Murray funded his creative pursuits out of his own pocket, not with taxpayer dollars. And one moneymaking idea was never “enough.” According to his obituary in The New York Times, the prolific inventor “saw no sense in inventing something that could not be sold.” At the time of his death, Murray held an astounding 75 foreign and domestic patents:

—At 15, Murray manufactured a windmill that powered a radio generator and sold it to farmers in rural areas where regular electricity was unavailable.

—In 1951, after observing passengers descending airplane stairs in the rain at Miami International Airport, he came up with the idea for covered airplane boarding ramps to protect travelers from inclement weather and to enable those in wheelchairs to cross into their terminals without having to be fork-lifted off their planes. The walkways are now used in airports around the world.

—To save time and energy whenever he needed to climb the roof to adjust his television antenna for better reception, Murray crafted a television antenna rotator by attaching two strings to the antenna and pulling them from his window. The invention evolved into the TV antenna rotator, which Murray’s obituary reports “generated nearly $40 million in sales over several decades.”

—Murray also invented the audible pressure cooker, the power automotive seat, a high-speed dental drill and the peristaltic pump, which moves fluids through the body without damaging cells using contractions and expansions. The lifesaving pump paved the way for historic breakthroughs in open-heart surgery and kidney dialysis—and its technology has been applied by the food processing, pharmaceutical manufacturing and chemical processing industries.

—And to assist harried housewives in the post-World War II era, Murray combined the use of an interior combustion motor with dual blades to create the electric carving knife. It was patented in 1964, and the same technology used to slice up your turkey was adopted to create medical and forensic tools now used in surgeries and autopsies.

Murray’s self-interested capitalist pursuits yielded untold benefits and conveniences for the rest of the world. In the tale of the mundane electric carving knife lies a profound lesson: Liberty, not “government vision,” yields innovation. For this priceless insight bequeathed to us by our Founding Fathers, Americans should give eternal thanks.