Invention

PHILADELPHIA -- By way of introduction to his offices in Villanova, Edmond Dougherty stops at a desk cluttered with gadgets: various shapes of plastic, a model quadcopter, a linear induction motor and squares of foam sandwiched by metal film.

"It's almost like an island of broken toys," said the president of Ablaze Development Corp.

Except that it's all for serious business -- for clients ranging from the U.S. military to a variety of private companies.

Patents have existed throughout the history of the United States because of their value. In Colonial America, inventions were safeguarded by the governing bodies of the colonies.

After independence but before the adoption of the Constitution, the protection of inventions was handled by the states.

BUCKFIELD, Maine -- The Maine guys known for creating colorful geysers from Diet Coke and Mentos candies say they've set a distance record for a vehicle with soda-and-candy-powered propulsion.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Surgeons in the near future may have even better lighting when they cut open a patient, thanks to a Fremont High School graduate.

Jessica Ashmead, who is now a student at University of Utah, was chosen as a finalist in the national Collegiate Inventors Competition after she and her bioengineering partner, Annicka Carter, of Sandy, invented OptiGuide, a specially lighted medical retractor that could be used inside the surgical cavity.

LAYTON -- Six-year-old Adam Harding would not shift his focus from the old VCR machine he was disassembling. Steadily, he turned the screwdriver to loosen a screw so he could remove another part from the old appliance.

RIVERDALE -- Drew Filer always hated the blare of an alarm clock on an early school morning.

So the 12-year-old Farr West boy, a sixth-grader at Good Foundations Academy, knew just what he wanted to create for his school's Invention Convention.