Since the media storm that erupted about a month ago around "Ginger", a mysterious patent that was promised to fundamentally change life in the United States, Dean Cayman has been hiding from the spotlight. The genius inventor meanwhile prefers to promote his plan to make science at least as popular as sports
Nathan Cobb, Boston Globe
Dean Cayman. 96 patents are registered in the name of the self-taught inventor
Where did you go, Dean Cayman? We barely got to know you. The self-taught physicist, 49 years old, who was eager to present his achievements to the world and has 96 patents registered to his name, disappeared under a heavy shroud of silence. The inventor from New Hampshire, whom the residents in the area know as the owner of the mansion on the top of the hill (valued at about 3.1 million dollars) and who 12 years ago founded an institute aimed at the interest of children in registering patents - has gone underground.
It's hard to blame him, especially after all the news and entertainment sites on the Internet reported about a month ago that his mysterious patent, codenamed "Ginger," is supposed to change life as we know it. Cayman was startled at first. He said that people's expectations from such a statement are "simply capricious".
Then he calmed down and went back to all his other ventures, especially the annual inter-school robotics competition. Meanwhile, it seems that changing the face of the earth, or "fundamentally changing the culture in the United States", as its fans like to describe the innovation - is still in the development stages.
Friends and colleagues have no doubt that Cayman can meet such expectations. Raymond Price, who was former President Richard Nixon's speechwriter and now serves as a member of the judging committee for the First Foundation Robotics Competition (a non-profit foundation for scientific development, founded by Cayman), says: "I can count on the palm of one hand and still have some left over , the geniuses I met in my day. Dean Cayman is one of them."
Dean Cayman, thin and with a mane of black hair, dropped out of college on Long Island. He laments the fact that scientists like him don't get the same public sympathy as professional athletes, especially when he's proof that scientists can also achieve financial well-being, to say the least. Cayman's huge house is made of wood and covers a huge area. It has a swimming pool, a softball field that is used by the team of the company that owns it, as well as a sauna, a jacuzzi, a game room, an elevator and a helipad, where you can have a party for 1,000 people.
"Dean is not Bill Gates, but he lives a good life," says his older brother,
Dr. Burton Cayman, a well-known oncologist from New Jersey. And he has some too
Toys: two helicopters (for three and five passengers) and an alternate vehicle
Another, which helps him make the way to work (at a distance of 10 km) if the weather is bad
The air is not suitable for flying. Cayman is an experienced pilot, but you are an airplane
His jet is a guard at the local airport.
In his residence you can find every possible machine, from a ship's engine to a weight
25 tons and up to an active windmill at a height of 50 meters. Raymond Price calls
Cayman's house "Museum of useful technology".
Caiman is a private person, who chooses his friends carefully and does not suffer
idiots around him. His mother thinks he would have preferred to be alone altogether.
He may be a loner, but he is not ashamed of his success; The entrance floor of a building
Deka, a research and development company (named after him, of course: DEan KAmen),
Decorated with awards and press clippings about him, as is his study
At home (according to his acquaintances). "He is proud of his successes. Actually, why not be
proud?" says his mother, Evelyn Cayman.
Friends claim that what appears to be public relations for itself is actually a desire to promote
The First Project (acronym for "For inspiration and recognition in the fields of science
and the technology"). The idea is that if Cayman shows the children what is possible
To achieve through science, and how much it improves life, maybe they will
go his way "Dean really doesn't understand why people value things,
In his eyes they are unimportant", says James Utsky, a member of the board of directors
First's "He himself does not know the names of football or basketball players
famous. He is so focused on the world of science that he cannot understand why
People are interested in other things."
There may be another reason for Cayman's desire to improve the status of scientists.
"He was a non-conformist as a child, and was not a star at school," he says
Robert Tuttle, who in addition to his position as a consultant in Deka, is union chairman
The Enstrom helicopters are a close friend of the Cayman. "That's why he suffered from lack
Security, and he always had a need for recognition."
Indeed Cayman dropped out in 1973 from his studies at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute
After four years of study (his "revenge of the thieves" was 19 years later
The school then awarded him an honorary degree), but family members remember
Because in his childhood he not only repaired all household electrical appliances, but also
invented some of his own. While his older brother was dissecting rats, he was inventing
A device that takes pictures of the proceedings, but from a distance, so that he doesn't have to get close. he
developed an audio-visual control system and produced it on a commercial scale,
And when he was in college he invented an automatic drug injector.
This invention led to the establishment of a company, and its sale later for a handsome sum.
At the age of 30 he was already rich.
The atmosphere in the Decca company is completely imbued with Cayman's personality. "many
Some of the engineers come to work there just to smell the air of the guru."
says Cindy Abrams, who works at the First Foundation. The place is simply designed,
And everyone adopted the Cayman dress code - jeans and a shirt. the walls
Decorated with the works of his father, 80, a comic book illustrator in the past. fragments
The newspapers on the entrance floor carry headlines like "reinventing money",
"Young, rich and changing the world". Indeed, most workers checked
Younger than the Guru.
Cayman's management method is based on wandering. "He walks around in place,
Looking at what people are doing, making suggestions, and trying to get people to excel
On themselves," says Mike Ambrogi, who was the second-ranking person at Decca
for eight years. The workers there do not have fixed working hours.
"He's proud that he hasn't gone on vacation in years," says Tuttle. And indeed, he has
A handsome supplier: for years Cayman has developed a mobile dialysis machine,
and other medical devices, and from next year the wheelchair will be marketed
The electric IBOT (worth 25-20 thousand dollars), which can go up and down stairs
and sidewalks. "Dean doesn't look for easy challenges," says David Brown, director
At First, "he felt that everything that was easy to invent had already been invented. He believes her name
What deserves to be done will always require effort."
The First Fund is Cayman's first public passion. he
I think that the foundation of this fund - which will contribute to the status of scientists in the world - is
His mission in the world, and perhaps the legacy he will leave behind when he dies. it seems
Scheiman is simply haunted by the fact that scientists do not receive similar recognition
For the one that athletes get. He hopes that First's competition, which brings together
Hundreds of teams of high school robot designers with engineers and personnel
Other technology, will gain fame in the future. "He really believes that one day
This competition will attract interest similar to that of the Super Bowl," says his friend
Price.
Meanwhile Cayman tries not to respond to rumors about Ginger, the project
which is highly praised. He is known to be very enthusiastic in recent years
From a Stirling engine, a very efficient and environmentally friendly device, powered by
By heat and oil burning outside the cylinder. Last May he registered a patent on
such a machine. This is an invention that may solve social problems such as transportation
Too expensive, and provide cheap electric power. It is estimated that he invented the powered scooter
by such an engine. But his friends claim they have no idea what he's doing
With the Stirling, and what is the connection of the engine to Ginger, and others say
who warned them lest others share their guesses.
{Appeared in Haaretz newspaper, 18/2/2001{
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