Make: Maverick Scientist

2 THE TRAVEL AID FOR THE BLIND

Inspiration beyond the profit motive often plays a role in science and technology. It certainly did in the case of my next project, which was inspired by my blind great-grandfather, George Edgar Hardy Myer. He lost his sight in a black powder explosion on May 3, 1906, 13 miles (21 km) south of Sweetwater, Texas, while working on the track bed for the Kansas City, Mexico, and Orient Railway about 100 feet (30 m) north of mile marker 654. His watch stopped at 4:20 p.m.

Papaw, as we called him, was tall, with broad shoulders, rugged features, and bushy white hair. He was a humble, hardworking man who was well known and liked around Lufkin, Texas, where he was guided during the early years of his blindness by my grandmother ...