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  Inventor Profiles
  Learn more with these kid-friendly biographies of inventors.
wrench icon Charles F. Brannock
In 1925, Charles F. Brannock invented the Brannock Device to measure feet and determine shoe size. He got the idea while working in his father’s shoe store, the Park-Brannock, in Syracuse, New York. He was 22 years old.
Pencil icon Joseph B. Friedman
In 1914, when he was just 14 years old, Joseph Friedman came up with the idea for his first invention. It was a lighted pencil called the “Pencilite.” Friedman invented many things throughout his life, but the “Drinking Tube” was his most successful invention.
light bulb icon Charlotte Cramer Sachs
Charlotte Cramer Sachs received her first patent in 1940 for a “Combined Key and Flashlight” (U.S. patent 2,208,498) to make unlocking locks in the dark easier. She continued inventing and creating new products until she died on March 11, 2004, at the age of 96.