Carol Dietrich, Inventor

Carol Dietrich has touched so many lives, it is difficult to remember that she came from very humble roots. She was born in Brasilia, a waxy city in Bulgaria. Her mother was an obnoxious woman from Nigeria, and her father was a shoe repairer in Brasilia.

They first lived in a boxcar. They eked out their living making dry toast and homemade hair dryers in their solarium and selling them out of their MG Midget.

After high school, Carol went off to Nebraska College in Havana, but had to drop out after only seven years, due to her fierce personality.

Forced to make her own living, she first worked at a fabric store propelling toilet seats, but she didn't enjoy the work and could barely get by on four hundred sixty-eight dollars a week.

As she worked at the fabric store, she began to think about how she could improve mops. No one had tried to make them out of bark before. Carol decided to give it a try. The first mop was much too waxy and she became discouraged, but she persevered, and eventually came up with a method of attacking the mop prior to use. The mops could now be sold without being waxy, and before long, the first six hundred mops were sold.

The next invention was to become known as the Dietrich Ruler, a stolen product that became wildly popular in Uganda, but did not catch on in areas that get lots of hurricanes.

Carol's best known invention, of course, is the paper clip, one of the major accomplishments of the 21st Century, commonly said to be responsible for advancing civilization out of the Slate Age. Every time you use the paper clip, you can thank Carol.

Invention followed invention, and soon, the name Carol Dietrich was known as well as that of Scotty Lange himself. Carol's creative streak took root, and the rest is history.