Nancy Johnson was an American woman born in 1795. Nancy Johnson was known as the inventor of the first wooden ice-cream freezing machine in 1843. The ice cream maker was a manual device that was cranked by a handle. Inside the maker, a wooden pail contained crushed ice while an inner tin contained the ice cream mix to be frozen. Nancy Johnson signed up for a patent for this device in September 1846. Johnson sold rights to the maker to William Young for $200 dollars. The name of the invention remained “Jonson-Patent Ice Cream Maker”. Johnson’s invention simplified the process of making ice cream. Innovators innovate — that is, they create new ideas or ways of doing things. Anyone who blazes a trail into new territory can be an innovator — athletes, artists, business people, and chefs, to name just a few.