bruno22rf Posted July 20, 2016 Report Share Posted July 20, 2016 Being an avid fan of Worcester Sauce ( normally sprinkled on Cheese and Onion crisps) I soon learnt that some pubs had old bottles laid around for years (bloody Mary's?) and that the older the bottle, the better the flavour. So I rang Lee and Perrin a few years back and suggested that they might try a "vintage" line of their sauce. Despite seeming rather uninterested guess what appeared on the shelves in most Supermarkets a couple of years later?. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eyefor Posted July 20, 2016 Report Share Posted July 20, 2016 About 30 years ago when I was learning to fly and doing the techie bits, I wrote to York Trailers asking why the roof line of trailers was flat because, if they had the same shape as the upper surface of a plane wing, there would be lift created which would reduce the weight across the ground and therefore use less fuel. Never got any reply - and now? Loads of trailers with an aerofoil section roof. Idiot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old'un Posted July 20, 2016 Report Share Posted July 20, 2016 Being an avid fan of Worcester Sauce ( normally sprinkled on Cheese and Onion crisps) I soon learnt that some pubs had old bottles laid around for years (bloody Mary's?) and that the older the bottle, the better the flavour. So I rang Lee and Perrin a few years back and suggested that they might try a "vintage" line of their sauce. Despite seeming rather uninterested guess what appeared on the shelves in most Supermarkets a couple of years later?. Worcester sauce, Cheese n Onion flavoured crisps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodp Posted July 20, 2016 Report Share Posted July 20, 2016 About 30 years ago when I was learning to fly and doing the techie bits, I wrote to York Trailers asking why the roof line of trailers was flat because, if they had the same shape as the upper surface of a plane wing, there would be lift created which would reduce the weight across the ground and therefore use less fuel. Never got any reply - and now? Loads of trailers with an aerofoil section roof. Idiot. I don't think "lift" comes in to it to be honest, if you generated enough lift to make any difference then the roof would suck off, including the roof sticks It's all about reduced frontal area and reduced door area causing drag. Trucks 8' wide, so if you can lose 2' across the front that's 16 sq ft of wind resistance gone. Down side is the curtains are a pig to make, and so more expensive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herby Posted October 23, 2016 Report Share Posted October 23, 2016 (edited) Are you protected as soon as you apply for a patent or only when its granted as it says it can take a year? Edited October 23, 2016 by herby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oowee Posted October 23, 2016 Report Share Posted October 23, 2016 Are you protected as soon as you apply for a patent or only when its granted as it says it can take a year? Only protected if you can afford to defend it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Geordie Posted October 23, 2016 Report Share Posted October 23, 2016 The led bike lights! Back in the 80s a friend and myself used to drill out the bottom of bike reflectors, glue in a Christmas tree light bulb, and powered them from a pp3 9v battery! Roll on 10 years, and they marketed the same idea! Only with LEDs instead of our tree light bulbs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon R Posted October 23, 2016 Report Share Posted October 23, 2016 I invented the kick proof door, many years ago, but my mate - Burnley Dave - talked me out of patenting it. He said that people would always want to keep a spare door for emergencies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keg Posted October 23, 2016 Report Share Posted October 23, 2016 I invented the kick proof door, many years ago, but my mate - Burnley Dave - talked me out of patenting it. He said that people would always want to keep a spare door for emergencies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twistedsanity Posted October 24, 2016 Report Share Posted October 24, 2016 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. Probably in prison for replicating an idea that was patented in 1958! http://www.google.co.uk/patents/US2841682 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herby Posted October 24, 2016 Report Share Posted October 24, 2016 Probably in prison for replicating an idea that was patented in 1958! http://www.google.co.uk/patents/US2841682 Not much gets past you!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamster Posted October 24, 2016 Report Share Posted October 24, 2016 (edited) In the late 70's a cousin of mine patented a self stabilising golf driver club, it had an extremely shallow V cut into the centre which made a marked difference in sending the ball straight and true. It cost him around £800 which he later found was useless as golf rules apparently prohibit such a thing, he tried to not pay the patent firm arguing they should have told him ! I tend to agree that it was my cousin who should have known. The same very mechanically minded cousin drilled a hole in the chamber of a Original 45 air gun and attached a thin tube running into another hole drilled in the body of a silencer on the end. The suction created by firing the gun reduced the blast quite noticeably (I was there and saw/heard it). I talked him out of taking it further as it was obvious by then that truly quiet guns and technology was on its way in the form of pneumatics and it of course looked ridiculous. Edited October 24, 2016 by Hamster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twistedsanity Posted October 24, 2016 Report Share Posted October 24, 2016 Not much gets past you!!Had a few run ins with patents, I developed an existing idea that was deemed unpatentable (splitting water Into oxygen and hydrogen) for fuel saving which is years old, a resident at the Canterbury university enterprise hub hijacked it, claimed it as his own, won a prize worth tens of thousands of pounds for his "innovative idea" then the university legal team helped him patent the unpatentable idea! Unbelievable really despite me providing them with signed written documents proving it was an idea he took from me. Funny thing was it didn't work for its intended use and the BBC even make a documentary about the entire farce called "university challenged" he went on to take about a million pound selling License's for this idea to various companies over the world using the universities credentials and even got invited to no 10 Downing st before it all fell apart and he did a runner, this was a few years back and last I heard the fraud squad were after him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herby Posted October 24, 2016 Report Share Posted October 24, 2016 Well that's karma I guess. I am just off the phone to a patent solicitor that wants £3-6000 to help me file my idea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adge Cutler Posted October 24, 2016 Report Share Posted October 24, 2016 (edited) 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 Back in the mid seventies some chap in a dishevelled state wandered into our office with a wheelbarrow. We had some land near Chippenham on the edge of the motorway and he wanted us to fund and build a factory for his products and offered our MD a business deal in return for finance. He thought the chap was a nutty professor so politely declined and sent him away with his wheel barrow. (which had a ball for a wheel!!) Our MD spent the next 25 years in a vacuum shall we say ! When I was a teen and drank in the Local Pub there was an old chap, Fred Murray who used to work with my Dad, he was a surviving hurricane pilot from the Battle of Britain and used to smoke a pipe and drink Pale ale and pink Gin. ( plus anything else that had alcohol content ) He introduced me to the joys of a good Bloody Mary. He told me one day how, as a pipe smoker, he had always used Swan Vestas matches and had recently written to them to suggest that they greatly reduce their manufacturing costs by just having one strip of sandpaper on the box rather than two. A couple of weeks later he received a nice letter and package back from Swan Vestas with a thank you letter, 5 years supply of pipe tobacco, and a big fat cheque. So when you pick up a box of Swan Vestas.. Think of Fred. The old groundsman at our cricket club near Fairford invented the first pigeon magnet, he tied two crows to the revolving arms of the rotary square watering machine and used to hide under the layed down side screens shooting crows as they came over and landed on the square, He based the idea on something he had seen in Africa during the second war to catch Birds of prey. The arms were galvanised steel pipe 1/2 ins diameter and 10 feet long with a spray nozzle on each end, mounted on a moveable cradle, It use to revolve by water pressure. Two weeks after he first used it with crows he tried it with pigeons which were hitting the laid wheat field opposite and it worked a treat. That was 1976. Edited October 24, 2016 by Adge Cutler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twistedsanity Posted October 24, 2016 Report Share Posted October 24, 2016 I heard a similar tale about colgate toothpaste, apparently someone got paid a lot of money for telling them about his idea to increase sales, they made the hole in the end wider so more came out when they squeezed the tube Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveboy Posted October 24, 2016 Report Share Posted October 24, 2016 I have an idea for a toilet seat that pulls your butt cheeks apart when having a poo (thus saving on loo roll) But I doubt the "Dragons" would be able to keep a straight face if you showed them it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herby Posted October 24, 2016 Report Share Posted October 24, 2016 Just imagine if you set it a little too eager Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyska Posted October 24, 2016 Report Share Posted October 24, 2016 I have an idea for a toilet seat that pulls your butt cheeks apart when having a poo (thus saving on loo roll) But I doubt the "Dragons" would be able to keep a straight face if you showed them it. Have you named it? 'CleanDrop' is catchy. A demonstration on the dragons den would be awesome to watch, just a having you wheeled out, straining and grunting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herby Posted October 24, 2016 Report Share Posted October 24, 2016 Clean drop is good. What about "Chocs away" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchman Posted October 24, 2016 Report Share Posted October 24, 2016 (edited) Clean drop is good. What about "Chocs away" "clear pass"..... ................or "the patented Snap shut"........or "the daisy catcher"........... Edited October 24, 2016 by ditchman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adge Cutler Posted October 24, 2016 Report Share Posted October 24, 2016 Toilet could work...There been some pretty crazy inventions over the years... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchman Posted October 24, 2016 Report Share Posted October 24, 2016 one of my favourites... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Bb Posted October 24, 2016 Report Share Posted October 24, 2016 one of my favourites... Oh Christ! Gin & tonic EVERYWHERE! Ditchy, you'll get this thread closed................. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garygreengrass Posted October 24, 2016 Report Share Posted October 24, 2016 one of my favourites... Brilliant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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