Can YOU guess which popular inventions made their creators millions? From Cluedo to tin cans - some geniuses became millionaires, while others netted just a few thousand pounds | Retrui News | Retrui
Can YOU guess which popular inventions made their creators millions? From Cluedo to tin cans - some geniuses became millionaires, while others netted just a few thousand pounds
SOURCE:Daily Mail
There is big money to be made from pioneering inventions which go on to fly off the shelves for many years to come - yet not always for the original creators themselves.
There is big money to be made from pioneering inventions which go on to fly off the shelves for many years to come - yet not always for the original creators themselves.
Anthony Pratt came up with the concept while holed up in the kitchen of his Birmingham home during World War II blackouts, initially calling the game Murder and basing it on his job performing in grand country hotels and stately homes.
The professional musician and his wife Elva, who designed the iconic board, were also fans of detective fiction especially Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie mysteries.
Since its release in 1949, Cluedo has become the second best selling game of all time after Monopoly, an achievement which should have made Mr Pratt many millions - had he not sold the UK rights for £5,000 in 1965, before it had become such a commercial phenomenon.
His daughter Marcia Lewis says her phlegmatic father did not regret the financial blunder and was content with creating something which brought 'happiness and joy' to millions - as she revealed she had now handed over one of the first versions of the game to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
Meanwhile, tributes have been paid to the man who first suggested to his employers at Ford putting an arrow on vehicles' dashboards indicating on which side the petrol tank was - saving time and convenience when pulling in to refuel.
James Moylan, who has died aged 80, made the recommendation in an internal company memo in 1986 and within three years the 'Moylan arrows' were being added to new makes.
The Ford employee had included for his superiors a sketch of what the indicator could look like, drawing an open fuel door rather than an arrow.
Marcia Lewis told how her father Anthony Pratt was paid £5,000 after coming up with Cluedo
Anthony Pratt came up with the concept while holed up in the kitchen of his Birmingham home during World War II blackouts, initially calling the game Murder
Tributes have been paid to former Ford employee James Moylan, who has died aged 80 - he came up with a subtle car feature that has now become standard in vehicles
It was James Moylan who first suggested a graphic on the dashboard should indicate which side should be used for refuelling when pulling into a petrol station
In the proposal, he wrote: 'Even if all Ford product lines eventually locate on the same side, for the minor investment involved on the company's part, I think it would be a worthwhile convenience not only for two car families, but also pool car users and especially car rental customers.'
Seven months later, Moylan received a response from then-Director of Interior Design, R F Zokas, saying an arrow would be added to the dashboards of the company's 1989 model year cars being developed.
He spent almost his entire career working for the motor giant before retiring in 2023 - and is said to have valued the friends he made more than any prospect of cashing in on his idea.
History is littered with pioneering innovators who missed out on fortunes which would later be enjoyed by other individuals and especially firms taking on their inventions.
New research has highlighted British creators who were denied jackpots worth up to an estimated £100million apiece in today's money.
Flying shuttle
These include John Kay, who patented in 1733 his flying shuttle which doubled weaving speed and is credited with helping spark the Industrial Revolution - but manufacturers resisted paying his licence fees and he died in poverty.
His lost earnings could add £100million by modern-day standards, according to legal patent-tech company Lightbringer.
Vacuum flask
They have also calculated similar sums denied to others, such as £60million for Scottish chemist Sir James Dewar who invented the double-walled vacuum flask in 1892 yet never patented it - before German inventors Reinhold Burger and Albert Aschenbrenner patented a domestic version under the name Thermos in 1904.
Another Scottish inventor Alexander Bain created the world’s first electric clock, powered by electromagnetic impulses, in the 1840s - but wealthier rivals challenged his patents, with his finances drained through lengthy legal battles.
He died in near poverty, despite scientists winning him in 1873 a Civil List pension of £80 per year plus £150 from the Royal Academy, while Lightbringer says he should have pocketed £30million in today's money.
Tin cans
Similar calculations suggested the equivalent of £10million should have been due to Londoner Peter Durand, who secured a British patent in 1810 for preserving food in tin-plated iron cans.
Yet instead of making the cans himself, Duran sold the patents two years later to Bryan Donkin and John Hall for £1,000 - equivalent to £62,000 in 2025 - and that pair established the first commercial canning factory in the capital in 1813.
Dominic Davies, Lightbringer co-founder and CEO, said: 'Innovation has always driven progress, yet history shows that even the brightest ideas can be lost without protection.
'We wanted to quantify just how much potential has slipped through the cracks - whether through neglecting to patent, being unable to afford to, or relying on a flawed one.
'These findings don’t just tell a story of lost opportunity; they expose the long-standing barriers that have kept innovators from accessing the very systems designed to protect them.'
Yet while there are plenty of unlucky losers failing to receive their financial due, plenty of others have managed to ensure their inventions prove hugely lucrative - albeit occasionally at the expense of perhaps more deserving cases.
Monopoly
Aptly illustrating the vagaries of the market is the case of Monopoly, now one of the world's bestselling and most familiar board games.
It has its origins in what was called The Landlord's Game, devised in 1902 by left-wing campaigner Elizabeth Magie who intended it to show the unfairness of private property ownership rather than to celebrate capitalism.
Magie, the daughter of a progressive newspaper publisher from Illinois, filed a legal claim for her Landlord's Game in 1903, 30 years before Parker Brothers began manufacturing Monopoly.
Her story disputes the origin myth attributed to the firm that claims Charles Darrow came up with Monopoly in the 1930s, saving himself and Parker Brothers from ruin. Magie was paid a mere $500 for her contribution.
The Landlord's Game was devised in 1902 by political campaigner Elizabeth Magie who intended it to show the unfairness of private property ownership
It proved to be a precursor to the future bestselling board game Monopoly
Magie was paid $500 while Charles Darrow profited by selling Monopoly to Parker Brothers
The property trading board game has had multiple spin-offs including one based on London
Tetris
A more modern game, also now played worldwide, is Tetris - the building block puzzle game devised by Alexey Pajitnov in 1984 while working for the Soviet Union's Academy Of Science which took the rights, with private businesses banned.
He gave the game its name based on 'tetra', Greek for 'four', and his favourite sport tennis.
It was only following the USSR's collapse that he managed to stake a more successful financial claim, setting up The Tetris Company in 1996 to handle licensing - though he had already missed out on plenty of potential profits.
By that time Tetris had become a hit, especially coming as the 'free' game with the Nintendo Game Boy.
Pajitnov once said when reflecting on the royalties that might have been at the peak of the game's sales: 'I'm losing my sense of humour about it.'
Industry experts have estimated he lost out on at least about $30 million from early Nintendo sales, assuming a royalty rate of five per cent.
Alexey Pajitnov (right) was a Soviet computer engineer and programmer and the developer of one of the most popular computer games in history, Tetris (pictured in Moscow in 1989)
Tetris was included as a free game with Nintendo's Game Boy when launched in 1989
Hovercraft
Also hindered by coming up with an innovation while working for a government organisation was British inventor Sir Christopher Cockerell.
He patented the hovercraft as a new means of transport in 1955 and the first journey between Calais and Dover the next year.
But he was employed at the time by the UK's National Research Development Corporation and it took until the following decade for him to receive £5,000.
Sir Christopher died aged 88 in June 1999.
Sir Christopher Cockerell (pictured) patented the concept of the hovercraft in 1955
A hovercraft is seen off the coast of Southsea in Hampshire, with journeys to and from the Isle of Wight
Wind-up radio
Another British trailblazer was Trevor Baylis, credited with an estimated 250 products - his most famous being the Baygen Clockwork Radio, the original wind-up radio he created in 1991 to make health education broadcasts possible in Sub-Saharan Africa.
By 2000, several million of the clockwork radios had been sold and told one interviewer that he owned a huge amount of shares in the company that made it.
Yet relations with manufacturers broke down, with Baylis complaining that his original design was being tweaked with minor changes - such as having the wind-up mechanism power a battery rather than the radio itself - giving others new patents.
Baylis died aged 80 at his Eel Pie Island home in south-west London in March 2018, in relative poverty, having often railed against patent law as well as people he described as '‘CON-sultants', saying: 'They con you, insult you and charge you a lot of money.'
British inventor Trevor Baylis is pictured on Eel Pie Island Bridge with one of his wind-up radios
Biro ballpoint pen
Hungarian-born journalist László Bíró has been hailed for devising the world's first commercially viable ballpoint pen, patenting it in 1938.
He had been frustrated by ink from fountain pens failing to dry quickly, before being inspired to try a ball-shaped metal nib after seeing children playing with marbles in a puddle.
He worked with his chemist György on the prototype, patenting it in Paris in 1938 - though after fleeing Hungary for Argentina during the Second World War, he sold the patent in 1945 to Marcel Bichal whose company Bic would sell hundreds of millions.
Bíró did at least receive a reported $2million in return.
Computer mouse
Douglas Engelbart came up with a so-called 'position indicator for a display system', patented by his employers Stanford Research Institute in 1970.
He did not get to benefit greatly when his design became popularised from the 1980s onwards as the computer mouse.
When later asked by an interviewer whether he patented the mouse and became 'fabulously wealthy', Engelbart - who died aged 88 in July 2013 - replied: 'SRI patented it, but they really had no idea of its value.
'Some years later I learned that they had licensed it to Apple for something like $40,000.'
It was said to have inspired Steve Jobs to create Apple's first versions of the device.
Apple licensed Engelbart's mouse patent from SRI for about $40,000 (£33,000), and Jobs hired the design firm IDEO to bring the mouse to the masses.
The early mouse and coding keyset was created by computing legend Douglas Engelbart, a pioneer of the controller system
The rare, early three-button computer mouse designed by Engelbart utilises two metal discs which correspond to the X-axis and Y-axis on the bottom to locate the position of the cursor, rather than a ball or optical light that came to be used later
Karaoke machine
Many have attributed the invention of karaoke machines to Osaka-born Daisuke Inoue, who had performed as a drummer with backing bands for singers in the 1960s.
He then came up with a tape and microphone machine in 1971 - but did not patent it.
Similar claims have been made on behalf of Japanese compatriot Shigeichi Negishi, who died aged 100 in March 2024.
Tokyo-born Shigeichi Negishi invented the Sparko Box in 1967, having been mocked by a colleague for his bad singing at work and deciding he could improve by singing to a backing track.
Other firms followed suit by creating similar machines and the Sparko Box did not make Negishi millions because he too never patented the invention.
He even gave up making the singalong boxes as he 'grew tired of the conflict with musicians and the grind of door-to-door sales and maintenance.
But his daughter Atsumi Takano said he was happy just to know that his idea had grown into something so enjoyed, adding: 'He felt a lot of pride in seeing his idea evolve into a culture of having fun through song around the world.'
Shigeichi Negishi, karaoke inventor, has passed away after having a fall at the age of 100
The Sparko Box started out as just a microphone hooked up to a deck with tape
Meccano
Among those who did get to enjoy tangible fruits of their imagination was Frank Hornby, who would serve as Conservative MP for Liverpool Everton in the 1930s - having already become a millionaire as a toy-making entrepreneur.
Having worked as a cashier in his father business's after leaving school aged 16, then as a book-keeper, on the side he began making toys for his sons in a workshop.
His two young boys were intrigued by cranes at the Port of Liverpool - prompting Hornby to come up with a series of metal parts, nuts and bolts for mini replicas.
He launched the items as a retail offering in 1901, called 'Mechanics Made Easy' - becoming better known as Meccano, with a first factory opened in Liverpool that same year with others to follow in France and Germany.
He went on to produce further bestsellers in the Hornby Model Railways and Dinky Toys lines.
The Meccano range of construction toys was the brainchild of future millionaire and Conservative MP for Liverpool Everton, Frank Hornby
He followed up Meccano with other ranges including Hornby Model Railways and Dinky Toys
Lego
Similarly familiar and much-loved, from humble beginnings, is Lego - originating with another toy-maker, this time in Scandinavia.
Ole Kirk Christiansen began making wooden toys in 1932 and set up his own firm two years later, taking its name from the Danish phrase 'leg godt' - that is, 'play well'.
His first plastic toys followed in 1947 and the interlocking bricks were introduced two years later.
His family remains in charge of the Lego Group which has since expanded to employ more than 31,000 people and last year posted revenue of £8.7billion - with spin-off enterprises including 11 amusement parks and six movies in cinemas.
The proceeds of the share sales were paid out as a form of dividend and the shares were subsequently canceled by Kirkbi, meaning that other family members increased their stakes in the family firm, the company said in a statement.
Ole Kirk Christiansen began making wooden toys in 1932 and set up his own firm two years later, taking its name from the Danish phrase 'leg godt' - that is, 'play well'
His great-granddaughter Sofie Kirk Kristiansen sold shares in the company's family firm for about $930 million (£740million) in December 2023
Among popular Lego products is this version of the Millennium Falcon from the Star Wars films
Legoland Windsor has been among the Danish-based company's amusement parks
Slinky
Naval engineer Richard R James, from Philadelphia, was the man behind the ever-popular Slinky toy - which has also been immortalised on the big screen, in the Slinky Dog character from the Toy Story movies.
James was working in a home lab in 1943, trying to create springs that could support instruments on ships especially during turbulence on the waters, then noticed one accidentally knocked from a shelf travelled in a series of arcs to the floor.
As his wife Betty would later remember: 'He came home and said, "I think if I got the right property of steel and the right tension, I could make it walk".'
The couple formed James Industries, initially selling the Slinky toys for $1 apiece - and the first 400 sold out in just an hour and a half.
His fortune as a result of creating the Slinky has been estimated at $250million, with some 600million versions of the toy being sold in its first six decades.
Slinky toys originated with Philadelphia naval engineer in a home lab in 1943
Slinky Dog has been a character in the series of Toy Story movies
Yellow smiley faces
A graphic designer named Harvey Ball was hired in 1963 by Massachusetts-based State Mutual Life Insurance to come up with a design to help boost staff morale.
He came up with the now-iconic yellow smiley face, which would go on to be embraced by British ravers in the late 1980s and early 1990s - before forming the basis of many mobile phone emojis.
Yet he was paid just $45 for his work - and the subsequent spread of its use was powered in the 1970s by brothers Murray and Bernard Spain.
The latter, who set up a card shop and also set up the Dollar Exchange retail chain, took hold of the copyright for the yellow smiley face - and the brothers added the tagline: 'Have A Nice Day'.
They are said to have made $50million within the first 18 months of using the logo for their shops, before their Dollar Exchange brand became worth an estimated $200million by 2000.
Bernard Spain died aged 86 in January 2021. Harvey Ball had died in April 2001 at the age of 79.
Graphic designer named Harvey Ball was hired in 1963 by Massachusetts-based State Mutual Life Insurance to come up with a design to help boost staff morale - he is pictured here in 1998
Correction fluid
Singer-songwriter and guitarist Michael Nesmith found fame in the 1960s as one of the Monkees, initially touted as the US's manufactured answer to The Beatles.
Yet the man who would become a renowned musician in his own right was already comfortably off due to an invention by his mother Bette McMurry.
She was working as a secretary for the Texas Bank and Trust in 1951, using an electric typewriter, when she put her frustration at having to retype entire pages if a mistake was made into coming up with a solution.
After mixing mixed white water-based tempura paint to cover over errors, and colleagues asking her if they could use it too, Bette launched the label Mistake Out.
Future Monkees star Michael Nesmith helped his mother sell her correction fluid called Mistake Out while he was a child, along with friends who would also retail bottles for $1
She produced supplies from home with the use of a kitchen blender.
Her only son and his friends helped by selling bottles for $1 - and by 1958 it was well-known enough for General Electric to place a hefty order.
The firm later renamed as The Liquid Paper Company was ultimately sold by its founder, also known as Bette Nesmith Graham, to Gillette for $47.5million in 1979.