We also learned about a modern day inventor named Dean Kamen who is responsible for designing the Segway, FIRST robotics, a new type of wheelchair and now the Slingshot water purification system.
Check out his story at http://www.slingshotdoc.com/
And learn the story behind other inventions at PBS's "How We Got to Now" series.
http://video.pbs.org/program/how-we-got-now/