Collaboration = groupthink?

I thought I should write down some stuff, again, about Inventing.

There is a great deal of horseshit about along the general lines of

a) Ideas are worthless, only implementation has any value
b) The only way to be creative is via an artistic process and that must be collaborative.

I’m not sure why these myths persist, but my suspicion is that it’s because most people just don’t have many ideas…so their view that these are either unimportant, or as a result of groups, tends to dominate.

I think collaboration and implementation are both great (and often very important), but let’s not kid ourselves that they are essential -or that good ideas are valueless.

#2836: Unequaledge

I’m not sure why but I really don’t like knives with blades that are shorter than their handles.

Today’s invention is a knife which folds up safely but which, when deployed, has a blade longer than the gripping section.

The blade (black) is held to the handle/sheath (green) using a strong butterfly nut and bolt through both of them (red).

To stow the knife, undo the bolt, rotate the blade to fit inside the handle/sheath and replace the bolt.

#2835: Pushield

I’ve been watching documentaries about people trying to break the land speed record for bicycles. There is an event where they can slipstream a powered vehicle.

The airflow (blue) passes around a vertical plate (green) on a vehicle and vortices then swirl around the back of the rider.

This greatly lessens the effort required.

Today’s invention is a large back shield (red) which acts as a sail which is intermittently hit by the vortices and thus provides even greater forward thrust on the rider.

This would work best when attached firmly to the bike itself.

#2834: Launchelper

Today’s invention is an electric vehicle which is used on runways to push the undercarriage of a plane almost to the point of take off.

This reduces the fuel used by the engines, so that a plane can stay aloft for longer.

It may also stress the airframe less and reduce take off noise.

The vehicle might be controlled by the flightcrew direct from the cockpit.

#2833: NextFloor

In former times, people piled into lifts randomly. We can’t afford that any more, partly for health reasons, partly because lifts get significantly delayed as passengers fight their way to the front on leaving.

Today’s invention is an elevator floor on which appear illuminated regions, as shown.

When the lift approaches a floor where people are waiting, it can tell if there are any spaces available. If there are, it will stop. As it does, the lift will ‘listen’ for each button press by entrants and direct people to stand in a circle with the number of their floor marked in it.

People who are about to leave at the next few floors will be shuffled forward to new circles.

This will not only maintain some social distancing, but also speed up the loading and unloading processes, by reducing the amount of barging and colliding.

When the lift has filled itself to the allowed capacity, and spaced the occupants out appropriately, the doors will close.

#2832: CleaneReel

Today’s invention is a bracket (red) which attaches to a hose reel.

This allows the hose to be left running and directed at itself as it is wound in.

In this way, a hose can be kept free of grit and dirt (which makes unwinding it later difficult and which may eventually damage it).

#2831: Dispenseal

Today’s invention is a nonlinear fluid control valve (This may not be new, but I haven’t seen it before and I dreamt it up when pouring water into a kitchen colander).

A vessel has holes at the bottom and is placed on a smooth, flat surface.

A fluid is poured into the top. If the inflow is more than the outflow through the holes, the level rises and the pressure exerted by the vessel base on the surface increases.

At some point, the depth in the vessel is great enough to stop the outflow entirely.

This mechanism might be used, with a tall vessel, as a cut off valve, which activates only after a particular level of fluid has been exceeded in a feed tank (for when a system is trying to dispense only a given amount of some liquid).

#2830: FlyPassed

Today’s invention is an alternative to burial at sea for personnel on an aircraft carrier.

The body of a sailor who had passed away would be placed, with due ceremony, in a titanium wire basket attached to the rear of a jet plane.

The plane’s jet exhaust would perform very effective cremation in flight, which might well appeal to many service personnel.

#2829: RubberScrubber

When airliners land, they can shed up to 7lb of rubber each time. It’s the rubbing on the ground during braking that causes this.

There is thus a need to use special equipment to scrub runways every few days.

Today’s invention is to fit each airliner with a set of wire brushes behind the wheels.

As each wheel grips the tarmac, it drives a rotary wire brush placed behind it and which is in contact with the ground. This disrupts the layer of rubber which would otherwise form.

It would also be possible to use the landing speed airflow to direct the rubber particles into a lightweight filter attached to the undercarriage.

This could be replaced for every flight.

#2828: MESSage

Today’s invention is a marketing tool for manufacturers of dirtbikes of all kinds.

It consists of a rear mudguard with a stencil of the manufacturer’s logo cut out of it.

Riders would be seen to ride through a pool of muddy water and emerge with the backs of their shirts ‘painted’ with the relevant logo.