Inventor tackles lobsters, vegetables on path to patents

When summer comes around, people like to gather with friends after work to eat lobster and drink beer. Behind the scenes of the seasonal feasting, a 65-year-old entrepreneur has been busily making it easier to cook the crustaceans.

Yu Tianwang, who spent 19 years inventing a vegetable washing machine in Wuhan, Hubei province, turned his attention to lobsters last year after noticing how popular they were as summertime fare.

Using his machine, restaurants can wash 15 kilograms of lobsters in four minutes at a cost of less than 1 yuan. The machine doesn't use detergents or brushes and doesn't kill the lobsters or break their legs. The machine is 30 times faster than its human counterparts.