ESC 6C&D

Teacher: Laura Oña April 2024

Task #1

New Ideas Unit 4

“Invention” and “ Innovation”

1. Do you find any difference between these terms?

2. Look at this material. Read it and watch the videos.

Franklin’s most fascinating invention was a musical instrument known as the

glass armonica. Franklin invented the armonica in 1761; the concept is based
on the sound produced by running a wet finger around the rims of water-filled
drinking glasses to produce different pitches. Working with glassblower
Charles James in London, Franklin made a few dozen glass bowls, tuned to
notes by their varying size and nested one inside the next with cork. Each
bowl was made with the correct size and thickness to give the desired pitch
without requiring any water. An iron rod ran horizontally through the nested
glass bowls so they were turned on their sides facing the player. A foot pedal
rotated the rod so that all the interconnected bowls spun together, allowing the
musician to play multiple notes at once, much like a piano.
Reproduction of a glass armonica, 1761-1762, as displayed in the Benjamin
Franklin Musuem, based on the original in the Frankliniana Collection at the
Franklin Institute of Philadelphia. Photo by the author.

Moistened fingers touched to the edge of the spinning glasses produced an

ethereal, haunting sound, which Franklin’s wife Deborah described as “the
musick of angels.” Franklin himself noted that “of all my inventions, the glass
armonica has given me the greatest personal satisfaction.”
In this video, posted by the Toronto Star on 9 April 2013, composer William
Zeitler demonstrates a modern version of the glass armonica, first invented by
Benjamin Franklin in 1761.
Franklin produced many ingenious inventions over the course of his life, but
never secured any patents. Franklin believed that “as we enjoy great
Advantages from the Inventions of others, we should be glad of an
Opportunity to serve others by any Inventions of ours, and this we should do
freely and generously.” We should be grateful that Franklin freely shared his
extraordinary talents—for invention, and in so many other domains. After
learning more about the man, it is easy to agree with historian Walter
Isaacson, who called Franklin “the most accomplished American of his age
and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would
become.”
https://youtu.be/eEKlRUvk9zc

Jennifer Lawrence, the 25-year-old Academy Award-winning actor, plays the

inventor Joy Mangano in the new movie “Joy.” Joy Mangano has over 100
patents to her name, but the invention that put her on the map is the Miracle
Mop. While the cast and crew of the film were explicit in their insistence that
the story they wrote was a fictional account, the fundamental plot points were
based on real-life events, although Hollywood-ized.
The most successful inventors say the same thing: the best inventions are
those that solve a problem. The story of the Miracle Mop – the real story –
begins back in the late 1980s. Mangano was a single mom to three children,
working various jobs in and around Long Island. As the main breadwinner and
housekeeper, she was always busy. What set her apart from many others in
similar situations was her tinkerer’s mind. The daughter of a machinist, she
was not averse to getting her hands dirty and making tools, and she had
always been a bit of an inventor (she invented but didn’t produce a florescent
pet collar as a teen), and that inventive spirit led her to figure out a way to
make the everyday mop easier to use, cheaper, and more effective. She
identified the main problems: mops of the day were not absorbent enough for
large spills, they suffered from poor manufacturing and would often fall apart
after a few uses, and they were difficult to wring out.
At this point, although with a few small details changed, the movie and real
life are telling the same story. The movie, however, adds a dramatic twist
when Joy (Jennifer Lawerence) cuts her hand on broken glass that had found
its way into the head of one of those cheap mops. This is the trigger that sets
in motion the invention process quickly. So quick, that the mop is essentially
created overnight.
 Jennifer Lawrence stars in the film "Joy" from Fox 2000 Pictures.
Promotional film poster.

https://youtu.be/tghsiQO6_rE

In real life, this launches Joy Mangano to a dazzling career as an inventor,

product developer, and television personality. In the film, we see the effects of
this in the last scene: Joy in a new gigantic house, helping other would-be
inventors develop their products.

3. Do you admire any inventor in particular? Who? Why?

4. What is your favourite invention and why?

You will write your opinions about questions 5 and 6.

5. What innovation would improve the quality of our lives nowadays?

6. Watch these videos to take the topic into the business field.

Invention or innovation?

https://youtu.be/jFQSa6k5ofs

https://youtu.be/rxACniRLVts