Nebraska Man Develops Third Ear—Encouraging Use of Safety Glasses in the Workplace …
In 2009 while building a deck, a forty one year old man living in Lincoln Nebraska developed what he calls a “third ear”. He was working on the deck when he first discovered a problem with his right ear. He noticed that whenever he would put his safety glasses on, he would lose access to the top of his ears. Now because this is where he keeps his pencil while he’s working, this quickly became a problem. He kept losing his pencil every time he’d set it down. He’d go to mark a board—turn around—and whamo, he’d have to drop the board, go find a pencil, sharpen it because the tip was broken on the ground— and so on and so on. Over and over and over again.
Realizing this was an incredible waste of his time, he decided to make something to use to keep his pencil on his safety glasses so he’d never have to look for it. Fifteen or twenty prototypes later he had something that worked pretty well and he started using it. Now that he could always find his pencil the work went much smoother and quicker.
So on a building day like any other, he’s wearing his third ear in the local home improvement store when he’s approached by not just one customer, but nearly everyone in the store at the time. They all wanted to know how it worked and where they could get one. He told them he’d made it and they replied, “could you make us one”? He just laughed… But this did get him to thinking and doing some research. He found that a surprising number of jobs require the use of safety glasses in the workplace, and he was even more surprised to learn of the number of people in America that wear prescription glasses. But what surprised him the most was an absolute “no-brainer”— that nearly all of these occupations use pencils and/or similar tools, and nearly everyone he blindly interviewed said losing them is a problem for them too.
Seeing there was a market for his invention, he decided to have it developed, and today it’s evolved into an incredibly useful product that not only holds pencils/pens/etc., but also holds onto an array of other items and tools as well. Driver bits, Dremel™ tools, nails, screws, paperclips, and small metal tools of all kinds are held by the 3rd EAR™ Magnetic Clip. Keeping the tools you use over and over again, completely accessible and always where you can find them saves employers time and encourages the use of safety glasses in the workplace.
The Patent Pending 3rd EAR™ Magnetic Clip attaches to your safety, sun, or prescription glasses and magically gives you another ear for your pencil/pen, AND small tools that are metal that always seem to get lost while you’re working. It even hangs up your glasses and pencil at the end of the day, keeping track of them too.
F3 Concepts, LLC is the manufacture of the 3rd EAR™. F3 Concepts, LLC is a product development and manufacturing company founded in the belief that “from-within the form of functionality, truly unique and useful products will evolve”. If you would like to find out more information about F3 Concepts, LLC or 3rd EAR™, please visit www.thirdearmagnetic.com.
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