Hats off to Norman Breakey

As I was painting yesterday (I promise this is my last post about painting) I marveled at how much easier and faster the painting went when I was using the roller instead of the brush, so I naturally began to wonder who invented this marvelous tool.  According to Wickipedia the inventor of the paint roller was Canadian Norman Breakey.  He invented it in 1940 but sadly never made much money from his invention,  Others swooped in with slight variations and got the market share. Another fascinating factoid, especially for fans of space fiction: In a serialized story, "Space Hounds of IPC" published in 1931, the author, E.E. "Doc" Smith, mentions using rollers to spread paste on the outside of space ships. So there you have it paint roller fans.