Inventing An Easy Life Mothers Are The Necessity Of Inventions As Kids Find Creative Ways To Tackle The Drudgery Of Chores

Let other inventors work for fame or fortune. Students at Blair Elementary School are motivated by early mornings, hungry pets and household chores.

“My mom makes me clean my closet,” lamented Cameron Hayes, as he demonstrated a long hook for snagging dirty socks and other debris trapped in hard-to-reach corners.

“This should make it easier.”

Hayes was among 100 third-graders who unveiled drawings and models of devices that would make their lives easier. Friday’s “invention convention” ended a two-month study of machines and inventors at the school on Fairchild Air Force Base.

No need to guess at the inventions’ purposes: Their names said it all. Hayes’ Closet Cleaner shared table space with the Automatic Dog Feeder, the Supper (sic) Duper Feet Warmer and the Cat Potty Flusher.

“I like camping but I hate packing,” said Rachel Lecker, who calls her idea The Packer. The machine would read its owner’s list of vacation necessities, select the items from dressers and shelves, and cram them into suitcases.

“I want to get up at 6 o’clock, but I always wake up at 7,” said Jason Culbreth, who designed the Super Wake-Up Call, an alarm clock that would drop a ball on his forehead.

Brianna Noone has the opposite problem. Her Horse Feeding Machine would allow her a few more minutes of sleep each morning.

Kyle Carpenter and Nikki Hunt tackled trash problems.

Carpenter’s idea, The Melter, is an in-home trash incinerator, which would sell for $50.25. “Stuff” put in the top of the machine would come out the bottom either as a melted glob or fertilizer, “depending on the stuff.”

Hunt’s Garbage Launcher is a catapult for people who don’t like taking out the trash.

“If you have good aim, it shoots into the garbage can,” said Hunt, using an Erector Set model to illustrate her idea.

And if the user’s aim is bad? “You miss.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo