Boy, 5, becomes UK's youngest inventor

A five-year-old boy has become Britain's youngest inventor after a simple broom design was patented in his name.

Derbyshire youngster Sam Houghton watched his father using two different types of broom to sweep up the leaves in his Buxton garden and came up with the stunningly straightforward idea – put them together.

When his dad had left Sam decided to use a big elastic band to join the two types of broom – one for big leaves and one for smaller foliage – and voila, he had invented the Improved Broom.



"I saw my daddy brushing up and made it," said Sam, who was only three at the time of his invention. There are two brushes because one gets the big bits and one gets the little bits left behind. I don't know if I want to be an inventor when I grow up but this was fun."

Sam's father Mark, who just so happened to be a patent attorney, lodged the required paperwork with the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO) and protected his son's idea for when he grows up. "It was such a simple solution that only a child could have come up with it," he said.

Sam is thought to be the youngest-ever inventor in the country and will now have 20 years to make his idea into a marketable business before the patent runs out.