Did Xóchitl Lopez invent a water heater?

Question

Various news stories have said that Xóchitl Guadalupe Cruz López, an eight-year-old girl living in Chiapas, Mexico, invented an inexpensive water heater made of recycled materials.

At just 8 years old, Xóchitl Guadalupe Cruz has invented a device to help low-income families.

_{"8-year-old Mexican Girl Wins Nuclear Sciences Prize For Her Invention", Latin Live}

Or:

Xóchitl Guadalupe Cruz is Mexico’s most talked-about inventor right now.

_{"Meet Mexico's New Famous Inventor. She'll Finish Third Grade This Year" , WLRN}

She even received a prize from a national scientific organization, el Reconocimiento ICN a la Mujer, or the ICN Recognition of the Woman, which according to the various news accounts she's the first child to win, and is typically given to adult scientists.

At least in the Spanish speaking press, many directly claim that this is a prize for inventing something:

Ella es Xóchitl, una niña chiapaneca que con sólo 8 años ya ha ganado un premio por ciencia nuclear gracias al invento que creó y con el que busca apoyar a su comunidad.

_{"Una niña mexicana ganó premio de ciencia nuclear por su invento", Excelsior}

On the other hand, some people have expressed doubt, saying that recycled solar water heaters already existed.

Now, I can't imagine it would take a year for her to build, with the help of her family, something that had schematics readily available online, or that she'd receive a prize for it. But maybe it's possible.

Did she invent a solar water heater? And if she did, what aspect was innovative: cost, materials, efficiency, design, size?

To the perspective answerers, please only post answers based on _stronger evidence_ than the evidence presented in the question. Answering based on no references (or no better references) will be removed as not-an-answer according to our standards. — Sklivvz, Apr 12 '19 at 09:09
"Some people have expressed doubt." Do you have a link to what some of these people are saying? It would be easier to evaluate their doubt if we knew their exact objections. — eyeballfrog, Apr 12 '19 at 17:53

score -2 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 21 '23 at 13:09

-2

The contraption looks like this:

So a very normal solar water heater, but built by an 8-year old with very limited resources, and according to her own plans - quite a feat.

She had already competed in the science fair at least once before, winning first prize with extracting and preserving flower aromas

The contraption itself was first built by her and her father, and later improved upon by her and a scientific mentor from a university, in a mentor program she was already enrolled in.

Of course solar water heaters from recycled materials already exist, but there are subtle variations in the concrete implementations, so there is nothing to say that she did not innovate.

answered Jun 21 '23 at 13:09

bukwyrm

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"there is nothing to say that she did not innovate" I would counter that there is nothing here to say she *did*, and that is what the question is asking about. If anything, this answer is evidence that she *built* a water heater, but did *not* invent one. – Oddthinking Jun 21 '23 at 13:15
@Oddthinking could she have invented the wheel? I think so. Preexistence of something does not preclude it from being invented again (Yeah REinvented, if you want to go prescriptivist) Of course this type of child-science-program always is prone to fakery in the vein of 'Sure, my son/daughter invented this preexisting thing all on their lonesome', but on the other hand, it is a well-used pedagogical tool to bring children to the brink of understanding something, and then let them do the last bit of work themselves. Apart from the father and herself, what kind of witness would you need? – bukwyrm Jun 21 '23 at 13:29
btw, in my opinion her design is fundamentally worse than the preexisting (2010) design i linked to, which speaks to it being a new approach – bukwyrm Jun 21 '23 at 13:32
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[Cambridge](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/invent), [Merriam Webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/invent), [Macmillan](https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/invent), [Collins](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/invent) - all suggesting that to invent, you must be the **first**. I don't think arguing that she *reinvented* therefore she *invented* is addressing the claim. It isn't what people believe after reading the articles. – Oddthinking Jun 21 '23 at 13:37
She invented a solar water heater. she did not invent THE solar water heater. To make the claim she did not invent a solar water heater, one would have to show that this exact configuration did preexist. there are like 4 german (!) patents concerning aircraft wheels being pre-spun by the airstream. Very obvious from the get go, but after the first there was not much left to 'really' innovate. Still, going from 3 to five air-catching lobes did the trick to get the 'Innovation-step-height' needed for german patents.... – bukwyrm Jun 21 '23 at 13:56
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-1: I maintain there is a difference between being an inventor and being a builder. You haven't shown there is any novelty here at all (a pre-requisite for successful patents). – Oddthinking Jun 21 '23 at 14:41

Did Xóchitl Lopez invent a water heater?

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