IT'S NOT HARD TO BE AN INVENTOR

BRUNO GRUBER IS BAVARIA’S ANSWER TO GYRO GEARLOOSE. JUST LIKE THE AMIABLE CHARACTER IN THE WALT DISNEY STORIES, HE WORKS AS AN INVENTOR.

A mousetrap as big as a soccer field. An ocean liner that could sail in a thimble: Sometimes Bruno Gruber tries to imagine objects super big or super small. “That’s how I get my best ideas,” he explains. Bruno Gruber, 70, a man with a mischievous smile, has been inventing things for 33 years, for domestic as well as industrial applications: things that are useful, and sometimes things that people don’t really need. He holds precisely 100 patents and has applied for a further 471. In the past he has been a radio technician, a tunnel builder in Australia, an aerospace engineer in California and, when his head was almost bursting with ideas that his employers didn’t want, he decided to go it alone. “It’s not that hard to be an inventor,” says Bruno Gruber. “You don’t usually have to start from scratch. It’s more a case of combining things you already know.” In his little house in Olching, near Munich, he came up with the bendy broom that has a pivot between brush and handle so it fits into corners and behind closets. And a label patch that you stick over the annoying remains of labels to remove them. It looks like a normal sticking patch, but it is soaked in solvent. “Just stick it on, pull it off, job done.” One day, when he was pruning the roses, he thought, how about gardening gloves that could sweep up leaves? With little brushes on the fingers, maybe? But they would be hard to wash. Vulcanized rubber plates would be better. And right away Bruno built a prototype in his workshop.

CHEWING GUM FOR FISH
He once wanted to buy his grandchildren an aquarium, but he bought one for himself first in order to be able to explain to them how to take care of the fish. “I came to the conclusion that it’s very boring for the fish,” says Bruno Gruber. So he invented chewing gum for fish, round and tiny, with a peppermint flavor. “After all, people chew gum for pleasure.” What’s more, the gum is a useful way of feeding targeted doses of medication.

THE ANTI-SOUP SPOON
Bruno Gruber comes up with inventions at the rate of eight to ten per year, displaying them at inventors’ fairs, such as the iENA in Nuremberg. He sells an average of two each year. Often these are little things, such as a miniature folding ruler. Or a soup spoon with an integrated strainer for those who like solids, not liquids. Every few years, Gruber pulls off a coup and sells a major invention to a company. An industrial pump, for example, or a high-voltage transformer. His biggest success was a system to supply ponds with oxygen. It consists of a vibrating metal plate through which air is passed. The vibration creates tiny bubbles. He sold the patent for €225,000. That and his licensing income cover his living costs and pay the fees for all of his patents: €60 for registration, €350 for the request for examination, a few thousand for the patent attorney. His inventions are often quite simple, “and that’s the problem,” says Gruber. He recently developed a washing machine that would sell in the shops for no more than €50. Just a simple plastic tub with a vibrating base to disperse the detergent and agitate the wash. “It works perfectly,” says Bruno Gruber, “but the big manufacturers aren’t interested, because then no one would buy a washing machine for €400.” The power of money and the impotence of the inventor are a big issue for Bruno Gruber. Still, fame offers some consolation: The German Institute of Invention has awarded Bruno Gruber the Rudolf Diesel Medal, adding his name to a long list of great inventors including Bau-knecht, Wankel and Zuse. His horticultural efforts have even earned him a place in the Guinness Book of Records: “I once grew a mini sunflower, only eight centimeters tall with miniature leaves, miniature flower and miniature stem.” The clever part: “I grew it inside a pot in a very fine, small sieve that kept the root ball tiny.” A shelf in his workshop is lined with rows of mini plants—including rubber trees the size of daisies and a carrot that would be perfectly at home in a Playmobil setting. He’s even grown mini potatoes, just five millimeters in size. “There’s a saying in Germany that the most foolish farmer has the largest potatoes,” says Bruno Gruber with a smile. “But I have the smallest.”

Text: Anna Hunger, Photos: Christoph Püschner, Michael Himpel,
Illustration: Helena Fischer
Bilfinger Berger Magazine 1/2012