Short Bedtime Stories Presents: Ben Ventor's New Pen Invention

Short Bedtime Stories Presents: Ben Ventor's New Pen Invention

The Ventors were definitely different than a lot of other families. They loved museums more than they loved movies, tv, or even theme parks.

    When they took the clan to the museum, the kids always had a blast. They all loved learning about new things. Museums had the distinction from school in that museums had a lot of hands on learning.  Whereas, school was all about staying in your seats and learning from a book or a lecture.

    All of the Ventors had their very favorite parts of the museums. Ben's dad loved the Egyptian mummies. His mom loved the health portions where you learned about how the brain works. Fran liked the nature parts where you learn about animals and their natural habitats.

    "Dinosaurs!" Peter exclaimed at his very favorite part of the museum.

    But, Ben had a favorite part all his own. His favorite part by far was the space part of the museum.  Today, they had seen how astronomers had found planets in times past and how astronomers were using infrared light to understand what planets were made of. What caught Ben's attention more than anything on this particular day though was the weight things weighed on other planets.

    “Feel this?” asked the museum guide, handing Ben a little gray and white rock.  “This is how much your hand weighs on earth. Now feel this."

    Ben picked up a second rock which was significantly lighter.

    "That is how much your hand weighs on Pluto," explained the museum guide, getting as excited as Ben was. "Now feel this final rock."

    Ben picked up the last rock and was surprised he could barely lift it off of the table.

    "This is how much your hand weighs on Jupiter," he said taking the rock from Ben. "On Jupiter, the gravity is way stronger than on earth because Jupiter is way bigger than earth."

    This was absolutely fascinating to Ben, and it sent him on his path to his next great invention.

     The next day, Ben came down the stairs having pulled an all-nighter. He handed a paper to his sister.

    "Here, Fran," he said, putting it on top of her cereal.

    "If you just put some kind of gross scab dropping paper on my cereal I'm gonna ... "

     "Save it," Ben said, holding up his hand. He then wrote something on the paper and put it back on Fran's side of the table.

    "Holy cow," she said trying to lift the paper off of the table.  "What kind of lame-o paper did you make."

    "The paper is not the invention," Ben said showing Fran the marker he was holding.  "I invented a weight marker."

    "What does a weight marker do? Make people fat?" asked Fran, sarcastically.

    "Whatever number I write on something makes its weight whatever weight I wrote down."

    Fran still looked confused.

    "Say you’re out camping," Ben said, picking up a toothpick. "Then you need something very heavy to weigh down your tent because the wind is getting strong."  Ben paused for a moment to write a number on the toothpick.  "Now, pick up the toothpick."

     "It's too heavy," Fran said not able to lift it.

    "That is because I wrote 173 on it, so it weighs 173 pounds now."

     "Do a lot of people need things to get heavier?" asked Fran very skeptical.

     "Watch this," Ben said collaring Peter and bringing him into the room. Ben wrote a big “0” on Peter’s head. Ben then pushed up on Peter’s chin and Peter floated to the ceiling as he now only weighed one pound.

How the weight marker is used today: Astronauts use it to train in weightlessness. Police use it to make their prisoners weigh so much they can't move. Parents use it to move their kids, who are refusing to move, and to take heavy sleeping kids to bed easier.

How much did the weight marker sell for:  113 million dollars

What did Ben buy with the money:  He made it so that his room was turned into a jungle room where he traveled around by vines like Tarzan.




Don't forget to check out part 1 of Dr. Shaw's children's book series of inventions and craziness called Best. Theme Park. Ever. for just $.99 on Amazon. Please leave a positive review on Amazon if you will!  It helps get Dr. Shaw's work discovered by others.  Also, when you buy it on Amazon, you can choose which iPod, iPhone, iPad or other device to send it to, as long as you have the free kindle app installed on that device.