Guy Lestician Invents A Better Light Bulb

Guys' ballast for flourescent lighting and the patent he got on that invention. According to the Web site "Science Daily," "Every flourescent light requires a ballast to provide starting voltage and limit current." David Coulter/Dignity Magazine

By Jeanne Quinn Photos by David W. Coulter "Out of chaos comes cosmos," an old metaphysical saying, is one aptly applied to 52-year-old Guy Lestician — inventor, entrepreneur, microbiologist and president of the Marshalls Creek property owners' association in the development where he lives.

"The life of an inventor isn't an easy one," he said in a recent interview.

"People don't take you seriously, as though what I do is a hobby instead of a living. They are always trying to exploit me or my ideas."

Lestician decided seven years ago that he wanted more anonymity; so he moved to the Eastern Poconos, where he could work in relative obscurity, away from the prying eyes of big corporations. A quiet person by nature, he finds he works best at odd hours.

"I work all hours of the day or night. Some idea wakes me in the middle of the night, and I just have to go try it out. I get my best ideas when most everyone else is asleep," he acknowledges.

Not a still person by nature, despite his gentle demeanor, and elected recently to the presidency of his property owners' association, Lestician can be found filling potholes in his development's 10 miles of roads or plowing snow after a winter snowstorm. In his spare time he replaced the lighting in the community center with new "quiet" lighting, an invention of his and at no cost to the community.

Lestician "getting some grease on his hands," with sons David (center) and Nick (left). David Coulter/Dignity Magazine

As president of the property owners' association, Lestician is full of ideas for streamlining the community, from rewriting the bylaws to initiating building codes; all of which must meet with the approval of the membership or fellow board members.

His frustration comes when others can't "see" his vision. While his mind works mostly in the 21st century, he finds most people are still dragging their minds over the millennial threshold. It's in this sphere that his patience is tried, but mostly because he doesn't understand why others don't see what he sees.

Known in his field as "Edison 2," Lestician reinvented the light bulb, among other things. To this reporter one light bulb is the same as another, but that's not so. Edison's had mercury and filament and burned for 13 hours.

Lestician's light bulb contains neither filament nor mercury; his uses sodium, burns indefinitely and has a purer light.

Lestician was born the youngest of three children in Hamilton, N.J., where an early anthrax poisoning incident was reported. Within 48 hours of the incident, he found an antidote. This is only one of Lestician's many cutting-edge inventions.

In addition to his inventing and presidency, Lestician, the father of six, finds time to rebuild antique cars with the help of older son, David, and enjoys the neighborhood kids who come in "to get some grease on their hands." Mentor and friend, he believes less in book learning than in hands-on projects although he, himself, boasts a great deal of book learning.

A graduate of Hamilton High, Lestician went on to study at Trenton State College and later to Mercer County College and Trenton Tech. He also taught at the latter two schools. More recently he attended East Stroudsburg University for two years, studying microbiotics. He was offered a Ph.D. and a teaching job, both of which, for now at least, he has refused, preferring to work as a free agent inventing or, as he says, "tinkering."

From the age of 11, Lestician knew he wanted to "make things." His father owned a trucking business, but Lestician left that work to his older brother, as he wanted to pursue a life in electronics.

An inventor is a singular person, the silent partner to making life easier.

Lestician didn't invent the camera; he made it better when he invented the sonogram, so doctors and expectant parents can see their babies before they are born, to be sure all is well. He didn't invent the postal service, but he invented a device that reads the bar codes at the bottom of each envelop, making the mail delivery go faster. Lestician didn't invent the cash register, but he did invent the price scanner at the register, so busy people can get out of stores faster.

Among his many inventions, Lestician also found that UV lighting kills germs, a discovery he made by accident, while helping son, Christopher, with a school project. Through his lighting experiments, he has also developed the true spectrum light that helps people over the depression caused by Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

Another invention of his is called the "goose chaser," which keeps geese from landing on a lake and polluting the water with E coli from their droppings. This works on high frequency sound much like sonic mousetraps.

"It was fish that got me started," he remarks. When, as a youngster, he raised fish, he would sell the babies to local pet stores and take his meager earnings to an electronics shop to buy parts for his latest invention. His love of saltwater fish remains strong today, as is noted by the many flashes of color that dart in and out amongst the anemones and sea grass in a wall-to-wall saltwater fish tank in his lab.

While investors don't flock to his door (after all, he did move to the Poconos for anonymity), he has his supporters and investors. He likes problems, because he lives to solve them with new inventions; but it isn't an easy road.

Like his predecessors, Nikola Tesla (who invented the radio, which was claimed by Marconi) and Robert Kearns (who invented the intermittent windshield wiper and spent his life suing Ford and Chrysler for remuneration), Lestician, too, is thwarted by lawsuits from malcontented investors and ex-business partners who want their product yesterday. He says people don't really understand how inventing works.

"You can't just snap your fingers and there's the answer," he says. "It takes time to think, to see all angles, to try this or that and see what works and what won't. It doesn't really happen on a timetable."

He added that it's one of the reasons he likes working on cars or making repairs to the property association's clubhouse.

"Physical activity makes the brain work better," he acknowledges.

Lestician has both national and international patents, and his products are used in Europe and Canada as well as in the United States. His most recent invention, currently being used by Poly Optics in Portland, Pa., is an energy saver. It not only reduces the amount of energy used, but is environmentally friendly and cost efficient. The product has recently been sold to a large East Coast corporation.

Chaotic, visionary, exuberant, microcosmic, different, naïf, understated, unimposing, all could describe the personality of Guy Lestician; a man who lives quietly with his wife, Brenda, and their four sons (he has two daughters by a previous marriage). Here he lives in the quiet confines of an Eastern Poconos property association, where he oversees board activities and still has time to go snowmobiling with his kids, on the lake.