In article ,
Uncle Monster wrote:

On Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 7:27:16 PM UTC-5, Dean Hoffman wrote:
A show on the Science Channel called How We Invented the World
showed skyscrapers. The inspiration for the design was a woman
placing a heavy book on a bird cage. William LeBaron Jenny is credited
with designing the first one. Article he
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Le_Baron_Jenney
Otis, the elevator brake inventor, got his idea from
a buggy spring according to the show.
It's neat how unrelated things come together.
--

Inventors get their ideas and are inspired by the darnedest things. I was
watching a video about inventions from the turn of the 20th century when it
described the idea behind the machinegun. Hiram Maxim got the idea for the
machine gun because he got a sore shoulder from shooting his rifle. He
figured he could harness the force of the recoil to operate an automatic
loading and ejection mechanism for a gun. I love the history of technology.
^_^

[8~{} Uncle Auto Monster

Maxim developed and installed the first electric lights in a New York
City building (the Equitable Life Building (New York City) at 120
Broadway) in the late 1870s.[18] However, he was involved in several
lengthy patent disputes with Thomas Edison over his claims to the
lightbulb. One of these actions regarded the incandescent bulb, for
which Maxim claimed that Edison was credited by means of his better
understanding of patenting law (though in England Joseph Wilson Swan had
already obtained the first patent in 1878). Maxim claimed that an
employee of his had falsely patented the invention under his own name,
and that Edison proved the employee's claim to be false, knowing that
patent law would mean the invention would become public property,
allowing Edison to manufacture the lightbulb without crediting Maxim as
the true inventor.