Invention priority? Hurtubise, Brown, and their arms

“I learned the hard way that there’s no bear spray that will stop a bear.” So says Troy Hurtubise in this old video (below) where he demonstrates some of his advanced technology.

Today comes word that a man named David Brown was awarded a 2011 Invention Award for his crime-fighting armored glove. At a glance, it appears that Mr. Brown (inspired by his friend, actor Kevin Costner) has re-invented the technology pioneered by Mr. Hurtubise. See the two videos below, one with each inventor, and see if it’s humanly possible (based only on those videos, which is a fun but not good way to judge) to distinguish who first invented this forearm technology.

Mr. Hurtubise, of course, was awarded the 1998 Ig Nobel Prize in Safety Engineering for an earlier version of his anti-grizzly-bear suit-of-armor. He thereafter continued to innovate, adapting his machines the better to fight terrorists, criminals, and foreign armies. He recently published a book, which we reviewed.

David Brown and his invention [click on the image below, and it will take you to a video embedded in a page on the Popular Science web site]: