The Polar Pillow

Peter’s 5th grade memory made me think of another. Every year the 5th grade had an invention convention. Each 5th grader was supposed to come up with an original invention to solve an every day problem and then construct a prototype and marketing materials for display at the convention.

Emma had an immediate idea about what she wanted to build inspired by a problem that she had and wanted to solve. It was not a problem that I knew anything about. You see, Emma was a pillow turner. She would turn her pillow over and over during the night so that she could have her face on the cool side of the pillow. She wanted to invent something that would keep her pillow cool all night so that she wouldn’t have to turn it.

I was skeptical about the broad appeal of an invention like this. I had never encountered anyone else who turned her pillow over in search of a cool spot. But as I mentioned Emma’s plan to family, friends and colleagues, I actually found that this was quite common. “Oh yeah, I do that!” people would say. “Let me know what she comes up with.”

Emma came up with a rather elaborate concept for solving the problem. She weaved some plastic tubing back and forth across the underside of a pillow. The plastic tubing originated in a thermal jug of chilled water on one side of the bed and emptied into a bucket on the other. The invention relied on siphoning properties (don’t ask me to explain this) to draw the chilled water from the jug, through the plastic tubing, where it would cool off the pillow before emptying into the bucket. It was complicated, but it did, in fact, work. Emma used it for several nights before she had to take it to the convention for display.  Emma dubbed her product the “Polar Pillow.” Her marketing materials featured photos of Emma herself sleeping peacefully, thanks to the virtues of the Polar Pillow, and she got a neighbor to give an enthusiastic testimonial.

About a year after that invention convention we were on a flight to Arizona. I was flipping through one of those airline catalogs that they put in the seat pockets when I came across a product called the “Chillow.” The marketing copy said something like, “Are you tossing and turning all night because your pillow gets too hot?”  It was Emma’s product!

Okay, I’ll admit that the “Chillow” had to have already been in R&D, if not production, to be on the market just one year later. And I will also admit that the design was much simpler and more practical; a gel insert that you would chill in the freezer and then stick in your pillowcase. But you have to hand it to Emma. She had put her finger on a really viable product idea – and, personally,  I liked her name better.