakers look nothing like real guns and what's 'even more' ironic about a black man inventing it? What's ironic about it at all?
- typetypetype 10y agoThe irony is that the inventor of a super popular toy would have to think twice about letting his own children play with it. If you are not aware of the difference between a white child and a black child playing with a toy gun, here is an article to get you started: http://abcnews.go.com/US/cleveland-cops-recklessly-shot-boy-12-toy-gun/story?id=27402837 http://abcnews.go.com/US/cleveland-cops-recklessly-shot-boy-...
- yardie 10y agoDoesn't even need to be a toy gun. Any toy will do. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article90905442.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article90905442....
- yakk0 10y agoas a kid my favorite Super Soaker was the one that had a backpack as the reservoir. It was threaded just like a garden hose, so I would hook the gun up to the hose instead.
- andrewflnr 10y ago> I went on to design the N-Strike range of Nerf dart guns... Maybe having a guy like this design them is why they're so awesome. Those things are accurate at a surprisingly long range, in a package the size of your palm. I was quite impressed with the one I used.