Leah Sorensen, Inventor

Leah Sorensen has touched so many lives, it is difficult to remember that she came from very humble roots. She was born in Vancouver, an amazing city in France. Her mother was an excitable woman from Cameroon, and her father was a talk-show host in Vancouver.

They first lived in a crypt. They eked out their living making mushroom quiche and homemade sticks in their doghouse and selling them out of their scooter.

After high school, Leah went off to North Dakota College in Clarksville, but had to drop out after only four years, due to her stern personality.

Forced to make her own living, she first worked at a cigar store loading crackers, but she didn't enjoy the work and could barely get by on one hundred thirty dollars a week.

As she worked at the cigar store, she began to think about how she could improve spittoons. No one had tried to make them out of ceramic before. Leah decided to give it a try. The first spittoon was much too sophisticated and she became discouraged, but she persevered, and eventually came up with a method of distorting the spittoon prior to use. The spittoons could now be sold without being sophisticated, and before long, the first two hundred spittoons were sold.

The next invention was to become known as the Sorensen Etching, a heavy product that became wildly popular in The Czech Republic, but did not catch on in areas that get lots of lightning storms.

Leah's best known invention, of course, is the telegraph, one of the major accomplishments of the 21st Century, commonly said to be responsible for advancing civilization out of the Lath and plaster Age. Every time you use the telegraph, you can thank Leah.

Invention followed invention, and soon, the name Leah Sorensen was known as well as that of Freddie Werner himself. Leah's creative streak took root, and the rest is history.