Great Ideas

Great Ideas

Society has been shaped, all through history, by great ideas. Some of them occurred long before records were kept. The wheel, for example, was completely unknown in some cultures, while it greatly enhanced life in others. Who do you suppose first thought of that concept? Did his wife encourage his efforts, or did she accuse him of wasting time and resources? Come to think of it, maybe it WAS the wife, who thought of it---a better way to bring home the groceries?

We could speculate about various early inventions, but speculation is all that we would accomplish. Much more is known of some more recent ideas.

The great artist, Leonardo DaVinci was apparently also a great thinker. His notes include detailed sketches of a great variety of inventions. Many of them were so far ahead of their time that he had no possibility of actually BUILDING them, because appropriate technology didn’t yet exist. On the other hand, if he had applied his great intellect to technology, rather than to art, maybe science would have gotten a head start. Of course, he couldn’t “do it all”, so the culture would have suffered where technology benefited.

The truth is that we would never even have known of Da Vinci’s inventive genius, were it not for his art. Art specialists, perusing his sketches, came across things which had nothing to do with his paintings. Leonardo had sketched many futuristic (for his day) inventions, most of which he apparently made little or no effort to actually construct. Great Ideas are not enough, if conditions are not right. In other words, the concepts sketched by Leonardo were ideas whose time HAD NOT come.

Without exception, the men and women who are known for great inventions had the right idea, at the right time, AND THEY DID WHAT IT TOOK TO MAKE THAT IDEA A REALITY.

Robert Fulton, for example, became obsessed with the concept of creating a practical, steam driven ship. His was not the first, but he was the first to “get it all together”. Others had even built and operated commercial vessels, but Mr. Fulton was the first to successfully construct and operate a truly practical stream driven ship. Because of his tenacity, the nature of the shipping industry was forever changed. Set free from dependence on the wind, it became (for the first time in history) possible to actually plan and execute regular shipping schedules.

Thomas Edison, intrigued with the undeveloped potential of electricity, was determined to find a reliable way to extract light from the “new” power source. There were already electric (arc) lights, but they required much maintenance, used a lot of power, and were generally not safe and practical for widespread use. Mr. Edison spent untold hours (and days, weeks, years) until he got it right. His most famous invention, the incandescent light bulb turned night to day, and changed our society forever.

Several inventive individuals invested great effort into the development of the “horseless carriage”. Henry Ford was NOT the first to build a functional vehicle, but (with considerable help from his wife) he constructed a relatively simple and lightweight model---and then set out to make it available to the public.

Mr. Ford is widely credited with developing the first practical automobile assembly line, and thereby made motorcars accessible to ordinary citizens. Surely no one can doubt that automobiles have changed our society forever!

          Not only did Henry Ford’s assembly line make it possible to construct practical and affordable motorcars, but the concept has been widely applied to mass production of just about every consumer product on the market today.  He also experimented with industrial plastics, including some which were derived from agricultural products.  Without doubt, Henry developed several ideas whose time had come!

          The concept of “heavier than air” flight became a worldwide obsession, and two brothers (Wilbur and Orville Wright) from Dayton, Ohio were the first to successfully develop and market self propelled, heavier than air craft.  There are several claims of others having developed related concepts, and a few claims of actual flights, yet the Wrights are the ones who pulled it all together.  Because of their inventiveness and determination, the world will never be the same!

None of these individuals were completely unique in their day. Each of them was arguably the most successful in his endeavor, because he found AND DEVELOPED what seemed to be the best solution to a problem. Each of them developed and marketed an idea “whose time had come”. An interesting angle on this: several inventors have publicly stated that their ideas were “given” to them. This idea is worthy of further investigation---but that is a topic for another day.

What set each of these inventors apart? No doubt, each of them “had a good idea”---but good ideas are worth nothing until they are developed and given form. An idea is no more than imagination. It takes muscle and material---and usually a substantial amount of determination---to make it real! In fact, in some cases, the most successful product MAY NOT be the best design. Having the best idea is a poor substitute for actually producing a functional product.

I had a first hand experience of being on the wrong end of just such an event, back in the early ‘70’s. The Wankle rotary engine had been introduced, and was just beginning to be developed. Eventually a few companies introduced and tried to market vehicles using the Wankle concept, but the design has some rather severe difficulties. Probably the most significant is that the sealing vanes have to sweep the entire perimeter of the chamber on every rotation. As a consequence, they are subjected to so much wear that the engine has not proven very durable. I was studying the design, and thinking that there surely ought to be a way of reducing wear in a rotary engine. “Out of the blue”, an idea came to me, that a vane type rotary engine, with the vanes rotating inside a co-rotating drum would greatly reduce the relative motion of the vanes, thereby reducing the wear problem. I spent several days musing on the subject, and drew up some sketches.

At the time, I was operating my own contract machine shop. We were manufacturing parts for (now defunct) “V-Plex Clutch”, in Hagerstown, IN. I carried my sketches with me when I made a delivery, and showed them to the inventor and chief engineer of V-Plex, Mr. Marion Davis (called “Dave” by his friends). Dave looked at my sketches for a few minutes, then commented, “Phil, I believe you have a very pregnant idea, here. You should develop this.”

I nursed those ideas for another year or so. My more advanced sketches included a simple “disc valve” system, somewhat like those used by the most successful racing two stroke engines. I did a lot of thinking, and I dare to believe that my idea was excellent, well thought out---a sure winner. There was just one problem: I hadn’t even begun to construct a prototype, when, one day I purchased a magazine---and found pictures of my engine! Well, not exactly---but the concept which was unique to my design, the co-rotating drum, was clearly depicted, and this guy---from another part of the country---had applied for a patent on it. His valving design was much more complicated, and more restrictive. He got the patent, but his design was too cumbersome and too limited to ever make it to market. I had “fooled around” too long, and wasted the opportunity. It was an idea whose time had come, but we who collectively addressed the problem all managed to blow it! “The Day” is long past, and I think it is safe to say that the engine design will never see the light of day.

What’s my point? I touched on this idea in another article, “Your Life Expectancy”. It doesn’t matter how great your ideas are--- unless you DO SOMETHING with them. You may have the best and greatest plans for your particular area of interest---BUT YOUR IDEAS AND PLANS ARE OF NO MORE VALUE THAN THE IDEAS AND PLANS OF AN OYSTER ON THE BOTTOM OF THE BAY---UNLESS YOU DO SOMETHING WITH THEM!

Are you toying with an idea whose time has come? What plans have you been putting off for “someday”? If you wait too long, someone else may beat you to the punch, or maybe “the day” will just pass, and the opportunity will be missed. It could even be, (God Forbid) that it is YOU who will pass! Isn’t it about time for you to DO SOMETHING about those great ideas? If you have a great idea, don’t delay--- make it happen--- DO IT NOW!

 Note:  All stock photos courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net