Inventions/Idea's

[steve_b_wales]

Have you ever come up with an idea about something, but never bothered following it through,only to see 'your' product on sale/being used years later?

For example. Back in the 1970's, I worked for a family firm that repaired vacuum cleaners, washing machines etc. We also repaired hair dryers, usually by fitting a new element. One day, my boss and I changed the wire on the element to a thicker one. When we tried it, it burnt paint off some wood, before blowing the fuse. I remember telling my boss that it would be good to use as a paint stripper. Fast forward many years, and we now have hot air paint strippers from the likes of Black & Decker.

If only we had experimented some more, who knows where we'd be today.

[Hendrix's rifle]

Have you ever come up with an idea about something, but never bothered following it through,only to see 'your' product on sale/being used years later?

For example. Back in the 1970's, I worked for a family firm that repaired vacuum cleaners, washing machines etc. We also repaired hair dryers, usually by fitting a new element. One day, my boss and I changed the wire on the element to a thicker one. When we tried it, it burnt paint off some wood, before blowing the fuse. I remember telling my boss that it would be good to use as a paint stripper. Fast forward many years, and we now have hot air paint strippers from the likes of Black & Decker.

If only we had experimented some more, who knows where we'd be today.

Rich and miserable :lol:

[steve_b_wales]

Rich and miserable :lol:

Yeah, all those £millions to 'waste' on shooting and the good life!

[Jason_ox]

I remember years and years ago my old man saying to me 'wouldnt it be good if you could plug a box into the electrical socket and it tells you how much eletctric in £ you are using at any point during the day or night?' this was way before anything came to the market. He still kicks himself talking about it now!

[ditchman]

invented and developed a new type of wide brimmed hard hat...and put design reg' on it in uK europe and states...it passed all the CE markes and BS "kite" marks....and was accepted to be the safest hard hat ever invented...it made the headlines at the oil exerbition in aberdeen ..front page news 2 days running....i sold a few thousand to the drilling industry and construction industry.................then run out of money.............soon learnt that in the early days of a product you need to spend £2 pound on market research and advertising for every £1 pound you make...........

 

If anyone remembers it ....it was called "The Ryan&Lawrence Wide brimmed hard hat"...........

 

 

huh !!...easy come easy go....

[oldypigeonpopper]

hello, invented a patented an item for the DIY/ building/ phone industry which derived from a friend working for BT back in the 1980s, what i did wrong was signed with a new product company who help find a buyer/manufacture at quite a cost so could not go for a 2nd year patent so 2 years later it was shown on tomorrow world and said company had pinched idea, i found out they did this to a lot of inventers/ people,

Question did sir dyson come up with the idea for his bagless hoovers, ANSWER NNNNNNNNOOOOOOO

[oldypigeonpopper]

hello, invented a patented an item for the DIY/ building/ phone industry which derived from a friend working for BT back in the 1980s, what i did wrong was signed with a new product company who help find a buyer/manufacture at quite a cost so could not go for a 2nd year patent so 2 years later it was shown on tomorrow world and said company had pinched idea, i found out they did this to a lot of inventers/ people,

Question did sir dyson come up with the idea for his bagless hoovers, ANSWER NNNNNNNNOOOOOOO

hello, it was called a Ladder Mate now most sold in USA, as for Dyson he stole the idea from a friend, how do i know if you interested i will say

[steve_b_wales]

Some will remember the product 'Paint & Grain'. This was developed by a person who lived in my town. The story was that he accidentally tipped two different paint products together, resulting in the grain effect. Truth is that someone belonging to him was a bio chemist, and between them, came up the product. He was clever because he sold it on licence to Ronseal, and could control the amount of tins produced each year. I believe he is now a very wealthy man. When I worked for Homestyle/Fads, I used to give demonstrations in various stores on how it was done.

[NickS]

When my daughter was born, I thought it would be far less disturbing for her if you could just lift the car seat out of the car and clip it into a frame to form a pushchair, rather than transfer her from one to the other - a modular baby transport system if you like. Ten years on, that is exactly what you could do but I don't know if any patent existed before I thought of it.

[oowee]

In Birmingham I met the guy that developed the first draught widget for beer cans. He sold it to guiness for £30k. It was such a success that he developed another one the 'widget' from which he gets a royalty.

[oldypigeonpopper]

hello, it was called a Ladder Mate now most sold in USA, as for Dyson he stole the idea from a friend, how do i know if you interested i will say

hello, Dyson ? back in my late 40s i was going out with a lady from malmesbury which as some know was the home town of dyson hoovers and she and her friends grew up there junior school onwards including the now sir dyson, i met her and friends quite often now same age and had gone through uni or further ed or apprentice, one chap an agriculture engineer who specialised in combine harvesters, they mentioned knowing dyson but then he stopped socialising, unbeknown to the engineer who thought the idea of using a vortex type hoover system from his knowledge of combines and made small drawings in dysons company (pub) for about a year but not got around to making a prototype, then dyson stopped going and about a year later he went on tv pitching his idea/mode/prototype !!!!!! to hoover who declined, so started making himself i think but anyway the rest is history, MORAL OF THE STORY if you have a good idea keep to yourself or get a good agent

[old'un]

I came up with an idea/invention using a 12/18 volt drill that helps elderly people get up from kneeling when they are doing their garden, weeding the boarders.

I told a good friend who sells mobility buggies and he thought it was a brilliant idea.

 

Strange things is I was a precision toolmaker (engineer) but never got round to building it, might have ago now I am retired.

[NickS]

Vortex separators where used to remove sand and grit from air intakes on German tanks during WW2, so nothing new.

[Bry-M]

years ago i had the idea of leathers that bikers wear having lights built into them. indicator lights on the rear shoulders, a series of red lights down the spine that could work as rear light/brake light.

 

never took it any further than a daydream, then a year ago saw a company had done a prototype of it.

[bullet1747]

My mate once made a stand for electrical cable 240 mm out off wood it was an up stand that held about a dozen when fixing to the mains , few years later went into a plastics firm to see the invention in the front he used his charm and asked about it , to his amazement the said a guy who works there had come up with the idea to that he said no he hadn't he had made a demo for the YEB first thing they said is did you get a patent to his reply no they said we have lol

Edited July 19, 2016 by bullet1747

[four-wheel-drive]

The hole inventing thing is full of things that people invented but never taken on to fruition probably the most successful ones tend to be not the people who invent things but people with the forethought to put lots of little things that other people invented together to make up something a bit special.

[UKPoacher]

I have an idea. Women are always going to garden centres and buying work for their menfolk. The missus comes home with a plant, bush or tree and it is up to the man of the house to dig the hole to put it in. So why don't garden centres sell the holes as an optional accessory? They could offer a range of sizes so that we men who have much more pressing things to do than dig holes can get on with our lives. Brilliant idea don't you think?

[winnie&bezza]

I have an idea. Women are always going to garden centres and buying work for their menfolk. The missus comes home with a plant, bush or tree and it is up to the man of the house to dig the hole to put it in. So why don't garden centres sell the holes as an optional accessory? They could offer a range of sizes so that we men who have much more pressing things to do than dig holes can get on with our lives. Brilliant idea don't you think?

It's called a plant Pot.

[Wymondley]

I have an idea. Women are always going to garden centres and buying work for their menfolk. The missus comes home with a plant, bush or tree and it is up to the man of the house to dig the hole to put it in. So why don't garden centres sell the holes as an optional accessory? They could offer a range of sizes so that we men who have much more pressing things to do than dig holes can get on with our lives. Brilliant idea don't you think?

If you tied all the holes together, you could sell them as nets.

[Yellow Bear]

If you tied all the holes together, you could sell them as nets.

Trouble is a lot escape and end up hiding at the bottom of doors

[darren 67]

In the design stage right now for air-con boxers but can't concentrate due to betty swollocks.😰

[guzzicat]

Many years ago I had a rod on a stretch of the upper river Wear,very shy sea trout, I took a size 8 long shank fly hook, clipped it off at the bend, put a joggle in the shank, put through the eye of a size 14 treble, Super glued in place ( Super glue worked better then ) & dressed a teal blue & silver so the the wing ended at the treble,any fish pulling the tail got hooked,I showed this to another rod,& he admired it. He was named "Bill Coe & shortly after I saw the " Bill Coe Sea trout fly hooks" for sale in Trout & Salmon.Bill had a tackle shop I think in Bishop Aukland.

[Savhmr]

I've come up (market and sold) a method of variable tuning for passive hifi loudspeakers, but as I now design the things, I shouldn't feel too smug! Back when I was working as a chartered civil engineer, I was tasked with a method of re-lining inverted syphons made from rectangular section cast iron (built in the late 1800's) that run under canals, as one had failed under a local ship canal, draining part of it, but no-one could come up with a safe method that didn't involve divers and serious risks. I adapted a method of slip lining used for sewer relining and met with a technical director of a specialist USA based fabrication company, and structural slip lining was born. Within two years, it had become standard industry practise across the UK. My only claim to fame though and I didn't benefit from it except it made the job easier and less risky for the contractors which was the whole aim.

[clakk]

All these gold buying firms that are on the band wagon ,i worked at a paintball site for the "inventor"of this simple idea.He started in a 2 up 2 down going around the Jewellery quarter collecting all the scrap precious metal and melting it down to ingots .He then went round the same places selling them "new" gold ,silver n whathave you at trade price making a killing.30 years later the world n his dog have caught up but his moneys in the bank.Such a simple idea thats all it takes gents the Arabs turned right and got the oil the Israeli,s turned left and got the oranges ,luck chance or seize the day

[UKPoacher]

It's called a plant Pot.

You aren't taking this matter seriously.

If you tied all the holes together, you could sell them as nets.

That's more like it. Once someone comes up with a brilliant idea it often spawns others. I'll cut you in for a slice of the profits once I've got this project off the ground.