How Ben Ventor the Boy Inventor Deals with Laundry!

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Short Bedtime Stories Presents: How Ben Ventor the Boy Inventor Deals with Laundry!

“Put away your clothes!” Ben’s dad said.  Of course, he was under the direction of Ben’s mom.  But, for the moment, Ben’s dad was the man in charge. And, if the kids did not want to be in trouble, they were going to have to listen to dad.

     “What are you doing?” Ben’s dad asked as he watched Ben stuffing the shirts in the drawer.  “You are going to make those wrinkly.”

     Ben looked at his dad confused.  He understood that he needed to put the clothes away, but he did not understand what that had to do with the clothes having wrinkles.

     “If you put the clothes in the drawer wrinkly and balled up, they will come out with wrinkles all over them.  You are going to have to fold them first.”

     It is not that Ben minded folding or the putting away laundry.  What he minded was that if he had to fold and put away, it would take twice as long.  Not to mention, he was responsible for putting away  Noah ’s laundry because Noah shared a room with Ben.  So, Ben felt particularly tortured by folding and putting away double the laundry of Fran every other day.  Ben’s mom said that Fran and he just had different jobs.  Where Ben had to help with  Noah ’s laundry, Fran had to help with putting away the dishes.  But, that did not matter to Ben.  What mattered was in this very moment, he had to do twice as much work as Fran, and it was killing him.  As was usual with Ben, this terrible situation gave him his idea for his next great invention. 

     Lucky for Ben, the laundry that needed to be folded and put away usually came out every other day.  This gave him just enough time to perfect the invention.

     “Time to put laundry away,” Ben’s mom said two days later as she was bringing out two laundry baskets; one for Fran and Ben each to put away.  She plopped the baskets down in front of Ben and Fran, who were right in the middle of Wednesday afternoon tv. 

“Now,” his mom said forcefully because no one seemed to be moving.

     “My pleasure,” said Ben with a giant grin on his face.  This was not his usual response. In fact, Fran and her mom nearly broke their necks as they took such a strong double take to see who this alien creature was.  Fran’s double take at Ben was because she knew that smart aleck remarks did not go over well with their mom.  His mom, on the other hand, had jerked around because … well smart aleck remarks did not go over well with her.

     “Don’t get smart alecky with me, Ben,” she said sternly.

     “I wasn’t mom,” Ben said, backing down a little.  “It will be my pleasure because I get to try out my new invention.”

     Ben pulled out of his pocket what looked like a metal bottle cap with a black button on top.  He held it over his basket of laundry and pressed the button.  Green lighting seemed to shoot from underneath the bottom of the bottle cap and run completely through the laundry below.

     “Did you just electrocute your laundry,” Fran asked, worried that her mom was really not going to like this invention.

     “Yes, kind of,” Ben answered.  “But, for a good reason. I’ll show you what this electrical charge does to the laundry.”

     Ben picked up the white church shirt he had on the top.  He then threw it up into the air and caught it again.  But, something happened to the shirt while it was in the air.

“The clothes fold themselves in mid-air now, before they land again,” Ben said, holding up the perfectly folded dress shirt for his mom and Fran to see.  “You can throw them across the room, into a suitcase, or into a drawer.  They always land perfectly folded.”

“A mothers dream,” Ben’s mom said, really impressed by it.

“Will it fold you if I throw you in the air,” asked Fran grumpily.

“No, Fran,” Ben answered, “it only works with clothes.

From then on, Ben and Fran’s folding jobs became much easier.

How is the foldomatic used today:  Clothes factories fold all of their clothes with it.  Parents use it to fold clothes a lot faster.  And, Ben eventually changed it so that it folded a different paper airplane every time you threw a new piece of electrocuted paper in the air. 

  

How much did the foldomatic sell for: 210 million dollars

What did Ben buy with the money:  He made an Imax movie theatre in his family’s back yard.  

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.