From Today I Found Out.

Walter Hunt is a man who is simultaneously considered to have possessed one of the finest inventive minds in all of American history while also being an individual almost no one has ever heard. This is despite the fact that it’s almost guaranteed that one of his inventions is currently lying somewhere in your home, the safety pin. This was something he sold the patent for for a few hundred dollars, reportedly as he needed the money to pay off a $15 debt. This was a theme throughout his life- inventing various items that otherwise should have made him extremely wealthy and famous, but which never did because of his proclivity to sell his patents immediately and move on to his next great invention.

Because we’d be here all day if we discussed in any level of detail everything Hunt patented during his lifetime, instead we’ll give you a small smattering of examples so you can get an idea of how prolific an inventor he was. Along with the safety pin and the first commercially viable lockstitch sewing machine, Hunt invented and patented a more efficient oil lamp, an attachment to boats that allowed them to break through ice, various improvements on bullet and casing designs, a rope making machine, a machine that made nails, an improved fountain pen, a portable knife sharpener, an innovative saw, a coal heated convection oven, an early version of the repeating rifle, and, most incredibly of all, a device that allowed the user to walk on the ceiling, dubbed the "antipodean apparatus", which he sold to a circus.

Author: Daven Hiskey
Host: Simon Whistler
Producer: Samuel Avila