I’m Simi Belo, and I invented the SimiWeave™ because I needed it, desperately! Even though I had been plaiting and weaving my own hair for many years, I was still on a constant search for a new way to style and maintain it. You see, I needed something I could use and maintain at home myself. It had to be quick and easy to use and not cause damage to my own hair and scalp. And it had to look real!! I loved the look that could be achieved from traditional weaves, but was totally fed up with all the time, effort and money involved; the headaches and itchiness, and the damage to my scalp and hair. I didn’t like wigs because, as far as I was concerned, you can spot a wig a mile away! Relaxing my hair was not an option – it still hadn’t fully recovered from the last time I used such chemicals, in 1998. And I had accepted a long time ago that I no longer had the time or patience to sit still and have intricate extensions put in, like single plaits or twists.

Hi! I’m Pam Turner and I invented the Spiral Eye™ Side Threading Needle and this is my invention story.

I remember laughing as my mom struggled to thread a needle. Glasses resting on her nose, she trimmed the end of the thread, sucked on it, failed to get it through the eye of the needle and re-trimmed it. Some times she would curse, “Why can’t someone invent a better needle? We’ve been to the moon for goodness sake.”

Eventually she would break down and ask one of us kids to thread it for her.

Then, just a few years ago, I realized it was me that couldn’t get a limp piece of thread through a hole I couldn’t see. And it wasn’t so funny. My mom died in 1976, but I could hear her laughter as I struggled to get that needle threaded.

Surely someone had invented a better needle by now. So I went shopping for one. I found an open eye needle called the calyx needle (it has an opening at the top.) It was easy to thread, but the thread came out every time I used it. I tossed the needle in the trash. Obviously no one was ever going to invent a better needle.

Forty years is long enough to wait for someone else to do something. I decided it was up to me. So I did it. I did it for Mom. I did it for all the moms.

My mission: Change the world.

How can I really think a needle is going to do that?

My little needle is going to be of no interest to a large majority of the world, but for those who need it, the Spiral Eye Needle is going to matter. A lot.

Maybe it means a savings of a few seconds threading a needle to some people, but to others it represents independence because they will be able to mend their clothes without help.

It means the baby-boomer who can barely thread a needle herself won’t have to pre-thread needles for her mother when she visits.

It means the soldier that came back from Iraq with one less arm or only one eye will be able to sew on his own button.

Even blind people sew, and this needle makes it easier for them.

It means the stroke victim can retain some dignity and a little more independence.

For crafters, the Spiral eye needle means they can spend more time enjoying the part of sewing they enjoy.

For anyone who has a snag in their shirt and can’t get it back through the material, the Spiral Eye Needle, allows them to catch the stray thread and sew it back in effortlessly.
To those women in third world countries, without electricity or optical care insurance, whose hand needle work is under appreciated by the world, it means their job will be just a little easier, just a little more efficient, and they will be able to do it a little longer, bringing in more money for their families, thus giving them a stronger sense of self-worth.

On a larger level, because I will only manufacture my product in the USA, it will mean people here will have a job.

It means my customers will know the product they are buying isn’t going to show up on the news as being tainted with lead or mercury. And, hopefully it will encourage other startups to stay in America for their manufacturing needs.

If some child sees my needle and realizes simple little inventions are just important as big complicated ones, and that there is nothing that can’t be done…I will have changed the future.

I’m an impatient person who got tired of the minor inconvenience of threading a needle. Putting an opening on the side seemed so obvious to me. Why hadn’t it been done? My stubborn streak intensified each and every time I was told it couldn’t be done.

When I went to the hardware store and discovered innovative tools and screws, I got just a little more angry, a little more determined.

I’m not a metallurgist or an engineer. It took me years of frustrated conversations with tool and die makers, and others in the metal manufacturing industry to learn the “why” it hadn’t been done before.

Along the way, I learned some history too. Making sewing needles was an art lost to Americans in the colonial days because the only person who knew how to do it, refused to share his knowledge. Today, needle making is a very protected process, done mostly in China and India, with some needles made in England and Germany. I have yet to find a company in America that actually manufactures hand sewing needles.

Hi, I’m Michael Aldrich, inventor of on-line shopping, and this is my invention story.

In 1979 Michael Aldrich connected a domestic television by telephone line to a real-time transaction processing computer and invented what he called teleshopping. Today it is called online shopping, e-commerce and e-business and it is a fast growing world-wide multi-billion dollar business. E-commerce changed the way the world does business. This is the story of how it all began.

Preamble

Names of companies change over time and names of technical ideas change too. In 1979 Redifon Computers was a part of the UK Rediffusion Group of companies. In 1980 the company name was changed to Rediffusion Computers and in November 1984, under new ownership, it was changed again to ROCC Computers (Rediffusion’s Old Computer Company).

In 1979, there was no such thing as on-line shopping so when I invented it I called it teleshopping, meaning shopping at a distance. Unknown to me, in 1977 in the USA, a TV selling technique called infomercials (effectively paid advertising programmes on TV with a pitchman urging viewers to make a phone call to buy goods) was also being called teleshopping. Over the years in USA TV terminology ‘teleshopping’ succeeded ‘infomercials’ and my ‘teleshopping’ – real-time transaction processing from home via a Television or PC – became ‘on-line shopping’. The terms ‘e-commerce’ and ‘e-business’ are from the 1990s. We never used those terms.

The Beginning

Early in 1979 a 26” colour television was delivered to my office on the Crawley Industrial Estate, Sussex UK. With it came a note that asked me for my assessment of it. The Rediffusion Group manufactured TVs so it wasn’t unusual to be given prototypes for testing. It just wasn’t one of our priorities (we were computer manufacturers), so the TV sat in the corner of the office, unused, for a couple of months. During that time we learned that it was a prototype of a new TV designed for a new service to be offered by the Post Office (PTT) called ‘Prestel’. Prestel was a kind of Ceefax/Teletext service (available on UK broadcast TV providing news, weather and other text information) delivered by telephone line rather than broadcast by the BBC and ITV. Prestel was to be a paid commercial service (Ceefax / Teletext were free) providing information supplied by independent IPs (information providers).

We did a little desk research on the Prestel idea and business model and we could not see how to make money from such a venture and in any case we were too busy with our computer business. So the TV in the corner was not switched on.

One day one of our engineers, Peter Champion, asked if he could strip the TV and find out what was inside. This was not an unusual request from an engineer so I said ‘be my guest’.

Some weeks later he came back and mentioned that he had found a chip set with a chip modem, a character generator and an auto-dialler that could hold four telephone numbers. We casually chatted about it and he said if we built a controller for one of our computers we could connect the TV just like Prestel. And that was it. At the time, we made real-time computers and visual display units (desktop terminals) for large corporations. There wasn’t much demand for TVs from those companies.

In the summer of 1979, in the St Leonard’s Forest behind our house in Colgate, Sussex my wife and I were walking our Labrador, Tessa. We were relaxing, talking as ever about our children, just the usual family domestic things and I was thinking that we could use some assistance with the boring weekly supermarket shopping expedition. All of a sudden I thought about the television and hooking it up to the supermarket and getting the supermarket to deliver the groceries. I told her my idea and we rushed back to the house and I started thinking, writing and planning.

It was simple. We had a domestic TV that could communicate, a computer that not only could handle transaction processing from multiple users but it could also communicate (network) with other computers. We could build a networked real-time transaction processing system. Using an inexpensive domestic TV with a remarkably simple human interface, it could be used by anyone without training. With its ability to dial into any computer via a normal domestic telephone line and, using a standard communications and human interface , it could be used for multiple applications. It wasn’t restricted to talking to just one computer for one function [like the airline reservation systems]. It had genuine open market independent teleshopping capabilities. And you could still watch TV! It was hugely exciting.

I then did two things. Firstly, thinking about the potential of the new idea from every angle, I wrote a large number of papers – a tumble and jumble of ideas. Some of the papers were eventually gathered together and published as a book in 1982 – ‘Videotex – Key to the Wired City’. Secondly, I asked my inquisitive engineer to ‘bodge up’ a connection to link the prototype TV to one of our own computers. It worked!

And then I didn’t know what to do. The ideas of teleshopping, telebanking, teleworking, tele- everything seemed like crazy science fiction. There was no market, no demand and no infrastructure. Perhaps it was all nuts. We had to get a reality check. Talk to real people. Get some feedback. Get some reaction. Yet we had to do it all in total privacy. No one must know what we were doing until we figured out what we should be doing.

So we hit on a plan. We would take our system to a small computer conference, the Data Entry Management Association Conference in the Convention Centre in New Orleans in September 1979. We would rent some space, set up, show the visitors and gauge their reaction. No-one would know us and we would leave town quickly when we were done. Three people would go to New Orleans. I would do the presentation talking, my wife, Sandy, would operate the TV and my inquisitive engineer, Peter Champion, would make the ‘bodge‘ work.

So we packed our gear and went. All our equipment was 240 volts / 50 Hz. The USA is 110 volts / 60 Hz. No small problem but somehow we found a conversion solution. When we arrived at the Convention Centre in New Orleans we found that we were not allowed to carry in our rag-tag kit of equipment because it was a unionized facility and the union did all the heavy lifting. Fortunately we managed to negotiate a deal.

Our stand at the exhibition consisted of a table covered in green cloth with the TV on top. Under the table concealed by the cloth was our intrepid engineer lying on his back ready to ‘bodge’ the connection at the right moment during the presentation. He was there for three days! It was all a bit cheeky.

But it worked. The visitors were interested, intrigued and excited. They even loved the picture quality on the TV! We could have sold many systems. The big issue was that they loved the idea of shopping from home. It was a winner. We left no forwarding address and hot-footed back to the UK.

Roger Newman and his team designed a multi- port controller for the TV and Jim Bethel built the complete interface software to run the system. And we set a public launch date of April 1980 for our new system. We were going to make a business of online shopping!

We hired Quaglinos Hotel in London, England at the end of March 1980 for the Press Conference. We announced ‘Redifon’s Office Revolution’. The Revolution was that heretofore information systems had been in-house servicing corporate needs. Now the corporations were going to connect the outside world –customers, consumers, agents, distributors, suppliers, service companies- to their corporate databases and do business electronically. And we were releasing the system to do it, deliverable in 90 days from contract.

The media were bemused. They latched on to the televisions connected to the computer. They seemed familiar but they didn’t understand the rest. In the ‘Introduction to the Michael Aldrich Archive’ can be found some of the material we used at the Press Conference and some of the Press comment. The rest of the Press comment is in the Press Cuttings section. In hindsight this was probably the beginning of e-commerce and e-business as we know it today.

The actual product launch was a few days later in early April 1980 when we demonstrated systems around the UK. We did the launch again in July 1980 because so few understood what we were talking about. From this launch came the now famous piece from the ‘Financial Times’ which began ‘If Mike Aldrich can be believed…….’

Building a Market

Except for a handful of people no-one in the world knew what we were doing and those that did probably thought we were mad. But we had a plan.

Most inventions never make money for the inventors. For online shopping we had to build interest, awareness, need and a financially viable product for our clients and ourselves. We had to make a market, and we had to do it without spending any real money.

We had some huge advantages. The product development cost was very low. We had a multi-user real-time transaction processing mini-computer that was fast, versatile and relatively inexpensive. We had a client base of large corporations and public and government institutions. The rest was not difficult.

We called the new technology ‘Videotex’ to differentiate it from Prestel and we produced an add-on feature to our office computer called ‘Viewdata Plus’ because there was much free publicity around the word ‘Viewdata’.

Because we bolted the new technology on to an existing if somewhat enhanced system we knew we had stability, reliability and dependability. The system was bomb-proof.

The marketing plan was simple. Sell the idea to the big corporations that they could connect their agents, distributors and customers to their corporate information systems for direct shopping and sales. No third parties would be involved. We coined the name ‘private system’. We divided the big corporations into leaders and followers and we focused on the leaders. We sold the ‘competitive advantage’ to be gained from the new technique and we made compelling financial arguments. We knew how to do cost/ benefit analysis – that was how we sold all our systems. This idea became known as Business to Business [B2B] online shopping.

The plan worked like a dream. We were soon knee-deep in projects. There were world firsts in the travel industry, the car industry with a ‘locate a car’ system for one of the world’s largest manufacturers, car financing systems with automatic checks with credit rating agencies, supermarket shopping, services for the elderly and even a taxi booking service. To avoid spending money on advertising and promotion we used free editorial and conference papers extensively. It wasn’t difficult. There was huge interest and excitement.

However, we had two other advantages. Videotex came from the telecoms and consumer electronics industries not from the computer industry. The computer industry wasn’t interested and made only some token gestures towards it. The Press was intrigued but highly skeptical. The net result is that we sold our systems with little competition for 10 years and made excellent profits.

Developing the Market

B2B was commercially viable from the beginning for enterprises that could afford to set up their own networks or could use the videotex terminals already installed in customers’ offices by third parties for other purposes. The terminals had programmable auto-diallers and could hook –up to any computer. The human interface was standard so learning to use another system was easy. Some of the early systems ran virtually unchanged into the 21st Century. The first B2B became operational in 1981. Business to Consumer online shopping [ B2C] as in supermarket shopping did not become commercially viable until the 1990s when a critical mass of installed home computers was reached, improved telecommunications with internet/www opened up continents and service providers appeared in volume. From 2000 onwards, improved availability of bandwidth [broadband] at affordable prices, improved encryption for payment processing, improved search engines, exponential growth in service providers and near saturation in installed home computers in first world countries made B2C ubiquitous From the first B2C supermarket online shopping in 1984 it was best part of 20 years before B2C became a heavyweight force in retailing.

The original pioneering work was not lost .It merely migrated to the internet in the 1990s. Reading those original papers again today, the social impact has been pretty well as predicted even if the videotex technology proved short-lived. And today’s internet shopping is beyond our wildest dreams.

For the record books: September 1979 was the first public demonstration of online shopping: March 1980 was the launch of what was later called online shopping, e-commerce and e-business: March 1981 the first B2B, Thomson Holidays, went live: May 1984 the world’s first online home shopper, Mrs Jane Snowball, used the Gateshead SIS/Tesco system to buy groceries.

The CPAP Silencer patent pending was designed and developed by a sleep apnea patient frustrated by his machine’s noise and bright lights. He covered it with a towel, put it under his bed, he tried everything but nothing worked. He could still hear the constant generator and blower noise. He shopped all over the internet for a product that would fix the problem but found nothing.

So he designed and built a custom container to silence his CPAP once and for all. He first learned about sound, noise, sound proofing, sound blocking, decibels, air flow, noise flow, insulation etc. Then he built and tested 18 different prototypes using different fabrics, insulations and parts each unique and each tested with his CPAP machine pressure set at 15 all night long. With more testing and more modifications he built the ultimate CPAP Silencer patent pending.

More information about the CPAP Silencer and where it can be purchased can be found at www.cpapsilencer.com.

Hello, I am Adele Camens, inventor of the MedSlant wedge pillow, and this is my invention story.

It started in 2000 with a scratchy throat and laryngitis. I assumed I was getting a cold so I took a decongestant and drank hot tea. It didn’t work. My throat got worse and my voice almost disappeared. After a week of self-medicating and getting nowhere, it was time to call my internist. I was sure it was a strep throat; he would prescribe an antibiotic, and I would be cured. Instead, after a negative strep test, he sent me straight to an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor. I got scared.

At that point I was a 17 year breast cancer survivor and a five year ovarian cancer survivor. My antennae went up, along with my anxiety – I just wanted to have a strep throat. After some tests the ENT said, “No problems here, you have acid reflux.” Impossible, I assured him. I rarely have heartburn or those other symptoms. He ignored my MDL degree (doctor of motherly learning) and directed me to a gastroenterologist. Yes indeed, I had GERD (gastro-esophageal reflux disease). “Your esophagus and throat are being irritated at night by acid coming up. Take this prescription and sleep elevated on a wedge pillow.” Fine, I replied, where do I get the pillow? His answer? “I don’t know.” I started the medication and got on the Internet.

After several days of research, here’s what I learned: EVERY AUTHORITY HAD THE SAME SUGGESTIONS: a) sleep with your head elevated 6-8 inches; b) make sure your ENTIRE upper torso is supported on an angle, and c) avoid certain foods. With no chocolate to calm my nerves (good for the girl, bad for the GERD), it was time to enlist the help of our younger son, then a radiology resident, who sent me to a few obscure medical sites that confirmed the research conclusions:The simple answer appeared to be gravity!

When I thought about it, it was so logical. Acid reflux happens when a muscle at the base of the esophagus, the lower esophageal sphincter, relaxes and, instead of preventing acid from coming back up the esophagus as it should, it allows acid to “reflux” or go back up, thus causing irritation. So if the acid were kept down, the irritation would lessen and not be a problem. Methodically I began the hunt for a wedge pillow.

I felt like Goldilocks. This one was too uncomfortable. Too inconvenient. Too expensive. But mostly, they were ALL TOO SHORT. Because the lower esophageal sphincter muscle is AT THE BASE OF THE BREASTBONE you need to be supported THROUGH YOUR ENTIRE TORSO. So 24″ isn’t long enough. And I didn’t want to disturb my husband by elevating our bed on blocks. Have you tried putting pillows between the mattress and box spring on your side of the bed only? I did, and accomplished nothing except making a lop-sided bed!

I knew what I needed, I just couldn’t find it: a foam triangle, 6-8 inches high at the top and at least 30″ long. At my wit’s ‘end, my husband finally solved my problem with a simple suggestion: call our neighbor who designs and manufactures pillows.

Dissatisfied with Wedge Pillows on the Market We Developed One that Not Only Works but Folds for Easy Travel and Storage!

Right away he agreed. Seems many customers had asked if he made an acid reflux pillow, “and now I can say YES.” We discussed dimensions and came up with just the right size and shape. It worked! After several nights sleeping on my MedSlant wedge, I felt much better. Of course, the medicine had also helped, but it was expensive and I would much prefer a life style change to medicine.

I stopped taking the pills but after a week, my symptoms reappeared. I resumed the medicine and continued sleeping on my wedge. After three weeks using my pillow and avoiding some acid-producing foods, I was able to stop medication. Eleven years later, my symptoms have not returned.

Meantime, I had given wedges to a friend with reflux and her husband who has sleep apnea. Both were helped. We improved the washable, poly/cotton cover, rippled the foam for comfort and coolness and we knew we were ready for testing and evaluations by volunteers, who appeared from everywhere. Friends referred friends; my gastroenterologist gave them to patients and we were on our way. When I took some forms to the printer, the girl who helped me asked hopefully, “I have a horrible time with acid reflux. Could I please try it?” A week later she called to tell me it was great, but could she please have another sample? Her manager was pregnant and having terrible reflux. I learned from my gynecologist that pregnancy- related reflux can practically be eliminated by sleeping on a wedge. And a pediatrician had an infant and a two-year-old with reflux. We gave her two wedges and she reported that they helped tremendously.

We now had more than 80 pillows being tested and all were getting rave reviews; but there was still one more wrinkle to be ironed out. When I traveled with my husband for his clothing business, without my pillow for 3-4 nights, my symptoms would reappear. I tried taking it along, rolling up the pillow with rubber bands. Nothing worked. So we decided to make it fold. We tried Velcro, glue, fabric strips. The pillow still didn’t fold.

Finally we fashioned a fabric hinge cover for two pieces of foam that allows them to fold, yet act as one piece when open. Perfect! We now had a pillow that provided drug free night-time relief. And we added a zippered, handled, travel bag for go-anywhere convenience. With a United States patent in our pocket, we built a web site.

People began emailing or calling us to tell us how it had helped and referred friends. They told their doctors who recommended MedSlant to patients. My research had showed that sleeping on a wedge had other benefits too; reduced or eliminated snoring, relief from nasal congestion and asthma symptoms, and easier breathing for heart patients. And my own family is much better, young and old. My husband no longer snores, so we both sleep better. Our granddaughter has asthma, and by sleeping on a pillow, she breathes more easily and no longer wakes up with puffy eyes. Our kids use them when they have colds, and our daughter found it so comfortable she sleeps on it regularly, just for the fun of it. Of course the wedge pillow is not a cure all. Many of the diseases and conditions it helps also need professional advice and medication.

We tried embellishing our product – memory foam, other bells and whistles – but the only difference seemed to be adding to the cost. We did make one improvement-each piece of foam now sports a zippered cover besides the easily removable washable cover. All along, my husband reminded me of that business adage – KISS – Keep It Simple, Stupid. The simple fact is, it takes gravity to keep acid down and airways open. So, in helping me, we created a product that is simple, affordable, and helpful–because IT WORKS. I am grateful that, through my struggle, I can now help other people improve the quality of their lives. Enjoy it in good health!

More information about the MedSlant wedge pillow and where it can be purchased can be found at www.medslant.com.

Laurie James a Ford trained product designer from Essex suffered with terrible snoring and sleep apnoea. He tried all of the apparatus on the market to try to control his snoring and nothing worked. Finally he had two operations, one to remove his adenoids and one to cut his soft palate but neither worked. He was not happy using a C-pap machine every night as at that time he travelled a lot and he also found it quite intrusive. After his second marriage broke down he decided to design his own device to stop snoring as his methodical mind worked out that the snoring was due to the obstruction in his nose where his nostrils collapsed.

Laurie spent 8 years and over £250,000 working with an Ear Nose and Throat specialist and an injection mouldings specialist determined to find the cure to his problem until he came up with the product that we now have today. The high cost is due to the tooling which is very expensive and many tools had to be made for previous designs which when tested, did not work as effectively until the final design was found that did.

Mr James then ran clinical trials with the ENT doctor to prove the effect that the product had on reducing and eliminating snoring. In 2007, once the design had been proven a success, Laurie patented it. Unfortunately retired Laurie had little experience with products and marketing having run a service based car design company for many years and as the recession was hitting, he had no idea how to take the product to market.

Hello, I’m Joseph Nganga, inventor of the Solantern, and this is my inventor’s story!

Solantern is a company that knows a good idea when they see it. And when founder Joseph Nganga realized that solar battery and LED technology was mature enough to replace the costly and expensive kerosene lantern, he set out to use his experience in identifying quality lanterns, together with his knowledge of marketing and distribution, to address one of the most trenchant problems in the developing world—access to clean, affordable light.

And, increasingly, it’s all within reach. “Solar lanterns are, today, cheaper than kerosene lanterns. For instance, a family in Kenya spends about thirteen cents per night or $47 dollars annually on kerosene,” Nganga said. “Our solar lantern retails for $25 dollars and will last three years before requiring a battery replacement, at a cost of three dollars. So if a family invests in a solar lantern, their annual lighting costs are $8.88 per year and that lantern has a life of three years.”

Of course, as Nganga points out, planning for that kind of expense is not always easy. “The challenge with large scale dissemination is that families may not have the $25 dollars needed upfront to purchase the lantern. It’s easier for them to budget the thirteen cents for their daily kerosene purchase.”

Through a variety of partnerships, Solantern is taking steps to overcome this hurdle, with particular focus on microfinance. “Microfinance institutions are great outlets for our products,” Nganga said. “They work with our clients to help them finance the lanterns, which is a critical component for large scale dissemination of the technology.”

And the benefits of the investment, over time, outweigh the cost. In the short term, Nganga points out, families save money on kerosene and spend less on medical bills due to treatment of respiratory illness. And the long term? “Increased productivity due to facilitation of evening work and better quality of light for children to study by, all lead to an improved quality of life for the rural poor.”

And, Nganga observes, solar power helps to address a broader problem on everyone’s mind: global warming. Attention to climate change means both focus and funding are trickling down to smaller, innovative and more nimble suppliers like Solantern. “Global warming awareness, the need for lower carbon emissions, and large investments by western governments are all driving significant dollars to research and development for renewable energy. This means that going forward the cost curve for renewables will decline in an accelerated way. More renewable energy options, lower capital costs and greater experience in the industry will help bring better and cheaper solutions.”

Solantern from Juliana Rotich on Vimeo.

To be sure, the moral imperative is there. “If governments around the world are banning indoor smoking,” Nganga said, “it is then a crime for us to ignore the dangers that the rural poor are exposed to when they have to gather around a kerosene lantern every night to sit down for dinner or do homework.”

More information about the Solantern can be found at www.solanterns.com and kopernik.info.

Hello, I’m Petra Wadstrom, inventor of Solvatten, and this is my invention story.

Access to clean drinking water is a major crisis facing developing countries. There are 1.2 billion people worldwide living without safe drinking water and 1.6 million diarrheal deaths every year caused by water-borne diseases. The majority of these are among children under five years of age.

Solvatten, a water container that harnesses the sun’s energy to make dirty water safe to drink, is a simple technology that can have a huge impact in poor communities in the developing world. The solar-powered water purifier is also easy to use – pour ten litres of water into its two tanks, leave it in the sun for a few hours and afterwards collect the safe water. The system can also be used as a portable solar heater, supplying warm water for improved personal hygiene and household use.

Though Solvatten, or ‘Sun Water’ in Swedish, may seem like a simple solution, it took 11 years to research and test out the product. Petra Wadstrom of Sweden, the inventor, developed Solvatten through her previous experience in working on the problem of unsafe drinking water in poor countries and her motivation to help solve it. “To understand and imagine the situation of constantly living with unsafe water and illness made me focus to find an easy to use solution for women and children”, says Wadstrom.

Solvatten AB is only 3 years old, but has already established itself as a company with a sustainable and practical solution to the clean water challenge. The system has a direct and immediate benefit to individual health and quality of life in developing countries by replacing traditional ways of heating water – such as kerosene, charcoal and firewood with an environmentally friendly and cost-effective alternative.

Wadstrom believes that bringing fresh eyes to the problems that people are trying to solve in the developing world is needed. “I also have a vision to inspire teachers and students to look at problems and solutions from a different angle, to be inspired by Solvatten to open up discussions about climate change, biology, maths and social relations.”

Today, the product is primarily distributed through NGOs using microfinance and subsidies, but Wadstrom hopes that over time the business model will transform so Solvatten can be purchased directly by users themselves.

Working with organizations from Kenya to Nepal, Solvatten’s main goals are to support the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and to reduce deforestation through a turn away from firewood usage. Wadstrom values solutions like Kopernik, which she believes look with “fresh eyes at the problem of supplying much needed technologies to developing countries.”

More information about Solvatten can be found at www.solvatten.se and kopernik.info.

Hello, I’m Muhammad Nurhuda, inventor of the Biomass Stove UB.03-1, and this is my inventor’s story.

At the same time when Indonesia faced an energy crisis due to the soaring price of gas and increasing scarcity of kerosene, a lecturer at Brawijaya University of Malang in East Java pondered his substantial, meaningful contributions to society. To turn his musings to reality, Dr. Muhammad Nurhuda, with background in theoretical physics, delved into renewable energy research in 2008 in the form of clean cooking stoves, using waste-based fuel and for usage in underprivileged communities in Indonesia.

A year later, Indonesia imposed a policy of energy conversion from kerosene to LPG by cutting subsidies for kerosene. However, due to poor controls and oversight, there have been many cases of gas explosions and injuries from lack of knowledge by users. As a result, many people returned to kerosene if they can afford the high costs, or back to firewood use, which adds more burden to households and leads to rapid deforestation. Nurhuda’s biomass stove was an attractive alternative in these circumstances, and his research has entitled him several awards and the opportunity to showcase his innovation to President Susilo Bambang Yudhiyono in 2009.

His biomass stoves have undergone several transformations before the current UB.03-1 model that Kopernik distributes. While working on earlier prototypes, Inotek, an Indonesian innovation incubator, chose Nurhuda’s UB.02 stove to receive funding and commercialization support from the Lemelson Foundation’s Recognition and Mentoring Program (RAMP). However, it was ill-received by the targeted communities due to its short duration of combustion. And a bigger deterrent was the firewood required for combustion. Although Nurhuda prefers and insists using small scrap wood to better conserve environmental resources, he observes that the public does not share the same sentiments: “Regardless how good a technology is, if it’s not practical, people won’t use it. The biggest complaints we received about the stove is about the size of the wood needed to fuel the fire. The impracticality and burden of cutting wood into pieces is the main reason why people were not eager to use it.”

Many more feedbacks and improvements later, the UB.03-1, whose patent is currently being processed, offers the perfect solution. The stove is basically a gasifier stove, but with pre-heating and counter flow burning mechanism to complete the combustion. When standard-sized fuel is properly dried, the stove produces no smoke–significantly reducing health risks incurred from the thick black fumes of conventionally used stoves. Compared to traditional three-brick/stone stoves, the biomass UB.03-1 stove can save fuels up to 80%. A regular household switching from a kerosene stove can save up to USD $20 a month. With so many benefits to offer, communities are quick to convert to the new and improved stove.

“The results have been astonishing,” Nurhuda said. “The public is very enthusiastic, because to cook they now only need 3 logs of wood, 12 cm in length with 6 cm diameter, which is very little fuel for fire that lasts over an hour. Small pieces of wood are still needed, but only to initiate the fire. An additional log can extend the fire for another 30 minutes.” The change to regular woodfire made possible by the new stove will “greatly aid the rural communities, especially the housewives, who will save time, save costs on fuel, and their kitchens will not be so smoky.”

To date more than 4000 stoves total have been sold according to Nurhuda, although this figure also includes what he considers unsuccessful models. Kopernik have distributed close to 1500 of the 4000+ stoves to Timor-leste and five different locations throughout Indonesia: Punden, Klaten, Bojonegoro, West Nusa Tenggara, and surrounding area of Mt. Merapi in Yogyakarta. This video below provides a closer look of the village residents of Punden who received the stoves.

More information about the Biomass Stove UB.03-1 and where it can be purchased can be found at kopernik.info.

Hello, I’m Guido van Hofwegen, inventor of the Nazava water filter, and this is my invention story.

For a company that has only been in existence for a little over a year, Nazava is already showing an outstanding record. It has sold a total of 20,000 ceramic water filters and has introduced 12 different product lines to give consumers a variety of options. It also operates 6 different store locations throughout Indonesia, where consumers can directly purchase water filters, and offers a delivery service to families who don’t live near stores.

Behind Nazava is Guido van Hofwegen from the Netherlands, who wanted a simple solution for clean water that is affordable for everyone. He relocated to Banda Aceh, Indonesia from The Netherlands in 2007 with his wife to work with NGOs that are still operating there two years after the devastating Indian Ocean earthquake. Immediately, he observed the difficulties of obtaining clean, drinking water: “It’s expensive to always buy water by the gallon for a dispenser at home or to boil water using a kerosene (or gas) stove. There are isi ulang (refill) stations to get clean water from, but the quality is not so good. Plus, it’s a hassle to transport water from the station with a bicycle, especially if you don’t live near a station.”

Determined to change things around, Guido looked into ceramic water filters used by a water project in Bangladesh that he knew about from a friend. He also visited a factory in Brazil that produces water filters for home use and brought a sample back to Banda Aceh to use in his own home. Neighbours soon began noticing and asking how they can also get one for their house. Guido began taking orders for people from the factory in Brazil, and realized he had unknowingly created a market for water filters once the orders reached a couple thousand units.

In December 2009, Guido established Nazava in Banda Aceh, where the Brazilian and Indian ceramic water filter candles are assembled by hand onto a variety of models that is a water filter, purifier and dispenser all in one. With the Nazava ceramic water filters, tap, well, and river water can all be filtered to clean water that is 100% safe for human consumption. The water produced by the Nazava water filter is in fact healthier than the one found at the isi ulang stations, and is tested and approved by several international institutions as well as the Government Health Department of Banda Aceh.

Aside from the convenience of having it at home, the affordability of the Nazava water filters is what appeals most to residents in Indonesia. The best selling model, the Bening 1 or Clear Water Filter, only costs about 15 USD and filters 2 to 3 liters of water per hour. The ceramic filter candles need to be cleaned weekly and are easily replaceable for only 50,000 IDR (6 USD).

And the savings are plenty. A family of five drinks on average 15 liters per day or 5475 liters per year. At the isi ulang stations water costs around 4,000 IDR per 19 liters, which adds up to roughly 1.2 million IDR per year. A typical Nazava water filter costs around 140,000 IDR and filters 7000 liters before needing to change the filter candle. With Nazava water filters, the estimate cost of water is 21 IDR per liter, which for a year’s supply of water sums up to 115,000 IDR. The same family can save about a million IDR (117 USD) every year by purchasing a Nazava water filter once.

When compared to obtaining drinking water through boiling, a family of five can save more than 43 USD per year in fuel costs, assuming that they consume 5,475 liters per year and buy kerosene at the cheapest cost of 4,500 IDR per liter. When switching from buying bottled water refills for gallon dispensers (the most expensive but common water supply), the family can save about 585 USD per year.

Customers of Nazava water filters are certainly pleased with their newfound conditions. Guido commented, “They like the convenience of having their own clean water. They now don’t have to drink water so sparingly, and also use the clean water for washing vegetables. Overall, it is a lot healthier with cleaner water from the water filter.”

More information about the Nazava Water Filter and where it can be purchased can be found at www.nazava.com and kopernik.info.