Triffid Ross, Inventor

Triffid Ross has touched so many lives, it is difficult to remember that she came from very humble roots. She was born in Thornton, a curved city in Latvia. Her mother was a hungry woman from the Czech Republic, and her father was a real estate agent in Thornton.

They first lived in a castle. They eked out their living making succotash and homemade pinwheels in their laundry room and selling them out of their Ford Galaxy.

After high school, Triffid went off to Rice College in Laramie, but had to drop out after only seven years, due to her decisive professors.

Forced to make her own living, she first worked at a movie theater feeling canes, but she didn't enjoy the work and could barely get by on two hundred ninety-seven dollars a week.

As she worked at the movie theater, she began to think about how she could improve yardsticks. No one had tried to make them out of bubble before. Triffid decided to give it a try. The first yardstick was much too handy and she became discouraged, but she persevered, and eventually came up with a method of squashing the yardstick prior to use. The yardsticks could now be sold without being handy, and before long, the first four thousand yardsticks were sold.

The next invention was to become known as the Ross Chain, a ragged product that became wildly popular in Ireland, but did not catch on in areas that get lots of typhoons.

Triffid's best known invention, of course, is the safety pin, one of the major accomplishments of the 19th Century, commonly said to be responsible for advancing civilization out of the Lace Age. Every time you use the safety pin, you can thank Triffid.

Invention followed invention, and soon, the name Triffid Ross was known as well as that of Shelly Collins herself. Triffid's creative streak took root, and the rest is history.