In the Nov, 1950 issue of Mechanix Illustrated, a piece about an early iteration of the hackspace: the “New Inventors Club” where a technician would help you modify your project designs so that you could get something that worked and try to sell it without having to pay big bucks to scumbag “promoters” who’d string you along with pretty lies. To use a contemporary metaphor, the “New Inventors Club” was like an actual editor who’d help you with your book for money, the “promoters” were the sleazy vanity presses and scam literary agents that would fleece you with bills for “book doctoring” and “promotional services” and leave you with a garage full of unsaleable dead trees.
That situation is being changed since Bill Korth entered the picture in Cleveland, Ohio. His New Inventors Club sees to it that fledgling inventors are no longer at the mercy of sharks and dishonest promoters, and it’s willing to lend a helping hand whenever needed. For example: Recently, an inventor came to the office of the New Inventors Club with drawings of a lawnsprinkler. It was obvious that the device was completely impractical for it involved the use of supporting prongs which would tear into lawns. It lacked the “easy-to-use” feature all such devices should have and was expensive to manufacture.
At the Club, the lawnsprinkler was equipped with a double-duty cutting tool; its bad features were eliminated, and it was simplified so that it could be turned out in mass production. Thus improved and patented, it sold fast—and in the thousands!
“Aaaaa,” you ask, leering skeptically, “but what did all this help cost the inventor?”
Cleveland Club Helps New Inventors