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The Creative Muse: Stories of Creativity & Innovation

Madhukar Shukla


  • Preface
  • Introduction

    STORIES:

  • Discoveries about Creativity
  • Laws Of Planetary Motion
  • Electricity From Clouds
  • Band-Aid
  • Pneumatic Tyres
  • Gummed Paper
  • The Trap Of Paradigm
  • Invention Of Sewing Machine
  • Just-In-Time System
  • Transmission of Nerve Impulses
  • Printing Press
  • Dangers Of Locomotives
  • Flashlight
  • Lawn Mower
  • Phonograph
  • Rubber Heels
  • The Periodic Table
  • Discovery Of Electromagnetic Fields
  • The Tao Of Physics
  • Congenital Impact of Rubella
  • Typewriter
  • The Theory Of Evolution
  • The Benzene Ring
  • The Wreck Of Titanic
  • Wagner's Rheingold
  • Underwater Construction
  • Search For The "Hidden Likeness"
  • Fermi & Nuclear Fission
  • Cash Register
  • Discovery Of Current Electricity
  • Cure Of Diabetes
  • Boolean Algebra
  • Principle Of Photosynthesis
  • Ball Point Pen
  • The X-Ray
  • The Fuschian Functions
  • Safety Glass
  • The Creative Triggers
  • Why Aeroplanes Cannot Fly
  • The "Brownies" Of Stevenson
  • The Blunder That Founded 3M
  • Invention Of AC Motor
  • Discovery Of Teflon
  • Toynbee's The Study Of History
  • Inventors' Blindness
  • The Excitement Of Creativity
  • Electric Fan
  • How Typhus Gets Transmitted
  • Proof Of The Big Bang
  • Mathematical Theory Of Chance
  • Coleridge's Kubla Khan
  • Vulcanisation Process
  • Structure Of The Crystals
  • The Compulsion To Create
  • 3M's Post-It Note Pads
  • Ice Cream Cones
  • The Structural Theory Of Atom
  • IBM And Computers
  • Helicopter
  • How Experts Resist Ideas
  • Creative Reveries Of Enid Blyton
  • Predictions In Gulliver's Travels
  • Float Glass Technology
  • Principle Of Immunisation
  • Journey Into Unknown
  • The Genius Of Karl Fredrich Gauss
  • Jean Coceteau's The Knights Of The Round Table
  • Neon Light
  • Transistor Radios
  • Precocious Minds?
  • The Masterpiece Of Sir Walter Scott
  • The "Fraud" That Changed The World
  • The "99% Perspiration"
  • Xeroxing
  • The Poem Of Stephen Spender
  • The Anatomy Of Inspiration
  • Travellers' Cheques
  • Edison's Fraud
  • Awe, Wonder And Alienation
  • The Logic Of Irrational

  • Epilogue: Themes & Patterns

    • Transistor Radio


    The idea of pocketable transistor radios was brainchild of Masaru Ibuka, the co-founder of Sony Corporation. Ibuka himself was an electrical engineer, who loved to tinker with machines and was passionate about inventing things. One of his first inventions, an aluminium cooker had worked well, though had not sold. But later, Ibuka invented items such as an electrically heated cushion, a resonating sound generator, and a tape recorder which used paper tapes - which not only sold but also gave Sony its image as an innovative company.

    In 1952, Ibuka was on a trip to US, where he heard about the invention of transistor. Convinced that the transistors would revolutionise electronics (though he did not know how), he convinced his partner, Akio Morita, to invest $25,000 to buy the transistor patent. When he started talking about using "the transistor to make radios small enough so that each individual can carry them for his own use, but a receiving ability that will enable civilization to reach areas that have no electrical power", few people believed him. After all, no one had applied transistors to radios, and the idea pocketable transistors was beyond belief.

    Ibuka's enthusiasm, however, fired the imagination of one Sony employee, Kazuo Iwama, who was a geo-physicist. Iwama left his job as the head of tape recorder production department to lead the task force for transistors. When the team brought out its first model in 1955, it was still large (4" X 8" X 1.5"), but it sold. Ibuka continued talking about further miniaturising the product.

    After continued efforts, the "pocketable" Type 63 model was introduced in March 1957. It was small, but still not small enough to fit the pocket. Sony used another kind of creative solution - if you can't decrease the size of the transistor, you can always increase the size of the pockets. The company actually hired tailors to fashion shirts with larger pockets. Type 63 model sold over a million pieces, and made Sony a house-hold name.


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