George Nissen, who invented the trampoline, was not only a creative inventor, but also knew how to promote and sell his products.

Nissen first got the idea for the trampoline by watching circus high wire and trapeze artists. He was enthralled by the antics of the performers as they bounced in the safety nets strung above the circus floor. Instead of merely trying to get out of the nets as quickly as possible, some of them showed off with twists, spins and somersaults before alighting to the ground.

In 1926 Nissen took over his family's garage in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and began work on his version of the bouncing table. As a young high school student he scrounged for the materials needed-- springs, rubber inner tubes and scraps of iron--from the town dump, and anywhere else he could find them. Somehow he found an industrial sewing machine and adapted...