The Peridot's Black History fact is dedicated to Lonnie Johnson, inventor and engineer. According to smithsonianmag.com, Lonnie Johnson a graduate of Tuskegee University, joined the U.S. Air Force as an engineer, then began working for NASA.
As a literal rocket scientist, Johnson worked on the Galileo and Cassini satellite programs and at NASA’s Jet propulsion Laboratory. He “is a prodigious creator who holds more than 120 patents on a variety of products and processes including designs for film lithium batteries, electrochemical conversion systems, and heat pumps.
In 1979, while at the U.S. Air Force Space Missions Lab, Johnson patented a device that optical reduces a binary code to scale, then uses a magnifying lens and sensors to retrieve the information. It is the basic technology used in CDs and DVDs today.
In 1986, Lonnie Johnson received a U.S. Patent for a device simply titled “Squirt Gun” that would become known as the Super Soaker, that he accidentally stumbled on in 1982 , while working on an idea for an improved heat pump. The Super Soaker became the top-selling toy in the world in 1992, and has been one of the top-10 toys sold every year since then. The invention landed Johnson in the National Toy Hall of Fame.