Monday 7/13/26 Bill Meyer Show Guests and Information
Podcasts on www.BillMeyerShow.com
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6:35 Kenneth Abramowitz, author of The Multifront War: Defending America From Political Islam, China, Russia, Pandemics, and Racial Strife. Kenis the founder of savethewest.com, a website dedicated to saving Western Civilization from itself.
Ken has been a staunch supporter and contributor to various organizations that are fighting to preserve liberty and to protect Israel and America from Political Islam and the radical left. Mr. Abramowitz serves on the boards of the Israel Independence Fund, American Friends of Likud, and Israel Center for Social and Economic Policy (ICSEP). He is also active in 25 pro-Israel/America/Western civilization organizations.
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7:15 Greg Roberts from Rogue Weather www.RogueWeather.com E. Evans Creek Fire info – Mr. Fire
8:15 Dr. Dennis Powers, retired professor of Business Law at SOU with today’s “Where Past Meets Presence”. www.DennisPowersBooks.com
The Mean, Stream Machine
By Dennis Powers
In the late 1980s, three young rafting enthusiasts—Bill Bednar (Medford financial planner), Dorian Corliss (Grants Pass banker), and Michael Neyt (Medford banker)—were enjoying a raft trip in Northern California. On the trip they spotted a crude device looking like a “homemade syringe” that shot water for a distance and thought that using one would be fun. Corliss built a four-foot-long “tube within a tube” as an experiment. With a hole in the front and plug in the back, the two PVC telescoping tubes could produce a distant water stream.
On a later trip in 1990 down the Rogue, the group was camping across from Zane Gray’s cabin at remote Winkle Bar in the lower Rogue River canyon. When another raft floated by, one of their group grabbed the soaker and shot water over the passing boaters. With everyone laughing, the threesome felt that they had a great idea. Neyt and Bednar built their own prototypes at home to compare with Corliss’s one.
As they experimented, they found that a 1-inch diameter pipe fit just right inside a larger 1-1/2 inch one. A groove on the inside PVC, an O-ring around the groove to keep compression, holes, and a cap on both ends did the trick. Forming a partnership, they hand-built 300 of the devices that could shoot water up to 70 feet. Outside Grants Pass over one weekend, Neyt and Bednar sold all of their devices for $20 each. They knew they had a money winner.
Incorporating their venture as Water Sports, Inc., the three men invested $10,000 each and got to work. They built the squirt guns inside Bill Bednar’s garage over weekends, and over the next year, sold some 5,000 of them, which they named “Dipstiks.” As all had demanding jobs, they next contracted with a Grants Pass company, SPARC Enterprises, to manufacture their product.
When Bednar wanted to step up marketing and sales, Dorian Corliss decided he would rather concentrate on his profession (followed by Michael Neyt) and later sold his interest to Bednar, who by his own admission was the “ultimate dreamer.” Corliss sold his one-third interest in 1992 for $170,000, and Bednar obtained the money by a loan from a friend.
When the “Dipstick” name turned out to be trademarked by another, the company needed a different name. Portland’s Terry Whitlock later ventured down and said that he had developed a streamer named “the Stream Machine.” This soaker was built in bright colors with a pistol grip handle, whereas the Dipstick was constructed from white PCV pipe. Whitlock said the decision was theirs: They could either take him into the company or he would compete against them.
Naming Whitlock as president in charge of marketing and sale, he was offered a 25% interest. Not wanting to be a minority owner and concentrate on his job, Neyt sold his interest back for $50,000, plus a 5% royalty on each unit produced. Sales grew from $600,000 in fiscal 1992 to $1.5 million in the following year. The sales volume didn’t match up, however, with the much larger inventories built up later, and the company ran into financial difficulties that included lawsuits and bankruptcy. At the same time, a patent was issued on their device.
When the financial problems and litigation were settled with Bill Bednar in control of the company, sales again took off with major customers involved such as Bi-Mart, Fred Meyer, and Costco. At its highpoint when manufactured at its Medford facility, 160 people were employed that produced 1000 Stream Machines every hour. When its sales volume increased to $3 million annually, Bednar sold the business for $2.4 million in 2000 to his Chicago-area, brothers-in-law. With the patent having expired later, different companies now produce and/or sell the soaker without restriction.
Dorian Corliss, Michael Neyt, and Bill Bednar brought about the universal squirting device seen on the Rogue—and rivers around the world—along with money in the bank. Not bad for three rafting friends who were just having fun all those years ago.
Sources: Paul Macomber, “Dip Stick Dream dries up in fight over bankruptcy,” Mail Tribune, July 2, 1994, at Financial Background and History; “U.S. Patent Office: Patent USD351007 S, water squirting toy” at Patent; Frank Silow, “A Splash in the Market,” Mail Tribune, April 14, 2010.