A Lifetime of Inventing, a Pocket Full of Awards

Ron Laswick , Canada

A Lifetime of Inventing, a Pocket Full of Awards I find inventing exciting because it not only invokes curiosity and learning, but it also presents challenges which I love to take on.

From a very early age in my life, I somehow knew that I was going to be an inventor. I would wake up at 4 o'clock in the morning and read science, physics, electricity/electronics, and the history of inventors books.

I have been fascinated with Inventions since a very young age. I self taught myself the world of science, physics, electricity and electronics, well in advance of any learning I received in schools, which turned into a serious hobby. I was fascinated with the Great Inventors throughout history, and I developed a deep desire to be an inventor.

During High School I designed and made a working prototype of the world's first a “talking calculator” for the blind. I submitted the idea to C.N.I.B (Canadian Institute for the Blind). Unfortunately, a Swiss company was already working on this concept in conjunction with C.N.I.B. That turned me off of inventing for quite some time.

Through this, I learned about Patents. I completed High School. My first job was in retail appliance servicing which lasted for a period of ten years. My next attempt at inventing was at the age of 24, where I made a set of noise cancellation headphones for noisy environment hearing protection.

I submitted the concept to a firm called The Canadian Innovation Centre for a paid evaluation. They indicated that it probably wouldn't work (even though I had a functional prototype!) and that there was a very small market potential for it. It turns out that it has been marketed successfully for many years now.... I was turned off again. This happened many times throughout the years.

I studied Electronics at Humber College during the evenings throughout this time period. My next career change was with O-Two Medical Technologies (a manufacturer of emergency medical respiratory equipment) located in Mississauga, Ontario. I started out as a Field Service Technician, moved up to Service Manager, then onto Quality Assurance Manager, then into New Product Development Engineering where I eventually created all the prototypes and carried out the product development for all the products they still sell today with approximately $50 M in sales since 1992.

Many patents were awarded and I won a Manning Innovation Award for one of these. I did not have an Engineering certificate through all this. I grew with the company, and my design talents were recognized. At this time I created the Genesis II IDLH Automatic Resuscitator, which I have been granted several patents for in the United States of America, Canada and the U.K.

It is currently saving lives on a daily basis. Many new products have since been developed using the Genesis II technology that I created as a platform. Shell Canada put out a request to the Medical Respiratory industry for a solution to a serious problem they faced in the oil refinement industry, that would permit resuscitation efforts to be carried out in toxic gas environments using a very compact, lightweight, easy to use novel automatic gas powered resuscitation device.

We were under a very tight timeline to come up with a solution. Existing devices commercially available were extremely bulky, heavy and awkward to use, not to mention they could not be used in toxic environments…the victims had to be moved to safe area before resuscitation efforts could be administered. Time is very critical in these situations. Many late nights and weekends were spent trying to overcome engineering obstacles, but persistence and determination paid off.

We successfully created 12 functional prototypes in 8 weeks from the initial concepts on paper. We were awarded the contract, and delivered the first commercialized order in 4 months time. I was awarded the 1997 Canadian Manning Innovation Award for the Genesis II IDLH Resuscitator.

I was featured in a full page article in Toronto’s Globe and Mail about Innovation and my achievements.

Finally, I headed up their Research and Development department. I ran out of opportunities at that firm, and as I had many inventions that I wanted to pursue, I found an Angel Investor to fund a start-up technology company. It was a big decision for me, as I had been employed at O-Two for 24 years…but I had to try.

I was offered a once in a life time, no risk opportunity to take one of my own inventions forward. If I hadn't at least tried, I would have kicked myself for the rest of my life, never knowing what would have come out of it. Things started off OK, but we had trouble finding a Canadian Engineering firm that was specialized in our field to design the prototypes.

We received partial funding for this project through IRAP, and it was a requirement to source services here in Canada. We got “swindled” by two engineering companies. The first firm led us to believe that they had the skills and knowledge required, but we discovered that was not the case. The second company had the expertise, but was too involved in prior projects and ended up not being able to commit his time to our project.

Quite often things don’t go as planned in product development. Innovation is all about trial and error, and learning in the process….after all, it’s never been done before! Just near the end of this period, we did find a great company to work with that produced two functional prototypes, but by then, it was too late. After two and a half years, the Investor finally pulled the plug.

All in all, I’d have to say that it was patience, persistence with an optimistic attitude and creative thinking that made it all happen. The way I see it, the process of inventing requires a somewhat different kind of thinking. One approach is to have an awareness of the daily obstacles or difficulties that we encounter, (you’ll be surprised if you look for them!) and then create innovative solutions for them.

Just before my father died he was confined to a wheelchair. He said to me, “it’s a real pain trying to get up slight grades or wheelchair ramps. You have to push the wheels forward and then slam the brakes on so that you don’t roll back, release the brakes and push forward again…etc.” I tried it. Boy he was right! Later on I searched for a solution to this, and someone now has a patent on a solution for it. As the old saying goes, “Necessity is the Mother of Invention.”

Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” If you think about it, if it wasn’t for imagination, we wouldn’t have any of the wonderful inventions (that we take for granted) that influence our daily lives.

Unfortunately, pursuing inventions and patents is very financially prohibitive (to the average individual), and as such, many good ideas never get beyond the original piece of paper they were conceived on.

After this endeavour, I found work in the field of automotive assembly pneumatic air tool repair. I could not get back into Product Development, Engineering or into any medical company due to my lack of required degrees and formal education. Now we won’t bring up the fact that Edison only had three months of formal schooling....but 1,093 Patents were awarded to him over his lifetime. He was one of the richest, most influential individuals that shaped our century into the technology we have today. Intelligence, creativity and vision aren't things taught, nor learned in a school.

My Key Accomplishments and Awards

• 1997 Canadian Manning Innovation Award winner for the design of a novel automatic gas powered resuscitation device that solved a serious problem faced by Shell Canada in the oil refinement industry that permitted resuscitation efforts to be carried out in toxic gas environments.



• Inventor, concept designer, initial prototype creator and collaborative developer of 7 patented, novel medical respiratory gas powered manual and automatic resuscitation devices and spin-off technologies, manufactured and successfully commercialized globally by O-Two Medical Technologies since 1992.

I myself have over fifty useful, patentable ideas that could, perhaps be worth millions of dollars, but I lack the financial backing to explore their potential. Many ideas that I put down on paper eventually were patented and/or marketed. I cannot stop inventing; I was born to invent. It is part of who I am. I need to get back into innovation and product development. This is what motivates me, and thus I am seeking an opportunity in this field again.

Currently I am also seeking investors and/or partners to fund, develop and commercialize a disposable resuscitation device, and a revolutionary compressor/ pump.

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