|
FADED
DREAMS
Bob
Brown
|
"There
is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom."
--
Robert
Millikan
, Nobel Prize in Physics,
1923
More predictions: www.inventwrite.com/experts.htm |
First time inventors walk around with
their chin jutted out and their dark suspicious eyes threaten anyone that comes
near. They are convinced everyone is a scumbag out to steal their invention. In
reality, they could set their invention out on the sidewalk and people will
either walk around it, or kick into the gutter to get it out of the way. In 1955
I was a first time inventor.
Everyone has an inborn contempt for new
ideas and the first thing they do is tell an inventor his idea is stupid, no
good, and why it’ll never work. But once an idea has proven it’s good,
thieves will rise up out the woodwork and steal the idea, regardless of his
legal protection. But, of course first time inventors don’t know this. With
trepidation I sent my idea to a patent searcher, and hoped he was not just
another thieving scumbag.
Despite my fear of scumbags, I was also an
optimist and the real world seldom entered my mind. How could anyone have been
as smart as me and thought of my idea earlier. Thus, I held my throbbing heart
in my hands every day for ten days while waiting for the mailman to deliver the
Patent Searcher’s Report. It came at last. With clumsy fingers, I ripped open
the letter, anxious to get started on my journey of obscene riches and eternal
bliss.
 A thunderbolt can’t smash a
dream any faster than a Patent Searcher. I would not get a patent, his letter
stated. I would not pass Go. I would not collect $200. I would not hobnob with
the likes of
Thomas
Edison
. I’d
never met this searcher guy, but I had a clear picture of him digging through
piles of patents and suddenly yelling out in hysterical laughter, “I found
one. Ha, ha.
Joe
Blow
patented
Bob
Brown
’s idea
in 1850.”
Well to hell with you,
Mr.
Patent
Searcher
.
The year was 1955 and I had worked
for months perfecting an automatic transmission for automobiles. Cars had
automatic transmissions at the time, but their performance was a joke, they were
big, complex, and they often needed expensive repairs. My transmission was
remarkably simple having only four moving parts and even those parts did not
move once cruising speed was reached. It was compact enough to be incorporated
into the differential gears located on the axle of the driving wheels. Reverse
gears added some complexity, but it was still far superior to the transmissions
currently in use.
I was suffering through my young and
dense state in those days, and cars were the biggest thing in my life (Whoa,
there was
Susan
Bates
). Using
my idea for small devices instead of automobiles would have been more promising,
but I was in no mood to trivialize my idea. As it turned out it wouldn’t have
mattered anyway. The reason it wouldn’t have mattered, as the Patent Searcher
reported, was because
Clarence
P.
Hollister
had the
exact same idea in 1908, forty-seven years before me. Even his patent had
expired about the time I was born. (Earlier, in a
mom
ent of
dramatic flamboyance, I said it was Joe Blow in 1850. I lied.).
Without a patent, the automobile
manufactures would use the idea and not even thank me for telling them about it.
Hollister’s patent had expired and I should have manufactured variable
transmissions for small applications without a patent, but my balloon had burst
and I laid the idea on a shelf. Sadly, my stars weren’t lined up (even
Susan
Bates
dumped
me for
Elmer
Procter
).
You may ask why, if this idea was as dead
as
George
Washington
, am I
bothering to tell you about it. The answer is simple. The idea is a very good
one, and after all these years I haven’t found any device that uses the
principle described in this invention. By publicizing this idea perhaps someone
will find it is just what they need for their application.
Hollister’s idea is possible because
fluids are non-compressible. Air in a cylinder that is closed on one end can be
compressed by pushing a piston into the open end of the cylinder. If fluid is in
the same cylinder, the piston can not move because the fluid is
non-compressible. The fluid essentially becomes a solid block.
 The same principle is essential
for Hollister’s transmission to work. There are many types of pumps, but the
kind needed here is a positive displacement gear pump (a pump that does not
allow leakage around its impellers). Just as with piston pumps, if the fluid in
not allowed to flow, the gears cannot rotate. The fluid then essentially becomes
a solid material.
The entire system in Fig. 1, is immersed in a fluid in a container which is not
shown. To explain how this pump works, Cross Section A-A is a cut-away view
exposing the gears. All voids around the gears are filled with a fluid such as
oil. The two gears C and the gear B are in enclosed in housing A. If an engine
rotates the gear B counterclockwise, gears C will rotate freely and fluid will
walk around with the gear teeth. More fluid will come in the IN ports and go out
the OUT ports. So far housing A (attached to shaft A) has not moved because
fluid is flowing freely around the gears.
If the OUT ports are closed, the fluid,
being non-compressible, is trapped and the gears are locked together as surely
as if the fluid is a solid material. The entire assembly A must then rotate and
deliver power to the vehicle’s wheels through shaft A. Obviously, intermediate
speeds are controlled by how open the OUT ports are. Thus we have an automatic
drive with no moving parts when the OUT ports are completely closed.
Mr.
Clarence
P.
Hollister
, I hope
I have described your invention to your satisfaction. I feel it is safe to say I
will not receive any complaints from you. If you were 50 years-old in 1908 when
you got the patent, then you are 150 years-old now. In all likelihood the bloom
has faded for your very fine invention and you are aware by now you will never
become obscenely rich. I sincerely hope you acquired eternal bliss by some other
means. In a few years, my interest will fade along with yours. In the mean time,
I searched the Internet and could not find your website; therefore I will put
this document on my website and hope someone notices it.
Page 1 from
Bob
Brown
’s
invention disclosure, an idea whose time came and went. |