Endless Thread - The Greatest Squirt Gun Ever Built

Episode Date: November 1, 2018

One of the bestselling toys of all-time, the Super Soaker, was invented by a rocket scientist nicknamed "The Professor." This is the story of the man, the legend: Lonnie Johnson.

Support for endless thread comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink Software, to design and develop engineered systems, accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at Mathworks.com. Support for WBUR comes from Is Business Broken, a podcast from the Mayrotra Institute at Boston University that explores questions like, why is innovation in healthcare so hard? Is ESG just greenwashing? of course, is business broken? Listen, wherever you get your podcasts. Produced by the I-Lap at WBUR, Boston. Peter Piper Piper Picked a Piper. This is inventor Lonnie Johnson. Peter Piper Picked or pickled peppers. That works for me. Lonnie Johnson is a super chill dude. So chill. Wake up, Lonnie. The episode is starting.

Lonnie's chill, but he's also responsible for a lot of mayhem. that really started when he was a kid, obsessed with rocket fuel. True or false, you almost burned down your house trying to make rocket fuel. Yeah, that's true. How old were you? Oh, geez. I'll say it must have been around 12 years old. Wow.

See, something similar happened to me, but I was in college and I was deep-friing paroogies. So. Same. I was trying to make a mozzarella stick. So clearly there's a difference in aptitude. here. But we'll try to keep up. That gets you in trouble or what?

Well, yeah, well, no. I'm guessing no. Of course, my parents obviously were not happy, and I was really fearful of what would happen when my dad came home. But when he got there and he looked, and he said, well, you're going to have to start mixing that outside from now on, and he bought me a hot plate, and that was about it.

Lonnie's dad also chill. And thank goodness. I sometimes think if my parents weren't as tolerant as they were, I would have turned out very, very different because there were lots of reasons for me to be in really, really deep trouble. But somehow they saw my curiosity as an asset and figured out that it could serve me well one day. Well, so far.

We said that Lonnie Johnson was responsible. for a lot of mayhem, but he also made millions of dollars off of one idea. Just pump up our park that rocket in one kind of toy. And you can soak someone up to 50 feet away. Into the stratosphere. Today's episode, the greatest squirt gun ever built. I'm Ben Brock Johnson, and you are listening to Endless Thread, the show featuring stories found in the vast ecosystem of online communities called Reddit.

One does not simply walk into our show without saying, how it is made. I'm here with my co-host, Amory Siebertson, and we are coming to you from Boston's NPR station, WBUR. Okay, I got to be honest. Saying squirt gun instead of water gun, it just isn't me. Like, I grew up 100% saying water gun. The word squirt is just gross, and it sounds belittling. That's the kind of thing a little squirt would say. Oh, whatever. I'm a squirt. You're a scamp. I was definitely what moms and dads and my friends might have called a helion. But my trouble making would have been a lot less effective if I hadn't been wielding a device that Lonnie Johnson invented the Super Soaker Squirt Gun. Water gun.

If I had a squirt gun right now, you would be soaked. But you don't, so I'm not. The Super Soaker arrived at the perfect moment for me. 1991, I was 11 years old, and my family loved water fights. I loved them, too. But my friends and I just used good old fashion water balloons. Mm, keeping it classic. Point is, everybody knows supersoakers, or at least at a particular time, knew supersoakers.

Fewer people know how this invention came into the world and the story of the man who invented it, a man who is still inventing. So back to Chill Lonnie, who just wasn't your average kid, like your average kid gets toys and then plays with them. Lonnie, on the other hand? I got on a bicycle for Christmas and decided that I wanted to have a windmill, so I'm. I actually took the chain and the crank and everything and set it up. And I actually got some blades from a window shade. And I actually put them all around in an array and made a windmill. And I had my bicycle there, so I would turn the crank.

I got a big kick out of seeing that thing work. Lonnie was always doing this, taking toys apart, putting them back together. My toys as well as my siblings' toys. They must have been big fans of that. Sometimes I would get them back together. they got them back together. But I was always curious about what was inside and how they worked. Around the time Lonnie was mixing his own rocket fuel indoors,

that curiosity was getting an additional boost from something he had seen President John F. Kennedy say on TV in September of 1962. We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things. Not because they are easy, but because they are hard. because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills. Because that challenge is...

It wasn't just the goal itself that struck Lonnie. It was the confidence JFK had in achieving it, despite the lack of a roadmap to do so. He said we didn't know how to do it yet. We didn't have the materials that were needed, but they're going to be invented. We're going to develop these new materials that don't exist. That was a pretty ambitious state. made to the world to do something that was very hard and had not been done before. And that actually happened.

It's something Lonnie laughs about now, but at the time it was dead serious, and it was dangerous. Also dangerous for people like Lonnie, the blowback to the civil rights movement. As a black kid growing up in Mobile, Alabama in the 1950s and 60s, Lonnie saw and felt segregation firsthand. Lonnie Johnson went to an all-black high school, and he excelled. Kids in the neighborhood called him the professor. He placed in a statewide math competition two years in a row, and then his senior year, he represented his school in a science fair. We got there.

We were the only black school represented, and this was in 68. That was the year that Martin Luther King was assassinated, and the year that Robert King. Kennedy was assassinated. So it was a very, very trying time in the country. I can remember how depressing it was around the school. We called an assembly. We all got into the auditorium and it was just... The regional science fair was held at the University of Alabama, and just five years before that, the governor of Alabama had blocked an entrance to the university to protest the

enrollment of two black students. But Lonnie felt confident in his creation. My project was a robot. Three and a half feet tall, a propane tank for a torso, movable arms made out of scrap metal, wheels for feet, and a reel-to-reel tape recorder brain, controlled by a walkie-talkie remote. He was my alter ego. I kind of had, well, I was still a kid,

so I had this imagination going. So I called it, you know, named it Lennox after me. But I wanted to have kind of an electronic high-tech name, so instead of Lonnie. Linux, L-I-N-E-X. which inspired Lonnie Johnson's username on Reddit. Yes, he's a Redditor. He goes by I-I-N-E-X.

Back then, Linux was the name of his entry into a science fair he was barely invited to, which we wanted about. Are you asking if I felt unwelcome? Yes. Absolutely. It was hosted by the School of Engineering. And I think then the whole time there, the dean didn't really say anything to us.

until we were leaving when he sat by and drive safely. Wow. So how'd you do? I won first place. After that, doing things that are very hard despite challenges sort of became Lonnie's M.O. It led him first to the Air Force Weapons Laboratory, where he helped develop this stealth bomber program.

Then to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA, where he got his rocket scientist cred. My first assignment was on the Galileo Project, so I was the power systems engineer for Galileo. Galileo, as in the spacecraft, sent to Jupiter. Launched in 1989, didn't arrive until 1995. What I think about that is like, okay, I was working on this robot in high school, but now I'm working on robots that are going to other planets.

And that was kind of cool. Yeah, I mean, I guess that's kind of cool. And that was just the day job. When he clocked out, Lonnie would go home and lean even further into doing things. things that were very hard and that had never been done before, also known as inventing. I was experimenting with this heat pump. I was trying to design a heat pump that would use water as a working fluid instead of Freon because Freon is bad for the environment. It was destroyed the ozone layer. It was a big deal. Everyone was talking about it. So I decided,

well, what could be more environmentally friendly than water is a working fluid? I had machined some nozzles. I was experimenting with these nozzles in my bathroom, and I shot the stream of water across the bathroom into the tub, and the stream of water was so powerful that the curtains on the window were swaying, and I thought to myself, geez, it would really be nice to have a high-powered water gun. It felt really, really good holding that powerful stream in my hand. So I decided at that point that I was going to build a high-performance water gun.

Do you remember how you felt when you showed a high-power gun? Do you remember how you felt when you shot that first stream of water? Were you just so pleased with yourself? It was pretty impressive. Lonnie knew he was on to something, though he wasn't sure what or why just yet. More on what and why in a minute. At Radio Lab, we love nothing more than nerding out about science, neuroscience, chemistry. But we do also like to get into other kinds of things.

of stories. Stories about policing or politics, country music, hockey, sex, of bugs. Regardless of whether we're looking at science or not science, we bring a rigorous curiosity to get you the answers. And hopefully make you see the world anew. Radio Lab, Adventures on the Edge of what we think we know. Wherever you get your podcast. There is something powerful about the sound of the human voice. Beautifully produced audio has the unique power to connect and inspire. Tell your organization's story with a custom podcast from CitySpace Productions, the Creative Studio from WBUR's business partnerships team. Become a thought leader.

Recruit new talent. Reach new audiences. Whatever your goal, we can help. Discover how the magic is made at WBUR.org slash creative studio. So Lonnie had this idea. Maybe for a water gun. He started making a prototype out of PVC pipe, plexiglass, and an empty soda bottle.

The only person I really told that I was going to make the water gun was my daughter. I told I was going to make her this really, really stand down. And she was like, best dad ever. But it wasn't until I really got it finished, and it literally took a few weeks, and got it finally assembled, and then pumped it up and fired it for the first time

that I actually saw it work, and it was. It turned out very impressive. And I would let my daughter play with it, and the other kids couldn't get closed to it, It would be another eight years before Lonnie's water gun was available in stores. First, as the power drencher, then a year later, as the super-soaker. Whatever it was called, it never had gun in its name, and it was always painted bright colors

in effort to distance the product from real guns. It was made by a company called Laramie, which was later bought by toy giant Hasbro. 20 million of them sold that first summer. And just to give you a sense, Hatchamels, one of the most popular toys of recent, recent years, sold 2 million units in 2016. So the Super Soaker was a massive hit. Even for the 1990s, when toy retail was booming, its popularity was nuts, which meant that very quickly the toy went from just the classic Super Soaker 50 to a whole suite of products. Did I forget to invite you to the pool party? Well, maybe next year.

On those occasions, when you need to make a big splash, there's the Super Socher. When a toy gun gets this popular, it can get folded into the larger gun violence debate. A supersoaker fight in Boston in 1992 escalated into real gunfire, leaving two dead. Boston's mayor at the time even asked merchants in the city to remove supersoakers from shelves. Of course, that didn't stick. You don't have to look hard for evidence of the supersoakers impact. The nostalgia around supersoakers on Reddit is strong. And because Lonnie himself is a Redditor, people can actually share their appreciation with him.

People like Reddit user Zsuth, who writes, I had a less than pleasant upbringing. I was always grateful that when it was hot out, my siblings and I could get out of the house for a few hours and run around the neighborhood with our super-soakers. And then there's Redditor VIP Remedy, who writes, You have single-handedly filled many summer days with hours of entertainment. You were doing all of this work that was like Deadly Serious. but you saw the potential for this thing to be a toy.

Yeah, what was interesting about that, you know, that wasn't my first invention. In fact, it wasn't my first. I actually had patents by then. And we should talk about one of those patents, his very first patent, in fact. You refer to it as the big fish that got away. The label or the title was a digital distance measuring instrument, but it basically is a device that you make by using. photolithography to opically reduce a binary scale down to the point where you can't really see it with the naked eye.

Translation needed? Most deaf translation needed. Okay, here's what you need to know about the patent for Lonnie's digital distance measuring instrument. That's the base technology for DVDs and CDs. I received that patent in 1979. Whoa. How did it get away? Well, I was preoccupied with games.

LAO and enjoying being an engineer and working on the out of planetary spacecraft. That's fair. We needed you for that stuff. You win some, you lose some, Lonnie, and you don't always get to choose which invention sees the light of day. I had been somewhat frustrated because, you know, I had been talking to investors and trying to get people interested in funding some of my ideas, and I wasn't having anything. success at that. And so I thought to myself if I stopped the hard sign stuff, the heat pumps and

all these things that were really complicated and work on something really simple that anybody could look at and appreciate I could get enough money from that, but then go off and work on the hard sign stuff. And in reality, it's worked out pretty good. Well, actually, better than I expected, I thought I'd be able to, you know, support myself and my family and continue to work, but it literally did change my life. The Super Soaker has generated more than a billion dollars in sales, which makes for a good chunk of change in royalties. And Lonnie made even more in royalties from a line of Nerf guns

that used the same air compression technology as the Super Soaker. This is a point we have to underline. Not only was Lonnie responsible for the outdoor phenomenon known as Super Soaker Squirt Guns. Oh, water guns. He also helped to build the fundamental, technology behind some of the end-strike Nerf guns. Nerf as in the toy weapons that fire all manner of foam ammunition at all manner of friendly enemies.

I mean, basically, Lonnie, I think I need to thank you for most of my childhood fun. Nerf Elite. This is Nerf Elite Infanus. The most technically advanced blaster from Nerf. All of this has allowed Lonnie to get back to the hard science, as he calls it. now have a company. I have about 25 people working on staff, including a PhD-level scientist, working with me to develop the next generation of energy technology, both in power generation as well as energy storage. Lani's startup, Johnson Research and Development, is based in Atlanta, Georgia,

where Lonnie lives and where he raised his four kids. It's a lab, really, and one of the things they've made is something Lonnie calls the great-great-grandson of that heat pump he was originally trying to make when the Super Soaker idea came about. It's called the Johnson Thermoelectric Energy Converter, or the J-Tech. It's an engine that converts heat into electricity. That one actually I'm pretty excited about. He has good reason to be excited, because this technology could be used to power spacecrafts at five times the efficiency. he says. He just signed a contract with NASA to work on it. And back here on Earth, we could someday charge our cell phones with our body heat or convert

industrial waste heat into energy. If you could get our own waste heat from industry, converted into electricity, I mean, we wouldn't need oil. So the whole idea is to, in my focus, is to try and make meaningful contributions to our effort to transition away from fossil fuels so that we can start. destroying the environment. An energy system without fossil fuels means a future reliant on renewable energy resources, which means we'll need a much better system for storing that energy.

Which brings us to the next big thing Lonnie is working on, advanced battery technology. Specifically, the solid state battery, which could potentially store 10 times the energy as the lithium-ion batteries that are currently being used in everything from electric cars to smartphones. Lonnie spent the last 20, years working on this.

You're talking about all of these developments that you've made in the energy industry that could literally change the world. And yet, you're probably still best known as the inventor of the Super Soker. So is that frustrating? Sometimes. But also, you know, it's a nice icebreaker. I'm learning that it actually gets me in the doors and gets me in the conversations that otherwise people would be less open.

Okay. You start with the super soaker and slip them the J-TEC. Yeah, I mean, we transition. Something else that's been frustrating for Lonnie are the times that he hasn't been able to get a foot in the door. You're a person of color in a field that has traditionally not had a lot of people of color in it and also been pretty unwelcome to people of color. How do you think about that at this stage in your life? Well, you know, swimming upstream is, you know, something that I, it's just what I do, you know. And sometimes when I get no, you know, I do maybe for one second or so sometimes, I wonder

if it's really a legitimate no or if there's something else going on that I'm not aware of. You know, when you go in and tell people that you're developing a battery that 10 times the energy of invention of lithium ion batter. That's a pretty hard thing to accept as being possible coming from anybody. It's hard enough just being an inventor, being told you're wrong, foolhardy, crazy,

because you're trying to make something that has never been made before, and you're asking people to not just believe in your ideas, but to fund them. And when you spell it out like that, becoming an engineer or an inventor, it's a hard sell. So Lonnie started a nonprofit last year. the Johnson's STEM Activity Center.

It provides funding for science, technology, engineering, and math education, and robotics activities for underserved students in Georgia. The way I'd like to describe the importance of this is that, you know, if it were not for inventors, we'd all be living in caves. I think kids need to understand that, particularly when a lot of kids are convinced

that the only way out is through sports and entertainment. there are other viable paths to success. Although the Super Soaker is, to me, endlessly entertaining. Okay, Ben, I think we should share one more comment that someone wrote to Lonnie on Reddit. When I was maybe eight years old, I took my school backpack in one of those five-gallon water jugs, rummaged through my dad's tools, and piped up a five-gallon backpack water jug to my super-soaker. I ruled the water fights for two summers. My dad was a little pissed that I was rummaging through his tools, but, you know, and I was, you know, and I was, you know, and, you know, I was, After that, we had something to bond over, creating.

I just want to thank you for giving me a place to start on creative engineering. That is my first memory of thinking outside the box, and I still look back on it when I'm trying to make something work better. This comment hits me right in the feels. Maybe it's a little hallmark card, but it's good. Yeah, you never know what will lead someone to engineering. Sometimes it's a water fight. So in a way, Lonnie Johnson has kind of come full circle.

He invented something that made it possible for him to invent a whole lot of other things, things, and now the people he's inspired are inventing their own things. Pretty cool. You're almost 70 years old. Don't remind me of that. I still got a lot to do. Yeah, you don't sound like you're the least bit ready to retire. You sound like you are paving a new frontier.

Is that how you feel? Yeah. I mean, it's why I get up in the morning. I'm motivated. I want to have an impact. It was once said there's no greater burden than an opportunity. You know, I don't think I'll ever be without an idea. And I think that it would be irresponsible and even sinful.

Dr. Lonnie Johnson, thanks a lot for talking with us. My pleasure. I enjoyed it. Thank you. Endless Thread is a production of WBUR, Boston's NPR station, in partnership with Reddit. Our show is a dream realized by Jessica Alpert, and when she found out we were talking to the guy who invented the super soaker, she said, Whoa, dude. Iris Adler is our executive producer and hearing Lonnie Johnson's story inspired her to... Get motivated.

Mix and sound design by Paul Vicus and John Parati, who thought the moon landing was mildly awesome. Our web producer is Megan Kelly, and she wants to trademark. Wholesome memes. Michael Pope is our advisor at Reddit, who almost burned down his house when he tried inventing... Fan theories. Even though you don't always hear his voice, it's important. important to point out that our fellow producer Josh Swartz can also say that Endless Thread is something I made extra production assistance from James Lindberg

our intern is Candace Lim our theme music is by squelcher on Reddit we are endless underscore thread if you want to contribute art for an upcoming episode or give us a juicy story tip so we can tell it like we did today hit us up there also when you go there you should follow our profile on Reddit so we can be in touch my co-host and producer is Amory Siebertson I am senior producer and Ben Brock Johnson, I'll let myself out. So our intrepid production assistant, James Lindberg, went on to Reddit and posted a question

about what the best Nerf guns for hanging out and playing around in your college dorm room were. And he got so many amazing answers. Very detailed answers. And so you're going to do a dramatic, nerdy reading of some of these answers? I mean, I would recommend two Alphi. troopers, three strifes, two disruptors, and three hammer shots, a single rhino fire, and most importantly, lots and lots of darts. You don't seem to be serious about a Nerf war, so get basic

kush darts from eBay. 500 to a thousand should do the trick for a long time, setting you back $30 to $60 on their own, but much better than normal elite darts in every way. Also on eBay, there are 18 round aftermarket stick mags for four to five dollars. Excuse me. You were doing so good. You were doing so good, nerd amory. I'm going to keep going. I'm doing well. Stick bags for four to five dollars each, which aren't hugely reliable, but they're cheap and should cut it. This wouldn't be nowhere as good as yours, but I'll give you a bro voice. You want a bro voice? Yeah. Heck, just pick up a pile of Zuru X-Shaw Reflex 6 Blast. cheap, decent performance, compatible with all long darts, nice ergos, and great for modding if you like.

No slam fire, single-handed priming, but hey, they are solid. Where was the bro voice? That just sounded like you. Oh, you can go straight to hell. With a Nerf gun.