Day 17 - Lonnie G. Johnson - Not Just A Super Soaker

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You might have heard that one of the best selling toys of all time was made by a black man. I'm talking about the Super Soaker.


My son had one of these things when he was little. He and my daughter used to invite hoards of kids to our house and they would have water fights. Water balloons, super soakers, the hose, and the Slip n' Slide.

They had a big time.

When I was looking for African American inventors, I didn't even bother with the "Father of the Super Soaker".

His story sounded like a David and Goliath type of tale.

He invented the Super Soaker, Hasbro didn't give him credit for it -  by which I mean that didn't want to pay him - he sued them, won, and got a huge payday.

How many African American inventors had to go through this? Lots. As much fun as the Super Soaker is, I wasn't certain it merited an entire blog post.

Then, I learned about Lonnie Johnson.

All I could think as I read through his biography is - You've got to be kidding me! This is the guy who created the Super Soaker? This guy? How come we only know about the Super Soaker?

I don't even know where to begin!

He was born in Mobile, Al on October 6th (that's my birthday too) in 1949. His father, a WWII vet who became a handyman after the war, noticed that Lonnie liked to tinker with things. So, at a young age, his father explained how electricity worked.

The kids in Lonnie's neighborhood called him "The Professor" because he was always tinkering and inventing things.

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He made a go-kart with a working engine when he was a kid. He created it out of scrap metal. They had to push it to get it going, but once it was going, it could sustain itself. Eventually, the police made them stop using it. Apparently, when children create a motorized vehicle it isn't likely to come up to basic road standards.

He continued to tinker the entire time he was growing up. He even made his own toys.

He attended segregated Williamson High School in Alabama. He actually graduated in the last segregated class.

He was fascinated by robots he saw on television. He had no idea they were just suits with actors in them. So, he decided to build one for himself. It took him a year, and at the end of his senior year, his school entered Lonnie's creation, Linex, into the Junior Engineering Technical Society (JETS) Science Fair held at the University of Alabama in 1968.

Incidentally, this is the same university where George Wallace attempted to prevent the first two black students who were enrolled there from entering about five years earlier.

Linux and Lonnie

Lonnie's high school was the only black school that entered the competition. Linex, Lonnie's robot, won first prize. The people who were judging the competition were not from the university.

The university officials didn't seem too happy about Lonnie's win. He recalls that nobody from the university said anything to him aside from "Good-bye" and "Ya'll drive safe."

They were not interested in the senior who had built his own working robot. Well, who would be? I mean, that wasn't such an incredible thing for an eighteen-year-old to do in 1968.

Anyway, he ended up at Tuskeegee where he achieved advanced degrees in mechanical and nuclear engineering.



What he discovered once he got out into the working world was that Tuskeegee had prepared him better to be an engineer than some of the white engineers he encountered who'd gotten educations at some of the most prestigious schools in the country.

I would like to editorialize here: I suspect that this was not because the other schools lacked solid education. Lonnie G. Johnson is freaking brilliant. That might have had something to do with it.

I know, you're thinking, "So, after all of that he made the Super Soaker, and that is his claim to fame after all of that fancy education?"

Well, I suppose so, but on the way there he also:

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- Helped develop systems for the stealth bomber for the military

Galileo Spacecraft

- In 1979 he was the systems engineer for Galileo - You know, for NASA









- Then, in the 1980s while working on some other projects, he accidentally created the basis for the Super Soaker. He sold it to a company that Hasbro acquired.

- In 1991 The Super Soaker made over 200 million dollars.

- He holds over one hundred patents

He made a mint after Hasbro paid up. He left industry and opened his own company.

Johnson Research and Development.

He started working on something he calls the Johnson Thermo Electric Energy Converter. This thing would turn heat energy into electricity.

It has generated a ton of interest. If he gets this thing working it will revolutionize the green energy industry.

He's already made a huge mark on the world culturally, militarily, and astronomically...I suppose it is time to do it ecologically.

Lonnie G. Johnson - So much more than a Super Soaker!

Still, that thing is really cool. I'm just sayin'

In 2011, Johnson was inducted into the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame - The first black engineer ever to have been so honored.

Lonnie G. Johnson

Celebrate Black History!