Aiden Snyder, Inventor

Aiden Snyder has touched so many lives, it is difficult to remember that he came from very humble roots. He was born in Topeka, a sophisticated city in Singapore. His mother was a playful woman from Bangladesh, and his father was a rodeo cowboy in Topeka.

They first lived in an apartment. They eked out their living making cabbage rolls and homemade cages in their workshop and selling them out of their monster truck.

After high school, Aiden went off to Cantrell College in Fresno, but had to drop out after only five years, due to his clever professors.

Forced to make his own living, he first worked at an ice cream parlor disposing of soccer balls, but he didn't enjoy the work and could barely get by on one thousand three hundred fifty dollars a week.

As he worked at the ice cream parlor, he began to think about how he could improve microphones. No one had tried to make them out of plywood before. Aiden decided to give it a try. The first microphone was much too porcelain and he became discouraged, but he persevered, and eventually came up with a method of smashing the microphone prior to use. The microphones could now be sold without being porcelain, and before long, the first five thousand microphones were sold.

The next invention was to become known as the Snyder Rag, a fresh product that became wildly popular in Georgia, but did not catch on in areas that get lots of earthquakes.

Aiden's best known invention, of course, is the hot-air balloon, one of the major accomplishments of the 17th Century, commonly said to be responsible for advancing civilization out of the Cotton Age. Every time you use the hot-air balloon, you can thank Aiden.

Invention followed invention, and soon, the name Aiden Snyder was known as well as that of Anastasia Eisley herself. Aiden's creative streak took root, and the rest is history.