The masters of invention

QUESTION Who was the world’s most prolific inventor?

This is often thought to be the American Thomas Edison (18471931), who had 1,093 patents to his name. But he falls well short of modern inventors shunpei Yamazaki and Kia silverbrook.

Yamazaki is the president and majority shareholder of research company semiconductor Energy Laboratory (sEL) in Tokyo and has 5,412 patents to his name.

Working in electronics, he owns patents in devices associated with thin film transistors, liquid crystal displays, cell phones, solar cells and OLED (organic light emitting diode) displays.

silverbrook is an Australian inventor and president of Priority Matters. he has 4,747 patents to his name in fields including printing, digital paper, cell phones, CGi and genetic research.

Complex electronic devices such as smartphones contain thousands of patented systems. The average smartphone depends on patents for CMOs (complementory metal semi-conductors), flash memory, microphones, gyroscopes, touch sensors, image sensors, camera lenses, batteries, battery power management chips, GPs receivers, wifi and Bluetooth geospatial mapping systems.

Aran Bishop, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion.

QUESTION What’s the most inappropriate shop name?

FurThEr to earlier answers, at one time on the gable end of a local small business was written W. ELDEr WELDEr.

Gordon Clark, Kirkintilloch, Dunbartonshire. WhEn i worked in insurance, we had client’s invoices from a firm near Birmingham that repaired window glass on shop fronts. it was called Bodgit and scarper.

A. Vallance, Banbury, Oxon.