September 14, 2006 8:47 AM PDT
The Segway was born amid tremendous hype in 2001 after Inside.com first reported on a mysterious transport device, based on a book proposal from Harvard Business Press. At the time, the device was known variously as "IT" and more commonly "Ginger," and some backers went so far as to proclaim wholesale change might be needed in the way cities were laid out. Among the early enthusiasts for the prospective device were tech luminaries including Apple Computer's Steve Jobs, Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos and venture capitalist John Doerr.
Segway inventor Dean Kamen was forced to put this note on his Web site: "We have a promising project, but nothing of the earth-shattering nature that people are conjuring up." Pictured here is one of the drawings from Kamen's patent application.
Photo by World Intellectual Property Organization
