Novelty Invention - PENCIL

Nicolas-Jacques Conté (1755 - 1805)

Has anyone ever wondered how pencils come about? Who invented the pencils that we have been using since we learn to write? Maybe pencil seems to be a common thing that people take things for granted and care less about the history of pencils. As early as 1500, graphite was discovered on the approach of Grey Knotts from the hamlet of Seathwaite in Borrowdale parish, Cumbria, England where the locals use the graphite to mark on sheep. Later on in 1795, Nicolas-Jacques Conté discovered a method of mixing the powdered graphite with clay and forms the mixture into rods that were then finished by firing in a kiln to be made into the pencil leads that we are using today to write and draw. What leads Conté to make make such discovery? Well, he was requested to create a pencil by Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot, a French politician, engineer and mathematician, which does not rely on foreign imports materials because at that time, the French Republic was under economic blockade and was unable to import graphite from Great Britain (the main source of the material). It took several days for Conté to think of the idea of mixing powdered graphite with clay and pressing the materials between two half-cylinders of wood and burn them in a kiln, turning them into pencil leads. His method of the basic recipe of the mixture is still widely used today by pencil manufacturers around the world. Conté received a patent for the invention in 1795. That was how our pencils come about.

Novelty, Creativity, Innovation and Invention

Novelty, Creativity, Innovation and Invention are related to each other in a way and are often used interchangeably. According to World English dictionary, the meanings of the 4 words are as below;

Novelty - the quality of being new, fresh and interesting

- a new or unusual experience or occurrence

- a small, usually cheap new toy, ornament or trinket

Creativity - having the ability to create

- characterized by originality of thought

- designed to or tending to stimulate the imagination

- characterized by sophisticated bending of the rules or conventions

Innovation - something newly introduced, such as a new method or device

- the act of innovating; making changes in anything established

Invention - the act or process of inventing

- discovery or production of some new or improved process or machine

- something that is invented

To be a successful creative person, it is essential to use these 4 qualities in us to make something new but yet simple, creative, useful and applicable to everyone in their daily life.

Here are some novelty inventions that we use in our daily life...fairly simple yet very useful.

Paper clips

straws

rubber bands

References: http://image.google.com

http://dictionary.com

What really kills creativity??

I think that the debate about Creativity in all aspects is an interesting topic to look into. Are we all born artist or we can learn to be creative? Does age matters ; old people are less creative while young people are the most creative people? Does our experiences in life made us more creative or less creative? There are many many questions to it..

There were 9 myths of creativity mentioned in lecture which there were some that sometimes I myself ever doubt of. For example, at times, I do think that being creative is hard and also the problems that I face in everyday life, does made it more difficult for me to be creative. Sometimes, I do envy those who can be so creative and think of new approach to problems so easily. However, sometimes, those myths are not true at all to me. So, are those myths true or not? It solely depends on how individual take care of problems they face. The myths are just there to make you doubt on your own ability. When people think too much on the negative side, anything that they do will come out negatively as well. It is important to just trust yourself that you are good and be proud of your idea. Do not think too much on comparing with others or how people will critic it or discovering all the weak points people will pinpoint out. Thinking too much will restrict or even kills creativity.

Another thing that might have killed creativity is schools. I do agree with Sir Ken Robinson who mentioned that school kills creativity. Well, when children are in pre-schools, they only learn through play. They can do anything they want with the toys, pretend to be someone else, talking to dolls and this is the best time for them to use their imagination and be creative. When they enter primary school and secondary school, everything is according to rules. You cannot do that, cannot do this; only do this and that and it is done this way. And anything you do which is different from routine or from others is considered alien and weird. People get humiliated and children become shy and only do the usual things that people do and dare not try new approach in order to fit in the community. Growing in this kind of situation is it not helping to nurture the generation to be creative but to kill it.

There are 3 articles which I find interesting and I would like to share it with others. In the articles, it mentioned about the myths of creativity, age and creativity and also ways to kill ideas.

http://creatingminds.org/articles/myths.htm

http://creatingminds.org/articles/age.htm

http://creatingminds.org/articles/killing_ideas.htm

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination

If an adult were given one big piece of empty paper and asked to draw something on it, I bet many will just go blank and panic, thinking so hard of the things to draw to fill the paper up; thinking should i draw this or that? Is it OK to draw it here? Somehow, many many doubts and worries will appear. However, if a child of age 3 were given the same piece of paper and asked to do the same thing as the adult was told, I believe they can just grab some crayons and fill the whole paper up easily; or maybe a second piece of paper is needed.

Children has the courage to express themselves freely without fear of anything. They have strong imagination, dare to be different, believe in what they think and that is what make them brave enough to draw anything on a blank piece of paper without being scared of the wrongs and mistakes (which all of us fear of when we grow up). Where is the creativity gone to? Why are we scared to express ourselves? Pablo Picasso once said, "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up" and that is quite true to many people out there in the world.

Be Creative with a Purpose

Frankly speaking, to me, in order for someone to be creative, it is not just to invent something new and have fun with it or just for the sake of beautification or decoration. What I have posted earlier are indeed amazing creations that have been created; using a line of construction toys and a little of mechanical skills and "ta daaa"; something beautiful and actually functional (for the sniper and printer) and not to forget the LEGO church..beauty. They do have the "wow factor" (quoted from lecturers during my alpha year..) However, what benefit does it brings to others and to the world? Do we have the ability to make the same machine out of LEGO? Do we have the chance to have fun with it?

To me, being creative with a purpose is the real meaning to creativity and it is no doubt challenging; to be able to come out with something new yet useful and applicable to anyone in their daily life. Take recycling for example, a well known process where everyone is being educated about and emphasized around the world. People are coming out with ways and ideas on how to save our Earth; reduce, reuse and recycle rubbish. Now, figuring out how to make good use of all the rubbish that we have thrown away is an simple start for getting someone to be creative. Making treasures out of trash is creative..

I would like to share a project that I did with 4 of my other course mates (Wei Yee, Ee Linn, Gihan and Jen Hou) in the Alpha year; Turning Trash into Treasures. Our task was to come out with something functional from gathered rubbish and we had this idea of making books for children of ages 3-6. Well, making children books may sound easy, but there are a lot of things that we need to take into consideration; the safety of the materials we are using, sharp edges things are a "no no", objects and colours that attracts children's attention and most importantly children learnt something after flipping through the books. I believe teachers and parents can easily make these treasures for their students or children at school or at home. It is not that difficult to be creative.

Here are some photos of our work. Enjoy.

The book of NUMBERS 1-10

The book of COLOURS

The book of ALPHABETS

The box to store the Alphabet pages.

And... Yup, they all come out from the "dump site" below.

Creative and Creativity

What is Creative? What is Creativity?

According to the dictionary, the word "Creative" basically means having the quality or the ability to create something out of the originality of thought or expression. To me, imagination is an essential key for someone to open the door to "Creative".

Now, what about creativity? "Creativity" on the other hand means the state or quality of being creative which simply means the process by which someone utilizes their creative skills to create something new and yet meaningful.

I believe many people knows what "LEGO" is. It is a line of construction toys which many parents love to buy for their children to play during childhood. It can help to enhance their children's creativity when they are building the blocks. It is still popular among young children of today and even some adults. They can just simply build anything out of it and some even may make the things that they created to work / function.

Below are some photos that I would like to share. I had them in my mail for a very long time. It is a Lego built church with amazing details. It is just simply creative and beautiful.

Then, I came across some videos which are pretty amazing in facebook (taken from youtube) the other day and I would like to share them here as well. It is some function-able creations created from LEGO. Enjoy!

1. A fully functional LEGO sniper rifle.

2. A fully functional LEGO printer.

HELLO~!!