News
Kid-proof electric sockets is goal of Wyoming company
CODY, Wyo. – Joe Baldwin’s 1-year-old son, Jacob, was fascinated with electrical sockets.
Despite Baldwin’s efforts to keep Jacob away from them, the boy always returned to pull on the plugs or shove something into the holes.
By MIKE STARK
Gazette Wyoming Bureau
"Every time I’d turn my head, he’d be right back there," Baldwin said.
Worried about the danger of electrical shock, Baldwin started looking for a solution, something that would ensure Jacob couldn’t yank the plugs out of the socket.
Now, two years later, Baldwin’s invention for solving that problem – a locking device dubbed the "child safety outlet" – is in the early stages of becoming a product that can be sent out to market.
Last week, a company formed by Baldwin and manager Jeff Spivey was awarded a $5,000 grant to develop product prototypes and begin applying for more grants intended to help small businesses get off the ground.
If all goes as planned, Spivey said, the prototype should be finished by March. If that leads to more funding, Spivey said manufacturing could start in about a year and then the device could appear in stores soon thereafter.
"We’d like to see it in Wal-Mart, Kmart, hardware stores, all kinds of places," Baldwin said.
The idea for the new outlet is fairly simple: when the prongs of an electrical plug are pushed into the outlet, internal spring-loaded pins lock the prongs in place. The plug is released when two buttons on either side of the outlet are depressed and the plug is pulled simultaneously.
The coordination of the two-handed motion will prevent young children from removing the plug – an improvement on similar products on the market that require pushing, pulling or twisting, which are natural movements for kids when they’re examining something, Baldwin and Spivey said.
The company, called Tri-Tech Development, has also designed a plastic receptor that plugs into unused electrical outlets and locks into place.
"We think it has applications for homes, offices, everywhere there’s an electrical socket," Spivey said. "It also prevents things from becoming accidentally unplugged or falling out of the socket."
This is the first foray into invention and entrepreneurship for Baldwin, a mechanic, and Spivey, a graphic designer.
Their operation is small but with help from the University of Wyoming and state grants, Baldwin and Spivey are hoping to see their idea take off. Then they may even look at marketing a few other ideas they have.
For now, though, the pair is focused on the slow and steady work it takes to qualify for more grants and put together a product that will sell and possibly save lives.
"We’re learning as we go along," Spivey said.
Other entrepreneurs receiving $5,000 grants this month were Michael Petera of Powell, who has invented a handheld device for image/data capture, editing and transfer; Chang Yul Cha of Laramie, who is working on a way to reduce arsenic in water; and Kip Dopp of Newcastle, for work on a new control system used for dehumidification and absorptive cooling.
The grants are part of the Wyoming Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer program, which provides money for entrepreneurs to prepare their "phase one" grants applications.
In 2000 and 2001, $6.5 million in grants were awarded to Wyoming entrepreneurs.
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
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