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Lonnie Johnson
Ben Baker/Redux
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He Grew Up to Invent the Super Soaker
Growing up in the 1950s in Alabama, Lonnie Johnson loved to build stuff, like go-karts and robots. He continued to build and experiment throughout high school and college. He later became an engineer at NASA, the U.S. space agency. But he never dreamed he’d invent one of the world’s most popular toys—the Super Soaker!
The idea came to Johnson by accident. While working on another invention, he found a way to shoot water over long distances. Using a plastic pipe and an empty soft drink bottle, he created a prototype, or model, water gun. It was first sold in 1990. Now, 30 years and about 200 million Super Soakers later, it’s still a top seller!