When Dan Williams gets an idea for a new invention, his goal is to make it as useful on as many different levels as is humanly possible.
A former 11-year officer with the Florida Marine Patrol , Williams came up with the idea for the StayAlive while bobbing along in a boat, in the dark, during a search for a missing person in the Florida Keys several years ago.
That invention, a life jacket with panels attached to the front containing survival gear including flares, a flashlight, signal mirror, nylon rope and an inflatable signaling device, has a number of uses for its wearer.
For Williams and his co-inventor Helmut Siepmann, it became even handier this week as the invention placed him in the top-25 contestants in the annual Modern Marvels Invent Now Challenge.
The competition — named for The History Channel’s “Modern Marvels” program and a partnership of the cable network, Lexus and the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation — took 2,500 entries from around the country and narrowed them down to 25 people representing 17 different states.
Photo by Wes Hope/The Daily Times.
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