A Jones County native has developed a new twist to a traditional item.

Johnny Henry of Laurel has developed the vibrating toilet seat.

“I believe in thinking out of the box,” Henry said. “I wanted to create something that is a little unusual.

“This invention is designed to stimulate,” he said. “It’s to make you feel good while you are there.”

Because of Henry’s invention, he recently attended the Invent Bay International Inventors Convention held at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“It was great,” Henry said about the convention. “You get to meet with licensers, buyers and investors, and I got a chance to promote my product. ... It was really nice.”

Also while at the convention, Henry, a native of Soso, made a pitch for the Jay Leno Show and The Discovery Channel.

Henry said he currently has a provisional patent on the product, however, “hopefully I’ll get on one of the shows and be able to introduce my product to a national audience.”

Henry said the vibrating toilet seat “is a novelty item that can also be used as a gag gift.”

When asked how he developed the idea, Henry said he “wanted to add some life to the otherwise lifeless toilet seat.”

Henry, a 1968 graduate of Roosevelt High School in Ellisville, attended Jones County Junior College and Alcorn State University before entering the United States Army in 1973.

After three years in the Army, Henry enrolled at the University of Southern Mississippi, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in sociology.

However, Henry said the inventors convention was very educational.

“The convention was very exciting. There was 300-400 investors there,” Henry added. “I gained a wealth of knowledge about how to market inventions and how to get a product going.”

Henry, who began working on his invention in 1997, has now developed a prototype.