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One of Lake County's most noted, if not famous, inventors was Elisha Gray of Highland Park, who had the misfortune of getting to the patent office a few hours behind Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 with basically the same invention: the telephone. We all know the result; Bell got the credit, but Gray did well for himself anyway, founding what was to become Western Electric. Lake County still has its share of inventors. There are the creative geniuses who labor daily behind curtains of secrecy for such companies as Abbott Laboratories and Baxter Healthcare, the pharmaceutical giants. And then there are those who simply had a great idea and are making a go of it on their own. [Tom] Scarnato holds more than 40 job-related patents from his former position as product-development engineer for Navistar, a farm-equipment company in Chicago. After he retired, he came up with some personal patents to help make day-to-day living easier. His favorite is a golf cap that has little moisture-absorbent pads along the band to allow air flow.