Entertainment

Get smart: ‘Invention USA’ on the hunt for the next great idea

DUST UP: Scotty Ziegler (center) tries out the DUS-T, a shirt with a nose and neck cover that is dust, sawdust and fire-proof. (
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DUST UP: Scotty Ziegler (center) tries out the DUS-T, a shirt with a nose and neck cover that is dust, sawdust and fire-proof. (
)

If, last year, rednecks became the, ah, new Jerseyites, then this year inventors have become the new rednecks — and they’ve done it without bar fights or even alligator wrestling.

The trend from idiots to smartypants began with Simon Cowell’s “American Inventor,” a competition show that only lasted two seasons. Talk about an invention before its time!

In semi-rapid succession others followed. Food Network’s “Invention Hunters,” is a quest to find the next great food invention while PBS has “Everyday Edisons,” which, being PBS, is looking for inventions that will change the way we live. Then there’s Planet Green’s “Dean of Invention” hosted by Dean Kamen, the Segway inventor, —not to be confused with the owner of the Segway company Jimi Heselden, who met his untimely demise when he drove his Segway off a cliff. Kamen is always on the search for ecologically safe things, like how to turn human waste into coal.

Nat Geo even has a series that combines rednecks and inventors called”Rocket City Rednecks,” about a group of rocket scientist/overall-wearing rednecks who invent stuff.

Now History Channel is getting into the act with “Invention USA,” a show hosted by Reichart Von Wolfsheild, a scientist/inventor/artist and “futurist” and Scotty Ziegler, an artist/designer/inventor who lives in a cave.

Using a format similar to Science Channel’s wonderful, wacky “Oddities,” the two go places to see inventions as often as inventors come to see them — literally in Scotty’s man cave.

On each episode, the guys get to yea or nay two inventions. First they put them through grueling, heart-stopping tests to see if the things can do what they’re supposed to do.

In that quest, they get fire- blasted and go over rapids in a pod, to mention just a few things.

If even one of duo likes it, the inventors get to the next step, which is presenting it to a manufacturer in their field who will decide if they are ready to throw the big bucks behind mass-producing the invention and getting it market-ready.

So, no, you don’t have to wait weeks and weeks to see if something is a go or not.

This series isn’t inventing the wheel here, but some of the inventions are so interesting, you’d definitely consider buying them — while some of the inventors are so nutty, you’ve got to wonder how-in-the-hell they haven’t fallen off a cliff on a Segway by now.

There’s a contractor who has invented a shirt called the DUS-T, with a pull-up over-the-nose neck thing. The shirt is dust, sawdust, and fireproof. To test it, Scotty has all the elements blown at him at high speeds before trying to set the shirt on fire. Uses: many.

Then there’s the inventor who lives outdoors, wears black survivalist gear and has invented a venom-proof barrier. It’s an electrified tape that is draped around the perimeter of a campsite to shock snakes.

They test the snake shield by dropping a case of snakes near Von Wolfsheild. Uses: Useless.