John Vaught

John Vaught, a college dropout in mechanical engineering, came up with the technology behind modern “thermal” inkjet printing by observing how coffee percolators heated and dispensed the water while working at Hewlett-Packard. Vaught did so simultaneously and independently of Canon’s Ichiro Enda, who also developed thermal inkjet printing. They share a number of awards and recognitions including OSA’s Edwin H. Land Medal “for their independent inventions of bubble-jet and thermal ink jet technology which created a new 3 billion dollar printer industry and enabled low-cost and color printers to be attached to every PC.” Their work led to a continued cooperation between the two companies.