How a NASA scientist accidentally invented the Super Soaker

“When I came up with the idea for the water pistol, I was working on something else,” Johnson recalls. “I was working on a new idea for a heat pump that would use water as a working fluid instead of Freon.” At the time, there were concerns about how Freon’s continued use would affect the environment, so Johnson set out to see if he could develop a cooling system that used water instead.

“I was experimenting with some noses I was machining, and I was shooting a stream of water across the bathroom and I thought, ‘Geez, maybe I should put this hard scientific stuff aside and work on something as fun as a water pistol. Maybe I could I get enough money to support my habit, ”Johnson recalls.

This was the engineer’s first engineer not into making toys. “When I was a kid, I always wanted to make a better toy, something I enjoyed playing with,” he recalls.

He had been making toys since he was a child

One of his earliest toy creations was building chinaberry pistols with his friends using a mop and hollow bamboo hose. This would have predicted a later (very popular) invention.

“That was actually the first Nerf rifle before Nerf came out,” Johnson says. “I used compressed air to shoot blackberries.”

Oh, did we mention he invented the Nerf rifle too?

“Some of my most famous patents are for the Nerf cannons and Super Soakers,” Johnson says. “For the N-Strike Nerf product line, those guns were all based on my patents … Super Soaker, of course, that whole line started as a result of my invention.”

Johnson considers himself a lifelong thinker.

“I’ve been an inventor all my life,” Johnson says. “Ever since I was a little kid, I used little toys and things … I built a go-cart, windmills, just a lot, rockets.”

He grew up in Alabama in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement

One of his greatest inventions to date is a robot he built in high school. Johnson attended all-black Williamson High School in Mobile, Alabama, and presented his robot – named “Linex” – at a local Junior Engineering science fair held at the University of Alabama. His team represented the only Black school on the fair. The year was 1968, just five years after a federal district court ordered the University of Alabama to admit Black students Vivian Malone and James Hood. Governor George Wallace, who earlier that year declared, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever,” stood in the doorway of Foster Auditorium, causing a showdown with federal authorities.

“When I was growing up in Alabama back then, everything was still very segregated,” Johnson recalls. “The people I interacted with on a daily basis were primarily Black, my teachers were all black, so racism and being treated unfairly was never part of my daily activity or consideration.”

“When we went to the University of Alabama, which was a completely different environment, everyone there was white except for us, and the fact that I was there with my robot in front of me was a victory in itself.” That was not the only victory he would go away with that day – Johnson, and Linex, were crowned first place.

He studied at Tuskegee University on a scholarship

After high school, Johnson attended Tuskegee University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in nuclear engineering. One of his first jobs after school was at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, working on cooling systems for nuclear reactors.

“I worked alongside a man who had the same level of technique as me, he had a master’s degree and he was a graduate of Penn State and he was obviously White,” Johnson recalls. “And it turns out, I did a better job than he was. Since then, I’ve always felt very good about my education at Tuskegee.”

Johnson joined the Air Force, which would eventually lead him to his time at NASA.

He worked on the Galileo spaceship sent to Jupiter

“After I did some analysis for the Air Force, I predicted some things that NASA went on record to say it could not happen,” Johnson says. “I proved that NASA’s prediction was not completely accurate. That was when I was offered the job at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, and there I went to work in the Galileo spacecraft as a power technician.”

During his time at NASA, he developed a pivotal power supply mechanism for the Galileo spacecraft that was deployed to study Jupiter and its moons.

“It was an invention that my fellow engineers said would not work,” Johnson recalls. “I worked that, worked that on the spaceship, and many of them came to me to make excuses for the things they put on my idea … That was for me a great moral victory, to think. “I arrived, now I’m a real engineer.”

He spent days on the Stealth Bomber, and nights on the Super Soaker

It was also around this time that he got the first idea for the Super Soaker. Johnson left NASA to return to active duty with the Air Force, completely hesitating with prototypes of water pistol.

“That was when I was working on the water pistol in my basement after dinner,” Johnson recalls. “Then, I went there and went to Edwards Air Force Base, I was working on the Stealth Bomber program back when it was highly rated, and no one knew it existed. I could not really tell my wife what I was working on. “During the day, it was that top secret.”

While Johnson’s creative and technical genius can strike at any moment, there’s a lot that goes into taking a spark of discovery and turning it into something ready for the world.

“From the time I got the idea for the Super Soaker, it took me seven years to find a way to get it commercial,” Johnson recalls. “Then, it was about 10 years from the time I got the idea until it became the No. 1 selling toy in the world. It’s a story of perseverance.”

There were a few Super Soaker prototypes that were never sold

Those were the Super Soaker ideas that did not make it?

“I developed a system after which you were ready to shoot the gun, you could just put it in a pool of water like a bucket and push a button and it would suck in the water automatically and you’re good to go again. to go, ”Johnson reminds him. “It was a quick refill, even refilling water pistol. That never really brought it to market.”

Today, Johnson is working to encourage students to pursue their interests in STEM. He has partnered with 100 Black Men of Atlanta and FIRST Robotics to introduce more students into engineering and technology.

“One of the things I really relate to is that people saw my interest in technology very early on and they bought that up, they cultivated that,” Johnson recalls. “I think the sooner we can get kids interested and the more we can give positive feedback as opposed to criticism, the more likely we are to see kids grow up to be successful, I believe in that very strongly.”

He also continues to innovate with his team at Johnson Battery Technologies.

Today he is working on a project with NASA

“Inventing is what I do,” Johnson says.

He is currently working with NASA on a heat-to-electric energy converter, and is also working on a lithium-air battery, which, if successful, Johnson believes could have the capacity 10 times the energy of a lithium-ion battery. hold.

Yet he knows that people will remember him forever for his contributions to their childhood.

“I find it interesting that people seem to be making a big fuss about me and the Super Soaker and I’m still trying to get used to it,” Johnson said. “I come to work, I try to invent and develop new things to solve problems. There’s an expression that says, ‘Need is the mother of invention,’ so I’m looking for really good problems. to solve. That’s what I do. “