Local man to take invention to national exhibit

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By HALEY HUGHES

Staff writer

It may very well be the next big thing.

From fledgling inventor Donald Waters comes Timbertite, a new way for commercial truck drivers to secure dunnage to their vehicles. Dunnage is a term for spare pieces of scrap wood that is used to support loads, like cargo that is transported on a 18-wheel flatbed truck.

Typically, trucking companies and their drivers secure dunnage under the beds of trucks with either rope or elastic cord. But the knots often shake loose with the movement of the truck, especially over uneven roads.

"Cargo needs a means of securement and needs a means of proper securement," said Waters, who is from Beech Island. "Until now there's no way to store them. I literally just touched a cord and it came loose. I'm a thinker. That just got my little brain thinking."

What encouraged him even more was an experience while he himself was driving a truck on a construction site.

"The dunnage that I had secured under my trailer became loose and slid to the passenger side, hitting a bridge support as I passed through a construction site," he said. "It was enough to get me thinking even more. I didn't want to improve a product. I wanted to create a product."

The Timbertite features a 5,000-pound capacity polyester strap and a compression spring to maintain tension. All one has to do is secure the hook into the eyebolt on the spring assembly and tighten as desired.

"I designed every part of it," Waters said. "Nothing is store bought. There were a few prototypes that got thrown away. Now I've got it to where I want it."

As far as he knows, rope or elastic cord does not meet the standards of securing cargo on commercial trucks. Waters feels Timbertite meets or exceeds such standards.

Timbertite received its patent in 1999 but now Waters is looking for a licensee or a manufacturer. He will be attending INPEX — the Invention and New Product Exhibition — in Pittsburgh, Pa., on June 6-9 in hopes of doing just that.

"I'm very much looking forward to the show in Pittsburgh," he said. "I think it's an asset of safety to the trucking industry. I'll feel good about myself if I've known I've done something to make safety better."

Local man to take invention to national exhibit

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Wish you could've taken entrepreneurship instead of arithmetic in elementary school? You'll be jealous of the kids at Jean Parker Elementary School in San Francisco. It's not that they're foregoing a traditional education, but the fifth graders are getting supplemental classes in business from Salesforce.com and the BizWorld Foundation, which includes hands-on experience running their own small companies and competing for business from fourth-grade clients.

Kids in other schools are getting this type of experience, too, from the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, which sponsors business programs for students ages 11 through 18 in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and other cities. Gerald Richards, head of the Bay Area NFTE says, "Business curriculum engages students in learning much more than the basic '2-plus-2-is-4' system, and it gives them a way to connect to their education."

Of course, not all kids will want careers in business. And some critics say that these programs corporatize the classroom a bit too much or are mere advertisements for their corporate sponsors. But these programs may be the only real glimpse some kids get into the business world.

If you think business education is a good idea, maybe you can find a local program and get involved in entrepreneurship education in your community.

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