never assume

I sometimes ask students when they think the wheelbarrow was patented. Answers vary but the usual response is 100 to 200 years ago. Truth is it was patented only about 10 years ago. My point is that because everybody assumed it had been done a long time ago, no one even tried. The moral to the story is never assume. I found this out when I got my Sea Safe patent. Everybody always assumed it had been done by someone else years ago!