Paul Winchel, ventriloquist and voice of Tigger died Sunday. What surprised me is that he was also an inventor who held 30 patents including one for an artificial heart (from 1967).
  At age six he contracted polio. He later credited weightlifting with helping him overcome a leg disability from the effects of polio.  He also overcame speech impediments as he learned to throw his own voice.  He donated his artificial heart to the University of Utah for research. Dr. Robert Jarvik and other researchers at the university went on to build an artificial heart, dubbed the Jarvik-7, which was implanted into patients after 1982.  Among Winchell’s other patents: a disposable razor, a flameless cigarette lighter and an invisible garter belt.

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