The Spotlight is on May 27, 1986-the day the U.S. Patent Office granted a patent to African American inventor Lonnie Johnson for his toy design simply titled “Squirt Gun.” After a few name changes and additional patents, Johnson’s invention—ultimately re-named the “Super Soaker®”-would become the best-selling water toy of all time, eventually earning its rightful place in the American National Toy Hall of Fame.Johnson’s concept for the Super Soaker began by accident in his own basement bathroom in 1982. At the time, the Tuskegee Alum was employed as a nuclear engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, working on the Galileo mission to Jupiter. While brainstorming a heat pump that would use pressurized water vapor instead of environmentally hazardous freon, Johnson hooked up a nozzle to his bathroom sink. It accidentally sprang a leak, shooting water across the bathroom in a strong stream. A lightbulb went off: This design could make one heck of a powerful water gun.
