Sam Houghton, Britain’s Youngest Patent Holder
Sam Houghton has already had a brush with greatness – at the age of five.
Inspired by his heroes Wallace and Gromit, Sam has become Britain’s youngster inventor by patenting an idea for a new type of broom.
He had the brainwave as his dad Mark swept up garden leaves. Two brushes were in use, one to clear up larger leaves and twigs, the other to catch finer debris. Sam tied them together to save Mark the trouble of switching. The result was the Improved Broom which can be flipped around for different jobs.
The child, who was only three at the time, was granted the patent and is thought to be the youngest to hold one in this country.
Sam said: “I don’t know if I want to be an inventor when I grow up but this was fun. I saw my daddy brushing up and made it. There are two brushes because one gets the big bits and one gets the little bits left behind.”
Mark used his experience as a patent attorney to get his son’s idea through the rigorous procedures of the UK Intellectual Property Office.
Mr Houghton insists the idea was all Sam’s and he just did the paper work. He said: “It was such a simple solution only a child could have come up with it. He asked why I kept swapping brooms and I said it was to pick up the different leaves and twigs.
Photo by Mirror.co.uk.
heather li on April 25th, 2008 4:18 pm
congrats sam! i hope that my kids can follow in your footsteps!
solidamerica.com on April 27th, 2008 12:06 am
Sam, you are very smart and inventing for good and positive is a great thing, your power of thinking to improve things a a nice way to make a living. from Costa Rica and The World discover it, Congratulations.
Reese Young on April 27th, 2008 12:12 am
Congratulations to this young boy. The future is yours.
cassy on April 27th, 2008 9:22 am
Congrats, I’m pretty sure you have a great future Sam, just follow your dreams and don’t just dream… DREAM BIG!!!
curt on April 27th, 2008 2:28 pm
That was a very nice news. It is nice to be encouraged from early years to think free, openly and wide – just as kids do. I hope, Sam is going to continue his inventing path much more confident, due to his first successful patent.
BK on April 28th, 2008 8:06 am
It is interesting to read of such a simple solution that is so obvious to a child and yet we could not see it :)
Leave a Reply