Quotes by Lonnie Johnson - Page 1

I've always liked to tinker with things.
Lonnie Johnson /
Liked
Tinker
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I think America's strength is in innovation.
Lonnie Johnson /
America
Innovation
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There was a time in my life when I was independently wealthy.
Lonnie Johnson /
Wealthy
Life Time My Life
Independently
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Persevere. That's what I always say to people. There's no easy route.
Lonnie Johnson /
Easy
People
Persevere
Always
Say
People Easy Always
Route
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I have a collection of SuperSoakers. I have managed to keep most of them.
Lonnie Johnson /
Collection
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Lady Luck is indifferent. She smiles sometimes, and she frowns sometimes.
Lonnie Johnson /
Indifferent
Luck
Lady
She
Smiles
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I love playing around with ideas and turning them into something useful or fun.
Lonnie Johnson /
Fun
Ideas
Around
Useful
Turning
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I don't think there's any project that I started that I ever stopped working on.
Lonnie Johnson /
Ever
Working
Project
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Peer review is fine, as long as you're making incremental improvements to a technology.
Lonnie Johnson /
Fine
Incremental
Peer
Review
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I have never really understood why in this country so many people look down on black people.
Lonnie Johnson /
Black
Country
Understood
Look People Never
Why
Never
Look Black People
Down
Look
Black Country People
Look Black Country
So Many People
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As an inventor, it's a rite of passage to have an engine. I'd like to have my own engine someday.
Lonnie Johnson /
Inventor
My Own
Rite
Someday
Own My Own Like
Engine
Passage
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Most of my career as an engineer, I was put in environments where I was the only person of color in the room.
Lonnie Johnson /
Color
Career
Environments
Room
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That's one of the advantages of being an inventor and tinkerer - I have everything I need to make what I need.
Lonnie Johnson /
Inventor
Advantages
Being
Make
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I received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, then graduated with a masters in nuclear engineering.
Lonnie Johnson /
Engineering
Masters
Nuclear
Bachelor
Degree
Graduated
Mechanical
Received
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Sitting still, a person produces about 100 watts of heat. What if you could use that to charge your cell phone?
Lonnie Johnson /
Cell Phone
Heat
Sitting
What If
Person
Cell
Charge
Could
Phone
Produces
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Especially when you have a lot of technology you're developing as a small company, trying to protect that technology is a real problem.
Lonnie Johnson /
Technology
Developing
Problem
Protect
Small
Real Problem
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It was because of the success of the Super Soaker, I was able to at least get an audience with people to present some of my other ideas.
Lonnie Johnson /
Audience
Ideas
Least
Present
Super
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I consider myself a general practitioner. I do electronic things. I do toys and water things, mechanical stuff. I'm very, very flexible.
Lonnie Johnson /
Flexible
Stuff
Toys
Water
Things
Very
General
Consider
Electronic
Mechanical
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I thought to myself, jeez, it would be really nice to have a high power water gun. It felt really, really good holding a powerful stream in my hand.
Lonnie Johnson /
Felt
Gun
Nice
Powerful
Water
Good Power Myself
High
Hand
Holding
Stream
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I didn't want to grow old and find that I didn't do what I could have done, that I didn't put my best foot forward. I didn't want to have any regrets.
Lonnie Johnson /
Best
Done
Any
Grow
Find
Could
Old
Foot
Forward
Put
Regrets
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Nobody's going to step in and dump a lot of money and make it easy. Unless you have a lot of money, you have to pay your dues and make a personal sacrifice.
Lonnie Johnson /
Dues
Easy
Pay
Sacrifice
Lot
Nobody
Personal
Step
Unless
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I can remember times when we'd be having parties, and people would be dancing and everything and I would be sitting there in the middle doing calculus, just doing my little thing.
Lonnie Johnson /
Calculus
Dancing
Middle
Sitting
Remember People Doing
Little Thing
Parties
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I've invented a new type of engine that converts heat directly into electricity with no moving mechanical parts. It's called the Johnson Thermo-Electrochemical Converter, the JTEC.
Lonnie Johnson /
Electricity
Heat
Johnson
Moving
Type
Converts
Directly
Engine
Mechanical
Parts
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The invention that most people know me for is the Super Soaker water gun. I knew the gun worked well, and I knew it would be successful. I did not realize how successful it would be.
Lonnie Johnson /
Gun
Invention
Successful
Water
Most
Water Me People
Did
How
Well
Realize
Super
Worked
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I decided I could develop a toy and get some revenue from that and then use that revenue to really become an inventor and work on some of the more challenging projects I had in mind.
Lonnie Johnson /
Decided
Inventor
Projects
Revenue
Challenging
Develop
Toy
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I wound up getting offered a job at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory where I invented a power supply mechanism for the Galileo space craft which was in orbit around Jupiter until 2003.
Lonnie Johnson /
Jet
Jupiter
Mechanism
Nasa
Orbit
Craft
Galileo
Offered
Supply
Wound
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After I graduated from Tuskegee with a masters in nuclear engineering, the draft was on so I signed up for ROTC. I figured if I had to go into the military, I'd rather go in as an officer.
Lonnie Johnson /
Engineering
Masters
Military
Nuclear
Draft
Figured
Graduated
Officer
Signed
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You sometimes have a very innovative company, and if they come up with one idea, they can come up with many more - if they're successful. If they can't feed themselves, you lose that creativity.
Lonnie Johnson /
Innovative
Successful
Feed
Lose
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There are maybe three inventions I have that I rank as my top inventions that I'm most proud of. The robot I built in high school, the memory-protected circuitry for the Galileo and the Super Soaker.
Lonnie Johnson /
High School
Proud
School
Three
School Three High School
High
Galileo
Inventions
Maybe
Rank
Robot
Super
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Large companies can afford to file patents on every idea they have. Small companies, we have to weigh our options, do the research. We have to decide where to place our bets. We can't just cover everything we do.
Lonnie Johnson /
Patents
Research
Afford
Bets
Companies
Cover
File
Large
Options
Weigh
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When I think back on my childhood and the things that happened to me, there were certain periods of time where I felt like I was being saved for something. I feel like I have a gift, and it would be a sin to waste it.
Lonnie Johnson /
Certain
Childhood
Periods
Saved
Sin
Waste
Time Childhood Me
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Being an independent inventor is tough. You develop a product, patent it, then you're looking for someone who will see the benefit from this technology. You assume all the investment and all the risk. It can be a challenge.
Lonnie Johnson /
Technology
Independent
Inventor
Investment
Risk
Tough
Will
Looking
Then
Being
Assume
Benefit
Challenge
Develop
Patent
Product
See
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I am a nuclear engineer. I'm working on advanced energy technology. I have a new type of the engine that converts heat into electricity, and I've also developed a new type of battery that's all ceramic, without liquid electrolyte.
Lonnie Johnson /
Electricity
Heat
Liquid
Nuclear
Type
Advanced
Battery
Converts
Developed
Engine
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More and more, other countries are able to manufacture things cheaper, beating us in the marketplace in a lot of ways. So we need to do whatever we can to make sure America's ability to protect its ingenuity is as strong as it can be.
Lonnie Johnson /
Cheaper
Ingenuity
Other Countries
Protect
Beating
Manufacture
More And More
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I was working on a heat pump that used water as a working fluid, and I made some jet pumps for it. I accidentally shot a stream of water across a bathroom where I was doing the experiment and thought to myself, 'this would make a great gun.'
Lonnie Johnson /
Bathroom
Fluid
Gun
Heat
Jet
Made
Used
Water
Accidentally
Shot
Doing
Working
Experiment
Pump
Stream
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In 1975, I was called to active duty in the Air Force, studying U.S. space launches that used nuclear power. I felt it was a big deal to be involved in such an important project - we were providing technical support for launch recommendations that ultimately went to the president.
Lonnie Johnson /
Active
Air
Air Force
Big Deal
Force
Involved
Nuclear
Nuclear Power
President
Providing
Recommendations
Support
Deal
Project
Launch
Studying
Ultimately
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When I was at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory back in the early '80s is when I first got the idea. The Super Soaker was based on some engineering principles that I applied. I was actually working on another invention which was a heat pump that would use water as a working fluid instead of Freon.
Lonnie Johnson /
Engineering
Fluid
Heat
Invention
Jet
Laboratory
Principles
Water
Applied
Based
Instead
Pump
Super
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I would say that engineering has been a very positive experience overall, but usually coming into the situation it would be one of being underestimated. People would actually have low expectations. But I would take advantage of it quite honestly, because I would take my time to underestimate the situation.
Lonnie Johnson /
Experience
Positive
Advantage
Engineering
Honestly
Low Expectations
My Time
Situation
Underestimate
Time Experience People
Positive Time People
Actually
Quite
Coming
Low
Overall
Take Advantage
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In 1968 when I was in high school I built a four-foot-tall remote control robot with pneumatic cylinders that operated his hands. My robot won first place at a science competition at the University of Alabama where my high school was the only African-American school represented. That was a huge moral victory.
Lonnie Johnson /
Science
African American
Alabama
Competition
Cylinders
High School
Huge
Moral
School
University
High
Won
First Place
Place
Operated
Remote
Robot
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I got my first patent in 1979 before I left the Air Force. I called it the Digital Distance Measuring Instrument. It used ones and zeros and dots and dashes and a magnifying lens to read binary-encoded information from a scale that was photographically reduced. It used the same kind of technology that's used in CDs and DVDs.
Lonnie Johnson /
Air
Air Force
Cds
Digital
Distance
Dots
Force
Information
Magnifying
Measuring
Scale
Instrument
Lens
Patent
Reduced
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Lonnie Johnson Quotes - Page 1

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