I'm getting strange looks in the men's room of a McDonald's outside Boston. A few minutes ago I interviewed the scientists who founded Invent Resources. One of their creations is a hand dryer that uses turbulent rather than smooth-flowing air. They didn't have a demo unit
at the meeting. So, to see if their idea really works, I'm frantically wiggling my fingers while shaking my hands. Strangers probably think I'm a pianist off his medication. My hands actually do dry fast. You'll eventually find this out for yourself. The dryers are destined to become
standard restroom equipment. Restaurants will buy them because they use two-thirds of the energy of standard models and plug into a convenience outlet, saving the cost of a dedicated 220-volt line.

The hand dryer is one of more than 200 patents that members of Invent Resources (IR) have either received or applied for. While the idea is no match for the light bulb, telephone or TV, it is an example of another type of invention, an invention created to solve a prosaic problem. "Our forte is developing new inventions and technologies for clients," explains Richard Pavelle, IR's president. "We call this service
Invention Upon Demand."

When you talk to people who use words like forte, you know you're not dealing with the Napster generation. Pavelle and his three colleagues are what is known in the science trade as graybeards. In their youth they were whiz kids who carried slide rules and memorized trig tables. They didn't use electronic calculators because they hadn't invented them yet. Pavelle hadn't anyway. He did that in 1978 when he patented a flexible calculator and licensed the idea to Casio, Canon and Sharp. Together, the group's many patents cover the technological waterfront, from a process for making transistors, to a microwave coffee maker, to a golf club with an oversize sweet spot. You can see a partial list on their Web site (www.weinvent.com).

"Since the company was founded we have developed more than 200 products," says Pavelle. That's an impressive track record - almost two products a month flowing off the invention-factory assembly line.

Inventive Minds: At Popular MECHANICS we hear from a lot of independent inventors. So, we thought it would be valuable to sit down with Pavelle and his colleagues to try to learn a little about how they work their magic.

In addition to Pavelle of pocket calculator fame, there is George Freedman, who holds a series of patents on microwave cooking appliances, including one for a microwave popcorn popper. A. Ze'ev Hed is an expert on high-temperature superconductor materials. His inventions include a lighting device to help shift workers adjust their internal clocks and a catheter that destroys the heart cells responsible for fatal arrhythmia. Lastly, there is Sol Aisenberg, who is himself often the last word on inventions. His scientific expertise is in developing drug-delivery systems for cancer treatments and techniques for using thin films of diamonds as coatings. During the team's weekly brainstorming meetings, Aisenberg is the "spoiler." He knocks down ideas that are too costly, or smell of kludge. And if an idea is already covered by someone else's patent, Aisenberg has a knack for spotting a loophole that can be used to legally break that patent. On paper, patents protect new ideas. In the real world, patents are little more than permission slips to start lawsuits.

Seated quietly around the conference table while Pavelle makes introductory remarks, the IR team looks a lot like any other group of corporate scientists. The veneer splits when they begin talking, several at once. Corporate and government scientists tend to be low-key at meetings. The members of the IR team have what show business people call stage presence. They become animated, and animate the air around them. Although there are only five of us in a room that can comfortably accommodate 20, it feels crowded. Ideas fill the space. Aisenberg once described this phenomenon as the group merging together to become a superbrain. Soon after IR formed in the early 1990s, Mary Martin, a Boston Globe reporter, described one of these sessions more graphically: "Posing problems to the foursome has a similar effect to tossing bread to ducks." Ten years and 200 patents later, they haven't lost any of that enthusiasm.

Lessons For Inventors: For those who believe they have already struck upon a million-dollar idea, there are three rules that can be distilled from seeing how the IR team gets it done.

Rule 1: Know what you own. Sadly, most people with good ideas don't own them. If you work for a company that makes things, there is a good chance that you signed away some or all of your rights to ownership of future inventions in exchange for your paycheck. The same holds true for graduate students. Check the fine print of the paperwork you signed when you were hired.

Rule 2: Don't reinvent the wheel. During PM's meeting with IR, inspiration struck one of the members. He had a quick side conversation with one of his colleagues. It ended: "Okay, we'll run a patent search." With patent numbers about to reach 7,000,000, the odds are that your idea has been hit upon before. You can hire a patent agent to conduct a search for about $500. Or, you can do it yourself. A word of caution before trying a search at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Web site (www.uspto.gov) - first read Patent Searching Made Easy by David Hitchcock, published by Nolo Press. Hitchcock is a real rocket scientist who worked on the MX missile program and later invented the Home Fire Shield. Nolo (www.nolo.com) specializes in yanking the legal community's collective chain by publishing self-help books that show the public how little work lawyers really do.

Rule 3: Own what you invent. IR invites organizations to come to them with their problems. After a little earnest money has been laid on the table, it finds a solution. Then, it locks up the intellectual property rights to that invention and offers it to the client. If the client bites, they work out a deal. If not, IR is free to shop the invention to other companies, including competitors.

Will the tactics that work for IR help other inventors? In a world where most inventors tend to die poor, the IR bottom line stands out as a golden exception. "Products originated by our group have produced sales in excess of $1 billion," says Pavelle. We'd say that number speaks volumes.