The Life of a Teen Inventor

posted June 10, 2008

by Caitlin Watson of Verde

Sahar Raz

Paly junior Spencer Davis takes precautions. He confidently straps on his clear safety goggles and pulls on long, yellow rubber gloves. His finger is on the bright red switch of a compact black box, known as a coil gun. Two wires extend from the box and their shiny metal tips glint as Davis presses them together. Suddenly, there is a loud crack and a flash of light. Davis smiles: 330 volts of electricity have been discharged, the metal tips have melted and melded together — and this is his own creation.

Davis and his fellow inventors, Gunn junior Jonathan Carter and Gunn sophomore Mitchell Mayman, create all types of inventions in Davis' garage. Davis is a big fan of do-it-yourself inventing, which requires little more than a few pieces of trash, drugstore supplies and a lot of imagination.

"It [inventing] is constructive," Davis says. "I see so many empty places in this world that I could fill with something cool and useful."

Davis' passion for inventing began in eighth grade when he used to experiment with barbeque skewers and rubber bands. Since then, his creations have improved in design, appearance, and technology.

Over the years, Davis has made countless designs for bunkers, tree houses, robots, launchers and even caffeinated cereal, or as Davis call it: "cereal for nerds."

Many of Davis' friends are impressed with Davis' extensive inventing talents. Junior Andrew Cohen describes Davis' inventions as "very creative" and "pretty sick."

Out of all the inventions Davis has created, the coil gun is his favorite. Using the coil gun, he can project objects or fuse metal pieces together, as Davis demonstrated for this article.

"If I am able to build a really good one [coil gun], I could sell it to the military," Davis says. "The navy is currently working on coil gun development."

The majority of the coil gun's energy is obtained from disposable camera parts that Davis receives used from local drugstores.

"We just ask them [the drugstores] for their disposable camera parts, and they just give them to us for free," Davis says. "Sometimes they ask what we're using them for and we just say ... 'science.'"

Davis enjoys sillier types of inventing as well; he has "fixed" an old tape player so that he can put his iPod inside and play it through the tape. Davis says he likes this invention because it looks "old school."

Another high-voltage creation is what Davis calls "the glove." In essence, it is a leather glove with a battery and disposable camera parts wrapped in electrical tape.

"When turned on, you can grab someone with the glove and give them a rather large zap," Davis says. Specifically, that's a 330-volt zap accompanied by small sparks.

After preliminary tests, Davis decided to try experimenting with live creatures. He tested the glove on Carter's forearm, and Carter tested the glove on a caterpillar.

Carter doesn't have the fondest memories of this particular experiment.

"I'm the only person who has experienced the glove, and it's pretty bad," Carter says. "My arm had a spasm to get the glove off, so it was only for a split second. But it was pretty painful."

As for the caterpillar, Carter says it "spazzed out."

Even though the two teens take risks, they know the consequences of a misplacement of the glove.

"If you put the glove around someone's neck and it discharged, it would seriously mess up their nervous system," Davis says.

Davis acknowledges the responsibilities that come with the creation of weapons that could cause serious physical damage.

Sahar Raz

Robot designs on junior Spencer Davis' math homework.

"Most teenagers are, to put it bluntly, too stupid to use our weapons safely," Davis says. "Safety is our biggest concern."

Davis' mother does express some worries about Davis' inventions.

"I don't like the weaponry thing, but I really like the design aspect of his inventing," she says. "I think it's just genetic, it's something boys are into."

Overall, she is very supportive of Davis' hobby.

"He seems to be really happy in the garage working on his projects for hours and hours and hours," she says. "I think some of his inventions are pretty impressive. There's math involved, there's physics and there's just basic ingenuity ... I've always thought he'd pursue an engineering or design kind of career. He just loves it [inventing]."

Davis points out that inventing is, in essence, a constructive activity, and that it's a good outlet for teens who might be involved in more destructive activities.

"It may not be the most productive and safe activity to spend my time on," Davis says. "But it is much better than using and selling drugs out on the streets ... Our basic motivation for making stuff is evolution. We want to make it better."

Davis says that if history is any guide, weapon inventing has proven to be the best way to advance technology efficiently.

"During World War II, technology was moving really fast because it was necessary for war," Davis says. "Inventions like the jet engine from World War II have shrunk our world. Today, technology is driven by the consumer market. I think making weapons is the best way to make technology go faster. Once you make weapons, you can de-weapon the technology and then gear it towards consumers."

Davis says the skills he has developed through his inventing are useful in Paly's science classes. For his Rube Goldberg Physics project, Davis used a mini version of his coil gun.

"I think we're the only group in Rube Goldberg history to put in a coil gun," Davis says. In his project, the coil gun shot a nail into a balloon of vinegar which landed in container of baking soda, which then activated an elevator.

Davis hopes to continue inventing through college and perhaps turn his experimentations into a career.

"My ideal career would be building stuff and getting paid for it, maybe military contracts," Davis says.

Regardless of what type of inventions Davis makes, he says being perseverant and maintaining a "calm, confident, cheerful state of mind" are essential.

Davis dedicates about six hours of every weekend to work on his inventions. Then, he blows off steam and gets new inspirations by playing video games.

"I think the biggest personality trait [necessary for an inventor] is the ability to banish criticism and rejection," Davis says. "People will think you are crazy when you try to invent certain things but you need to ignore the criticisms and continue to invent."

Davis is prepared to spend many years inventing because he considers it the ultimate hobby. For the summer, Davis has plans to build an electric boat powered entirely by solar panels.

"Inventing is an investment," Davis says. "Some of the inventions will work and others won't, but in the end you will be satisfied … I'll definitely be making stuff forever."