The BBC website has a story about Sam Houghton, who aged 5 has received a British patent for his invention. He must be one of the youngest inventors ever, and thought of the idea when aged 3.
It is for A sweeping device with two heads. He was inspired by his idea of a broom which has one head for big pieces and a second head for smaller pieces by watching his father sweeping up in the garden. Dad, who luckily is a patent lawyer, says "It was such a simple solution that only a child could have come up with it." Here is the main drawing.
There are no plans to market the broom, but the fact that the patent has been granted protection (the BBC story has a picture of a smiling Sam holding a copy of the published, granted patent) means no one else can try to monopolise the idea.
As far as I am aware Sam is the youngest inventor to receive a British patent. In the USA, there is Jeanie Low with her Folding step for cabinet doors (built when she was aged 5); Robert Patch, with his Toy truck, who was 6 at the time; and Becky Schroeder, who took out three patents, starting with her Luminescent backing sheet for writing in the dark. Depending on which source you find, she was aged 10, 12 or 14.
Confusion can easily arise, as a child may think of an idea at one age, apply for a patent at a second, and be granted a patent at a third. Other inventions by children are stated by sources on the Web to be collapsible stands for school lockers, edible spoon-shaped crackers for cats, chalk dispensers, nappies with pockets for baby wipes and solar-powered tepees.
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