The White Hat Inventions & Innovations Newsletter

Archived Newsletter - 21st October 2008

Contents

Introduction Deakin’s Model T for the 21st Century Did you know? The Large Hadron Collider – part 1 We know the winner of the Melbourne Cup An early Australian inventor From the White Hat Inbox The Large Hadron Collider – part 2 Patents The bicycle The White Hat Hybrid Vehicle Australia gets a hybrid car Getting your invention to market – part 1 The follies of the past The Large Hadron Collider – part 3 The window position Getting your invention to market – part 2 A case study An innovative Hungarian car A chance encounter The Hat Inventions & Innovations Quiz

The mainstream Australian media still seems to have problems with inventions and innovations. If inventions do get news coverage it is usually through a presenter who still has problems figuring out which way to twist her lipstick to make it pop up. The ‘personality’ then briefly shares with us their depth of understanding of this wonderful new thingy (briefly is all it needs) before being relieved to pass on to a story about a cat up a tree.

It has been quite some time since we sent out an inventions and innovations newsletter having been occupied with other ventures, but we now have a backlog of inventions and news. In fact we have so much that we need to break it into a number of newsletters each arranged according to a theme or a topic.

In each of the coming newsletter we will look at least one invention in enough detail for you to have a good idea how it works. We will also include some background on an Australian inventor in each one as well as publishing selections of feedback from our readers.

In coming newsletters we will look at environmental issues, sustainable energy production and household appliances. But let’s get on with this newsletter –

Cars & Personal Transport

DEAKIN’S MODEL T FOR THE 21st CENTURY

This part of the newsletter can now be found at The White Hat Guide to the Deakin T² (T squared) Car

DID YOU KNOW? . . that the ‘ute’ or utility vehicle was invented by the Australian Lewis Brandt and first produced at the Ford plant in Geelong?

. . that the ‘diff’ or differential was invented by David Shearer in South Australia in 1897? If the concept of the T2 takes off then the diff has reached its use-by date – sorry David.

WORLD NEWS – The Large Hadron Collider – part 1

“You must be one of these large hadrons I’ve heard about.”

I had at last caught up with one of the protons in the Large Hadron Collider. Having become disillusioned with the reporting of events at CERN I determined to set out there myself to bring back the inside stories. Having consulted with the major Australian media channels before leaving they all informed me there was no chance of my story getting airplay if it attempted to educate, but, on the other hand, there was a high chance that a human interest story using words that could be pronounced by their ‘TV personality’ would be favourably received. As a result, as soon as I arrived at CERN I started sniffing around for a story and as luck would have it I chanced across an Australian at the bar and after several drinks and some local background information I knew I had my angle.

You see, there are two separate particle accelerators located next to each other with particles charging in opposite directions. However these are located underground straddling the border between Switzerland and France which led to months of diplomatic wrangling about which country should have priority. The result was that it was agreed that one accelerator would use only Swiss protons while the other would use only French protons, so here was my human interest story.

The Swiss already had their accelerator up and running so I set out to get an interview with a Swiss proton. One of the main tasks of a journalist is getting up to speed. In this case it involved going through a linear particle accelerator then through several synchrotrons before I had enough speed to be injected into the main ring.

It wasn’t long before I met my first Swiss proton. “You must be one of these large hadrons I’ve heard about.” I said. “That is the problem with you English-speaking people – you are so imprecise with your language. Keep up! It is the collider that is large – not the hadrons, although I must admit the faster I go the heavier I feel. Keep up!” It was tiring but I did my best to keep up. “What is your mission?” I asked. “Our mission is to arrive on time, in the right place every time and when the French protons do the same there will be the inevitable collisions. Keep up!” This led me to the difficult but inevitable question. “How do you prepare yourself for that final moment?” “That is not hard. They only recruited Calvinist protons which is easy here in Switzerland. We know that we were all conceived in mortal sin during the big . . . well we don’t want to talk about that. We are all doomed to an eternity in the dark world where everything is dark matter and dark energy and antimatter. However we can avoid that through one great cathartic act of redemption. Keep up! All we have to do is keep arriving in the right place at the right time and we Swiss . . .”

I could no longer keep up and gradually slowed to a pace where it was safe to re-enter the room. My next task was to interview a French proton. “Cuckoo!” – my attention was drawn to the clock on the wall. Although I had been interviewing the Swiss proton at near the speed of light for only several minutes the clock on the wall had moved on by many hours. Maybe these Swiss aren't all that flash as clockmakers after all.

WE KNOW THE WINNER OF THE MELBOURNE CUP The winner of the Melbourne Cup is – The TAB or Totalisator Agency Board. In the traditional method of placing your bet with a bookie (often up a back lane or at your local barbershop). at the end of the day the punters might come out on top or (more often) the bookies would come out on top. In fact if you chose one back lane in Collingwood, behind John Wren’s betting shop it seemed as if the bookies always came out on top. It was as if they knew the result of the races in advance, but that’s another story for another time. However, with the invention of the Totalisator (or ‘tote’) by the Australian George Julius in 1913 it meant that the owner of the tote always won and instead of the punter betting against the bookie they were in effect betting against other punters. Back in the 1920s people like Squizzy Taylor were employed to make sure that the gambling ran smoothly and nobody asked too many questions. In return they were paid a percentage of the takings from the tote. That function has now been taken over by State Governments.

AN EARLY AUSTRALIAN INVENTOR

This part of the newsletter can now be found at Henry Tarrant.

FROM THE WHITE HAT INBOX “Where do I go to start to produce my invention? Mario”

“I am a young single mum and I am financially limited. I have an idea for an invention; however do not know what to do next. I’m not looking to be a millionaire - however need to earn money to secure my child’s future. Can someone please inform me on non-expensive step to take on presenting electronic inventions I called around and no help thus far. Thank you for your precious time, Sarah”

Sarah, we would advise that you start by finding the government bodies which assist innovation in your state such as Innovic in Victoria. We have a small list at the bottom of: http://whitehat.com.au/Australia/Inventions/InventionsA.html The services and briefings will usually be free – certainly at the early stages. Soak up any information you can. They have some good people. Also be aware that if it is a government organisation some of the people may have chosen a job in the public sector because they didn’t want to ‘take the risk’ of working in the private sector. They are not the ones who will eventually help you get your product to market. There are also some who feel that ‘sales and selling’ or ‘profit’ are somehow dirty words. In the end, they are not going to help you sell your invention and make a profit to support your child. These organisations usually have a lot of useful resource materials and other resources but, understandably, they have a particular focus on fostering startup industries that will employ a number of people, so find what is useful to you and move on.

You might investigate the Australian Inventors Association at: http://www.inventors.asn.au/ Now we at White Hat has not attended any of their meeting so cannot tell you what to expect. It may be that you come across a room of crusty old codgers who’ve been there and done that and can each give you ten reasons why a given project won’t succeed. Then again, when faced with a single mum wanting to support her child it just may be that it is a room of crusty old codgers with years of experience at creating things who are soon excitedly talking about how they can use the equipment in their various back sheds to get a prototype of this invention up and going. Anyway we suggest you go along and find out.

More about getting your invention to market later in this newsletter.

WORLD NEWS – The Large Hadron Collider – part 2 When I arrived at the French accelerator things looked somewhat more relaxed. I eventually sought out the Proton Resources Manager (PRM) and she told me that they had all sorts of recruiting problems. Most of the French protons wanted two hours for lunch and stopped work at five o’clock regardless. One batch had gone on strike even before they started work. “We’re only doing some slow testing at the moment” she said, “but you should find a few protons inside the ring.”

Sure enough I caught up with one. “It’s good to have some company mon ami. Did you see that? Slow down! It gets boring going around ze same circle time and time again. Zere she is again – zat cute little neutron – did you see her? Next time I’ll talk to her. Slow down!” I could see I didn’t have his full attention and sure enough next time round he peeled off. I could only hear part of the conversation.

“What say we go back to my place and make a little deuterium?” “I can’t do that – what would my friends think?” “Don’t take any notice of zem mon cherie, z’ere just a bunch of bosons. No-one takes any notice of zem, in fact most people don’t know zey exist. Now why don’t you go away and slip into something more comfortable and we’ll give off more energy and elementary particles than these humans have ever dreamed of with zeir foolish machine.”

The neutron slipped away with a knowing smile and I took my opportunity to ask another question. “How do you feel knowing you’re about to die?” “Ah, Monsieur Chapeau Blanc. Zere is no danger of zat. Zese scientists – zey say zey are ze best in ze world – claim zey have two circles intersecting at four points. You show me how you can make two circles intersect in four places – zat’s how stupid zey are. I have nothing to worry about, but don’t tell that to the cute little neutron. She thinks I’m about to die for my country – I wonder if she’s got a sister.”

I had my story and as I was leaving I could still hear the Swiss Calvinist Protons (known by physicists as SCPs) arriving over and over again on time in the right place. Somehow I didn’t feel quite so confident that the French protons would match their zeal when the time for the first collision arrives.

PATENTS Patents are a major protection for the inventor but getting one can be the bane of an inventor’s life. Patent lawyers! What could be worse that a patent lawyer? A patent clerk! Nonentities that have probably never had an original idea in their lives who are making a decision on your invention. What could be worse than a patent clerk? A Swiss patent clerk! Meticulously cross-checking against all other submissions. How could they ever understand the creative process? Why, I remember a Swiss patent clerk in 1905 who would get home from work and write fanciful papers about this and that with a child on his knee. What would he know about new ideas? His name was Albert something-or-other.

THE BICYCLE The bicycle is one of the most efficient machines invented by man – for part of the time you are using it. At other times it is highly inefficient. The powertrain of a vehicle is that part that transfers the input energy through to those parts creating the motion. Thus the powertrain on a conventional bicycle consist of the pedals, the chain, possibly some gear mechanism and the back wheel. The powertrain of a bicycle can be particularly efficient at converting input energy into motion because it usually functions at relatively low speeds and does not involve much power. In addition gears can be used to enable the rider to pedal at a speed that is comfortable and efficient for them. However, if a tradesman decides to rig up a trailer behind his bicycle to carry his tools and bulky items required for their job, the efficiency of the powertrain reduces dramatically. You can find a summary of these efficiencies at: http://users.frii.com/katana/biketext.html

The bicycle is highly efficient at the immediate conversion of energy but highly inefficient at giving longer return on the energy expended. You struggle up one side of the hill expending much energy then coast down the other side using your brakes to dissipate all your hard works as heat. In the end all you have left is the residual speed at the bottom of the hill. A more efficient machine will choose to store the energy from the descent to assist with mounting the next hill. This principle is used by nearly all electric vehicles.

A number of personal transport vehicles which could help us reduce greenhouse gas emissions including the Segway and electrically assisted bicycle cannot get approval in many Australian cities because they do not comply with the manner of braking (rather than ability to brake) which was decreed to be necessary for powered vehicles and set into law in a previous century.

THE WHITE HAT HYBRID VEHICLE Currently there are two sorts of fuel-efficient cars that have made an impact on the Australian mainstream market. One is the electric/petrol hybrid such as the Prius. This among other things can store the braking energy mentioned above for re-use. The others use the new generation of efficient diesel engines. Most analyses show that the latter use slightly less fuel and generate slightly less greenhouse gases than the former. However, at least the hybrid approach is taking us in the direction to wean us off fossil fuels which the diesel is not.

As a result we got thinking at White Hat. We could take an efficient diesel motor and put it in a hybrid electric car. That would improve efficiency. Then we thought that an internal combustion engine works at its peak efficiency when running at a set number of revs. Instead of having the diesel motor directly connected to the wheels we could have it running at maximum efficiency when needed to recharge the batteries which drive the electric motor which could also regenerate the electricity when braking. Of course to store enough energy those batteries are going to be pretty heavy and our vehicle may need metal wheels. We were just getting up a head of steam on our radical new invention when we realised it has been running around for over 50 years. It is called the diesel-electric locomotive and is still one of the most efficient machines available for hauling heavy loads over long distances.

AUSTRALIA GETS A HYBRID CAR “Hybrid cars!” grandpa snorts. We had them during the war. “They introduced petrol rationing so we had to find other ways to keep our cars running. We didn’t have LPG then or even compressed town gas, so we had to make our own.” “Make your own gas, grandpa. Did you set up a gas plant in the back yard?” “Better than that sonny, we made portable gas plants and bolted them to the back of the car or onto the side of the truck and bob’s your uncle – well no he wasn’t since we’d voted him out by then – but there you had a hybrid car.”

You’re never quite sure when grandpa’s telling a tall story but he had left to get his photo album. He had been in a ‘protected industry’ during the war so wasn’t allowed to go off to the front. “Here you are” he said triumphantly “1942!” Grandma sat up in the armchair. “1942” she said quietly. “The Americans were here.” and a faraway look came into her eye while she sat back and rocked reflectively in her chair.

“On the back you had a hopper of charcoal – you can make charcoal out of just about any wood. Then all you need is a pipe to take the gas through to the engine.” “They brought you flowers” says grandma. “Start the petrol engine” says grandpa “then whip around the back and light the charcoal at the bottom using the suction from the engine for the draught” - “and nylon stockings - and called you ma’am” says grandma – “then you’ve got basically town gas coming off the charcoal but you have to cool it down through a radiator” – “the trains ran late then, and there was a ballroom at Flinders Street Station” – “and you needed to filter the gas or you would coke up the engine quick smart.” – “and there was the brownout so you wouldn’t want to walk to the station unaccompanied” – “then after about quarter of an hour jiggling about you could shut off the petrol and run on the charcoal gas. If your passengers went quiet for a while you knew it was time to check for carbon monoxide leakage.” – “1942 was an interesting time” says grandma quietly. “We had hybrid cars – and no government subsidies” says grandpa.

In the forthcoming miniseries called ‘Pacific’ you might notice cars travelling along Flinders Street with clumsy mechanisms strapped on the back – maybe grandpa wasn’t making it up. And I must ask grandma why one of my uncles looks quite different from his brothers.

GETTING YOUR INVENTION TO MARKET – Part 1

Has it already been done?

Obviously you don’t think so or you wouldn’t be pursuing it. But just because you can’t see something like it in the shops or elsewhere doesn’t necessarily mean it hasn’t been done. For instance, while we’re talking about cars, it is believed by many people, that the Detroit motor industries bought up the rights to a number of inventions that were alternatives to the internal combustion engine then ‘buried’ them. We don’t know whether this is true or not, but we do know that numbers of inventions have been patented and are lying dormant out there. The good news is that two of the great inventions of last century – the computer and the internet – will help you track down lots of information about what has been done in a matter of several hours and save you what even ten years ago might have meant months of research. Later down the track you may still need to use a patent lawyer to do the detailed search.

Even if it has been attempted before, that may not be the end of the story. Materials change, production techniques change, customers’ priorities change - they may now be much more interested in something that saves energy than they were 10 years ago. The world is full of useful things that failed at their first attempt but made a comeback later on.

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THE FOLLIES OF THE PAST During the 19th century, Australia experienced a number of gold rushes across the country and none was bigger than the Victorian gold rush. Anyone who was prepared to stay in the city and put in some hard work rather than running off to the gold rush had an opportunity to create a thriving business from scratch. Many of the businesses that are household names today were established in that period by people starting out with no money in their pockets. As the gold began to run out, the cities had become prosperous places and some of these businesses wanted to expand or bring in modern equipment or set up for export. Usually the banks weren’t interested – lending money based on cash flow or the quality of an invention that a small business owned was not to their interest. There was a land boom on and they preferred to lend for bricks and mortar. The small businesses often sold a share in the business to other people whose money would help them progress. After a while the process of selling a share of the business was formalised into selling shares through a stock exchange. It all worked pretty well and most people were making a reasonable amount of money, but not nearly as much as those who were borrowing money to buy land, doing nothing but wait for prices to go up and selling it again for a large profit. It was money for nothing so those involved in creating and making things found it harder to attract investment. Even the companies listed on the stock exchange began to offer shares in large ‘productive’ properties. A quick look at the figures showed that the purchaser was paying more for the property than it could ever produce in a hundred years. Property was highly over-valued and people were using the value of the property they already owned as surety against loans on new properties. When the inevitable land crash came in 1890 the value of people’s old property had dropped and they weren’t able to pay off the loans on the new ones. Many lost the lot and practically every land bank in Australia went bankrupt taking with it their customers’ deposits.

Through the tough times the businesses who were doing productive things to generate wealth soldiered on and people began to realise that investing in human creativity and human endeavour was not such a bad thing.

It will be interesting to see if, after the current economic troubles have settled down, people again begin to think of investing in human creativity and human endeavour.

WORLD NEWS – The Large Hadron Collider – part 3 Before I left CERN I paused to have a drink with my Australian contact who had alerted me to the inside story of the separate Swiss and French accelerators. “The Swiss protons are getting very excited about C Day.” He said. “C Day?” I queried. “C Day, mate – October 21st - Collision Day. When the Swiss protons first bash heads with the French Protons - like a rugby scrum. I’ve been reading some of the press from back home. You know half those morons are still thinking that ‘black hole day’ was when the Swiss protons first got out on the track. Nah mate – C Day is when it all happens. I’m not going to be around here then – taken a sickie – I’ve already got the doctor’s certificate. Do you need one – I’ve got his address – he’s only about four streets away.” “No thanks friend,” I said “I’m out of here later today. But what brings you to CERN?” “I’m here as an extra” he told me. “They call me in if they need me.” “But why would they need you?” I persisted. He slowly lowered his dark glasses and turned to look at me. “I’m a proton mate – a spare proton – plenty of work for us free-lancers out here at the moment.”

He stared distantly into his glass. “I had a casual job at Maralinga for a while then moved on to a steady one at Lucas Heights.” He shuffled on his bar stool. “Look’s like my Quark mate here is not thirsty so I’ll help him out” he said picking up the beer on his left. “Then they had a sort of restructure at Lucas Heights and I was having a sort of half life crisis and I went and joined a commune near Byron Bay. There were 238 of us and we had the whole hippy lifestyle thing happening – protons in bed with a different neutron each night with electrons running everywhere and nobody was sure which ones belonged to who – then this extra neutron chick arrived to make us 239 and suddenly it was bad karma. I had this strange feeling that everything was become unstable so I got our and have been freelancing around the world ever since.”

He sat reflectively for a while before picking up the glass on his right. “What is it that you do here?” I eventually asked. “I’m an extra mate – they call on me if they need me. I pick up the cheque once a fortnight then for the rest of the time I avoid getting called on. If you keep your collar rolled up and avoid eye contact, nobody knows you’re a proton.”

We sat in silence for a while before I finally ventured “I still don’t really understand how this collision thing happens.” “It’s easy mate. You take Flemington then just inside the rails you put Randwick. Off they go! You know that they run in opposite directions at Flemington and Randwick, and when they’re about eight furlongs from home the stewards shift the barriers so they cross over at the winning post. It’s not going to be pretty but the judges will be calling for the cameras for months to come to find out what happened. They’re not going to get me out there on C Day.”

“You have been most helpful” I said as I took my leave. “Are you sure you don’t want me to get you a doctor’s certificate for C Day?” he said. “Thanks, but I’ll take a raincheck on that” I said as I left.

As I arrived at the airport and processed my boarding pass back to Australia I pulled my white hat down over my eyes, rolled up my collar and asked for the window position.

THE WINDOW POSITION The window position is much sought after. Each day I pass several gyms where people in a tight fitting fabric invented by an American chemist in 1959 jostle for the look-at-me position in the window in order to run on the treadmill or use the rowing machine. White Hat wonders if any of the energy expended is used to generate energy which could be used for instance to power the motivational doof doof. According to our back of an envelope calculations there is more unharnessed energy going to waste on the treadmills and exercycles than could be harvested by placing solar panels on the roof of the gym in (often cloudy) Melbourne. Maybe there is an opening for an aspiring inventor. Maybe even at home running or pedalling while watching Australian Idol could be generating the energy to recharge your Segway to get to work tomorrow.

GETTING YOUR INVENTION TO MARKET – Part 2 In our next newsletter we will give details of what we think is an exciting new development in terms of inventors being able to ideas and inventiosn to potential manufacturers, distributors and marketers. Stay tuned.

A CASE STUDY I have an elderly relative who lives in Launceston. Maureen is in her mid seventies, lives alone and is very active and involved. She lives on one of the many hills in Launceston and goes to the shops several times a week. A bicycle is not an option. A fall from a bicycle at that age has greater implications than for somebody under 40. Besides, even though Maureen is quite active, pedalling back up all those hills on a bicycle is not feasible. Maureen often takes vegetables she has grown in her back garden or cakes she has cooked in her kitchen down to the local charity events. She sometimes babysits for a relative on the other side of the valley. She also works in the wardrobe department of the local theatre company and often has numbers of bulky costumes to cart to and fro, sometimes late at night, so she can use her sewing machine at home. The weather in Launceston can often be chilly and raining. So for all these things Maureen uses her trusty conventional motor car.

An interesting challenge is what sort of personal transport Maureen should use in the future that is friendly to the environment. There are many thousands of Maureens out there and numbers will grow. We could just tell them to either ride bicycles or stay home. We could at huge expense vastly increase the quantity and quality of public transport available in Australian provincial cities then ask Maureen to walk in the rain to the nearest stop while carrying only that amount which can be conveniently handled under those circumstances and to restrict her activities to the times at which public transport will be running. That will almost certainly rule out the babysitting after the 10 minute direct car trip had turned into an hour each way via the city centre using public transport. The T2 might be an option. Maybe there are other options. Perhaps you have some suggestions.

AN INNOVATIVE HUNGARIAN CAR The Antro I-Solo is quite different from most cars out there. It looks super-modern but when you look inside you will find that the (up to three) passengers are pedalling. Thus while it looks like a space age car from the outside, on the inside it is like a Fred Flinstone car with the passengers providing their own motive power. As you know if you were paying attention earlier in the newsletter, the conventional powertrain of a bicycle becomes less efficient with heavier weights so this pedalling is actually going to charge the batteries which drive the electric motor. The batteries are also being continuously charged by the solar panels built into the roof. If the going gets too tough there is also a multi-fuel engine in the back which again charges the battery rather than providing the direct motive power. Just to make it more extraordinary, you can convert it from a 3-seater to a 6-seater by simply bolting on the front half of another I-Solo. You can find details of this vehicle at: http://www.solo-duo.hu/main.php?lang=en&action=newguest

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER “You owe me a drink!” The accusation seemed directed at me but I could not see where it came from. As I surveyed those at the bar one occupant of a bar-stool with his collar rolled up slowly turned and lowered his dark glasses. “How did you get on with that human interest story I gave you in CERN?” he asked. “They were going to run with it” I explained “but then some obscure pop singer broke up with her boyfriend and that became the news for the next three nights.” “Pity” he said "but you still owe me a drink.” I bought him a drink and just to save time, one for the invisible friend he was sure to have with him. “But what are you doing here? Isn’t October 21st big Collision Day in CERN?” “Nah mate.” He said. “Some of the French protons were in the resistance during the war and they arranged for a little ‘accident’ with the cooling system. It will take them months to fix and then the Frenchies reckon they can keep it up indefinitely. And we’re all on the payroll in the meantime. I came back to see if there was any casual work at Lucas Heights but they’re all on part-time up there so I came down to see if the Synchrotron needed any extras for their open day but they’re only employing electrons."

You can find details of the Synchrotron open day at: http://whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Buildings/Synchrotron.asp

THE WHITE HAT INVENTIONS & INNOVATIONS QUIZ

Some Australian Units of Measurement:

1. VOLUME: Other countries have units of volume such as the ml (millilitre) or the cc (cubic centimetre). But Australia is a big country mate and we have no use for such fiddly units, so our basic volumetric measure is a sydharb. What is a sydharb and how big is it? 2. LENGTH: Long before Einstein had formulated his Theory of Relativity, Australians had realised that all measurements of time and space were relative and had thus invented the basic unit of length measurement called the ‘justdowntheroad’. Describe how to the untrained observer (aka new-chum) the length of the justdowntheroad appears to vary according to its actual location in the space-time-continuum. 3. THICKNESS. An Australian measurement of thickness is the ‘twoshortplanks’. Name an object, animate or inanimate, that has this thickness. 4. TEMPERATURE: Convert one-dog-night, two-dog-night and a three-dog-night to Degrees Kelvin. 5. HEIGHT: For followers of one of Australia’s prized inventions, Australian Rules Football, how tall is a Collingwood Six-Footer (you may need to ask grandpa)? 6. What is your favourite Australian unit of measurement?

No prizes – just glory and a warm inner glow.