Inventors' Inspiration

What IS it with this place and inventors?  Could it be something in the water?  Or could it be that inventors are inspired by the example of other inventive minds around them? Either way, it seems like there's a fertile field for creativity in this area!

There was James Kirby, of course, with his 200 patents.  He moved in from Cleveland - but Richfield was the home of his pioneer ancestors (the Bigelows).

Charles Brush, inventor of the arc light , lived in Richfield.

One of Mason Oviatt's nephews, Salmon (or Solomon) Erastus Oviatt, lived in Richfield and ran a bobsled factory.  S.E. Oviatt patented his own original bobsled design with detachable runners.  He also invented and patented an improved threshing machine, and a combination milking stool/ sanitary milk pail.

Going farther afield, the inventor of the Hoover vaccuum cleaner hailed from Akron.

And the consummate inventor, Thomas Edison, was born in Milan, Ohio.

While hunting up the S.E. Oviatt patents in the Akron main library, I happened across another one - a type of cook pot lid invented by Luman B. Oviatt of Brooklyn Village, Cuyahoga County.  Here's the eerie part: When the Lake Erie Girl Scout Council sold Camp Margart Bates, the title transfer lists all the previous owners of the land.  The oldest deed transfer was from December 8, 1869........ to Luman Oviatt.