Gallery, Projects and General > The Design Shop
A better diesel engine
Stefan Pynappels:
--- Quote from: Bluechip on September 07, 2009, 08:51:23 AM ---Spynappels ... 'Nobody can see it and complain' ... nice thought.
You can bet your last shilling that some crackpot outfit like eg. 'Friends of the Plankton' or the like will start squawking ...
Look at this ..
http://www.reuk.co.uk/Severn-Barrage-Tidal-Power.htm
A simple old sod like me can come up with a simple solution ..
Eat the freakin' ducks.
Build the Barrage.
QED
Dave BC
--- End quote ---
Very true, but when oil costs $300+ a barrel and we cannot afford to pay to have lights on in the house, I think these loonys will just not have the same power as a certail amount of pragmatism has to take over.....
Hmmmm, duck with Hoi Sin sauce, I'm hungry already.
arnoldb:
--- Quote ---Very true, but when oil costs $300+ a barrel and we cannot afford to pay to have lights on in the house, I think these loonys will just not have the same power as a certail amount of pragmatism has to take over.....
--- End quote ---
Yep, and when "sensitive" areas all over the world get flooded due to global warming - what are they going to try and save ? - Sacrificing some areas now to ensure a better global tomorrow doesn't appear to have entered their one-track minds.
I feel there is a lot of people in the world who just "join up" to "causes" to get rid of excess energy and frustration. How 'bout us engineering types cobble together some gym equipment that drives generators - and stick those in public places to let those people work off their frustrations and excess energy. Might be a win-win situation all round; the masses are kept occupied and fit, while generating power, and we get to make weird contraptions :lol:
Heck, could even extend the principle to day-care centers: "Here, little Johnny, pedal this thingy and see how long you can keep all the pretty little lights burning" :)
:beer: Arnold
bogstandard:
Straying slightly on this one.
--- Quote ---Re: A better diesel engine
--- End quote ---
But it doesn't really matter.
I will just bring you into the real world, without piddling on your shoes too much.
If you can think of an idea that gives just 0.01% efficiency increase, you can bet your bottom dollar that someone has already thought of it and slapped a patent on it. Awaiting the day someone comes along with some similar idea and starts to market it.
Then you get a letter from some slimy corporate lawyer stating that if you don't pay the patent holder X squillion bucks, they will drag you thru every court in the land and make sure you end end up hanging yourself thru frustration.
Unless you aim for improving very modern technology, you can almost guarantee anything to do with old technology has already been thought of and covered.
You maybe hoped that by throwing ideas around, you would come up with an easy solution. It doesn't work like that in most cases. Homework is the key to anything like this, hours upon hours of frustrating research, followed by heartache when you find something the same or very similar has been done before. If you do find a small niche, you have got to keep your mouth shut and share it with no-one, not even the dog. Only releasing the results when you have it proved and covered by the legalities of a patent. Even then, unless you have squillions in cash to fight legal battles, you can find your ideas stolen and into production before you can even get someone interested in your design. By the time the robbers have been tracked down, they have made their bucks and disappeared into the night.
I worked for a small American company for a few very unhappy years, and as usual, they had you covered under contract, that any ideas you came up with while working in their factory, became their property. I had to catalogue everything I did to the machinery in there, and the boss would check my workbook each weekend. I am sure he patented a lot of the ideas I had come up with to get his machinery running more efficiently. His office wall was covered in metal plaques, engraved with all sorts of patented ideas. If I had took the time to look closely, I am sure a lot of them would have been mine, as the wall started to fill up with each passing month.
It is great having discussions of this type on here, but you take the time to reflect, unless you are the one in a billion, you just will not be able to realise your dreams of ever getting anything truly inventive into the marketplace.
Just resign yourself to helping out a few modellers who take the time to read your ramblings.
I made that decision a few years ago, and it gives me great enjoyment and satisfaction seeing one of my ideas being used. When I see someone post, 'I pinched this idea from a chap called Bogs', you know you have been recognised as someone who has helped others along their way.
Bogs
Bernd:
Patents don't help anybody. Watch the story or read the book on the intermitten windsheild wiper. The guy that invented it fought the Ford company and died broke. If you have something patentable have version 2 ready when you introduce the first version. That way you can stay ahead of the competion untill you make some money.
Bernd
arnoldb:
Bogs, Bernd, thanks for the :wack: back to reality - I think I needed that.
Back to making things out of bits of metal (and a lot of studying!)
:beer:, Arnold
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