• Safety Pin: Invented in 1849. Hunt twisted a piece of wire to create a pin with a spring clasp that would not open easily. The design has barely changed.
• Fountain Pen: Hunt patented an early version of the fountain pen (combining the pen and ink source) long before mass commercialization.
• Paper Shirt Collars: Hunt invented an easy-to-clean paper collar in 1854 that looked crisp but was cheap to produce.
• Knife Sharpener: Hunt’s was the first domestic knife sharpener utilizing interlocking concentric steel discs. 
• Sewing Machine: Walter built one of the first eye-pointed-needle sewing machines in 1833, but chose not to patent it, fearing it would cause mass unemployment among seamstresses.
• Repeating Rifle: Hunt’s mechanical advances led to the Winchester repeating rifle.
• Rotary Street Sweeper: He invented the first mechanized street sweeping machinery.
• Ice Plow: Hunt designed a device to break up ground ice for commercial harvesting.
• Mail Sorting Machinery: The first device to automate mail sorting was invented by Hunt.

My favorite of his inventions, however, were shoes that allowed their wearer to walk on the ceiling.

Hunt leaves an important life lesson that I see repeated throughout history; it’s one of the reasons the world doesn’t work. People with unusual natural abilities that they didn’t have to work for tend to take those talents for granted. Inventing came easy to Hunt, just as music was easy for Mozart and theatrical skills were easy for Orson Welles. These amazing individuals frequently under-achieve because they don’t understand how rare their gifts. The lucky ones find mentors, allies, managers, patrons and true believers who help them meet their potential.

Walter Hunt never did. But he deserves to be remembered.