Creating a Monopoly
Did you know that Parker Bros. intially rejected inventor Clarence Darrow's board game Monopoly due to '52 fundamental playing errors'. He thought they were wrong so started production himself. Once the success of the formula became apparent, Parker Bros. decided to take on production after all.

Not such a trivial pursuit.
Canadian inventors Chris Haney, Scott Abbott and John Haney struggled with the board game trivial pursuit. While it only took them 45 minutes to create the concieve, they lost $45,000 trying to market it in over four years before it finally became a hit.
Unemployed artist Michael Wurstlin had designed the board and logo for five shares in the company. Despite the early failure his shares were valued at $2,500,000 by 1986.

What's in a name?
The Bic pen was named after its French Inventor Marcel Bich. However they decided to drop the 'H' from the name fearing that the American market might pronounce the name 'Bitch'.

A problem solved.
The British Museum was the conduit for the invention of the Rawlplug. They needed electrical fittings installed in the walls without damaging the masonry but traditional methods weren't good enough. Local builder John Rawlings solved the problem by inventing a fibre plug, made from jute and bonded with animal blood. He called it the Rawlplug and the original design is still in production today!