by Tuan Nguyen
Everyone knows that inventions can revolutionize and improve our lives in immeasurable ways. Trains, cars, and airplanes have transformed the way we travel while the printing press, telephones, and computers have made expanded the ways we communicate.
On the other end of the spectrum are wildly successful ideas that don’t do much of anything except make us wonder, “Heck, why didn’t I think of that?” So while it’s often said that necessity is the mother of invention, these exceptions have demonstrated that with some clever marketing and a little bit of luck, "necessity" is far from necessary for an idea to be successful.
Fidget Spinners
In a way, fidget spinners are emblematic of a generation searching relentlessly for a good distraction. Though there are a plethora of high-tech gadgets that can easily feed this need for constant stimulation, these simple plastic toys have become surprisingly widespread.
The design consists of a ball bearing center with flat, spindly lobes attached. With a simple flick, it can be spun around the axis, providing instant stress relief. Some sellers are even marketing them as a way to ease anxiety and help calm those experiencing neurological disorders like ADHD and Autism.
Fidget spinners experienced their first wave of popularity in April of 2017 and have since become ubiquitous among school children. Several schools have moved to ban the toys, citing them as overly-distracting to students. According to a survey of the 200 largest American high schools, nearly a third have banned fidget spinners.
Who invented this seemingly innocuous yet controversial toy? The answer isn’t quite clear. Credible news reports have credited a chemical engineer named Catherine Hettinger. Records show that Hettinger filed for and received a patent application for a "spinning toy” in 1993. However, Hettinger wasn’t able to find a manufacturer and the patent lapsed in 2005. Hettinger has claimed credit for the invention, telling CNN that she thought of the idea after watching children throw rocks at police officers during a recent trip to the Middle East.
NPR reported that an IT worker named Scott McCoskery, who fashioned and sold an early version online called the Torqbar in 2014, may have inspired a barrage of copy cats found on the market today. Another popular “fidget” toy on the market is the Fidget Cube, which features a different form of sensory distraction on each of its six sides.
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https://www.thoughtco.com/weird-inventions-4150072