The Use of Imagination in Developing New Products
Napoleon Hill, in The Law of Success, discusses the power of imagination used to form new ideas.
Somehow the inventor or developer takes knowledge already available, examines it from a different perspective, adds one or more elements, and then comes up with something new.
The "Invention" of Self-Service Grocery Stores An example Napoleon Hill discusses in the use of imagination is the development of the grocery store as we all know it.
I thought it strange when watching shows of the "old" West how someone would go into the country store and give the attendant a list of what he or she needed.
The attendant then went around the store and gathered the items on the list.
I thought this was an example of customer service when it was, in actuality, a depiction of how people bought goods and services in the "olden" days.
In 1915 the concept of a self-service grocery store was a novel idea.
Clarence Saunders, the developer of the self-service grocery store, was standing in line at a cafeteria getting his lunch.
He had the idea of bringing the self-service concept of the cafeteria to the grocery business.
He took his current situation of selecting food from a cafeteria line and, using his imagination, applied that to the grocery business.
The result was the Piggly Wiggly chain of self-service grocery stores and every other grocery store any of us goes to today.
Bringing Physics and Observation to Invention Tomas Edison took what he knew and fashioned it into something new.
When he was developing the electric light bulb, he had tremendous difficulty in keeping the intense energy needed for the electricity to form the light from breaking the filament.
Using his imagination, he incorporated the concept of physics where a fire needs oxygen to survive.
The result was a filament in a bulb without oxygen.
Of course, he had to find the perfect metal for the filament.
When you examine new inventions and the history of their development, you will find the ideas came from bringing together something already observed and incorporating the ideas in a new way.
I imagine the "invention" of fire occurred in the same way.
Someone saw a spark that turned into a destructive fire.
That person had the idea of creating a spark to start a controlled fire which was then used for warmth, cooking and keeping wild animals away.
This is the use of imagination.
Looking for Answers Most developments come from people who are consciously looking for answers.
The structure of what is now called the Benzene ring was discovered by a chemist attempting to figure out the chemical structure of benzene.
I've heard several explanations of how Kekule came up with the elements of benzene being in a ring.
All seem to revolve around images he had while taking a nap in front of the fire.
Perhaps the sparks in the fire chasing each other in a ring triggered this inspiration in chemical structure.
Another story is he had an image of a snake biting its tail, which is a metaphysical metaphor.
I personally like the whimsical one I heard from my high school chemistry teacher.
Kekule had a dream in front of the fireplace of fairies dancing in a ring.
The fairy ring explanation doesn't sound near as masculine as the snake chasing its tail, but any of these explanations is a perfect example of the use of imagination.
When you are moving about your day-to-day life, note the ideas which pop into your head.
These ideas could lead you to the development of a new way of shopping, a variation in a computer, the next generation of technology or the newest billion dollar fantasy series of books and movies.
Capture your ideas, evaluate and expand them, then put them into action.
Leaving your imagination open provides fertile ground for new ideas.
Somehow the inventor or developer takes knowledge already available, examines it from a different perspective, adds one or more elements, and then comes up with something new.
The "Invention" of Self-Service Grocery Stores An example Napoleon Hill discusses in the use of imagination is the development of the grocery store as we all know it.
I thought it strange when watching shows of the "old" West how someone would go into the country store and give the attendant a list of what he or she needed.
The attendant then went around the store and gathered the items on the list.
I thought this was an example of customer service when it was, in actuality, a depiction of how people bought goods and services in the "olden" days.
In 1915 the concept of a self-service grocery store was a novel idea.
Clarence Saunders, the developer of the self-service grocery store, was standing in line at a cafeteria getting his lunch.
He had the idea of bringing the self-service concept of the cafeteria to the grocery business.
He took his current situation of selecting food from a cafeteria line and, using his imagination, applied that to the grocery business.
The result was the Piggly Wiggly chain of self-service grocery stores and every other grocery store any of us goes to today.
Bringing Physics and Observation to Invention Tomas Edison took what he knew and fashioned it into something new.
When he was developing the electric light bulb, he had tremendous difficulty in keeping the intense energy needed for the electricity to form the light from breaking the filament.
Using his imagination, he incorporated the concept of physics where a fire needs oxygen to survive.
The result was a filament in a bulb without oxygen.
Of course, he had to find the perfect metal for the filament.
When you examine new inventions and the history of their development, you will find the ideas came from bringing together something already observed and incorporating the ideas in a new way.
I imagine the "invention" of fire occurred in the same way.
Someone saw a spark that turned into a destructive fire.
That person had the idea of creating a spark to start a controlled fire which was then used for warmth, cooking and keeping wild animals away.
This is the use of imagination.
Looking for Answers Most developments come from people who are consciously looking for answers.
The structure of what is now called the Benzene ring was discovered by a chemist attempting to figure out the chemical structure of benzene.
I've heard several explanations of how Kekule came up with the elements of benzene being in a ring.
All seem to revolve around images he had while taking a nap in front of the fire.
Perhaps the sparks in the fire chasing each other in a ring triggered this inspiration in chemical structure.
Another story is he had an image of a snake biting its tail, which is a metaphysical metaphor.
I personally like the whimsical one I heard from my high school chemistry teacher.
Kekule had a dream in front of the fireplace of fairies dancing in a ring.
The fairy ring explanation doesn't sound near as masculine as the snake chasing its tail, but any of these explanations is a perfect example of the use of imagination.
When you are moving about your day-to-day life, note the ideas which pop into your head.
These ideas could lead you to the development of a new way of shopping, a variation in a computer, the next generation of technology or the newest billion dollar fantasy series of books and movies.
Capture your ideas, evaluate and expand them, then put them into action.
Leaving your imagination open provides fertile ground for new ideas.
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