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CO2 manifolds, patents
Since some folks might be swayed by Earle's comments that cheap gang
airline valves "worked for him", I'll give a little more detail about the
time I tried this. I wanted to save a few bucks, so I hooked up
tank -> regulator -> needle valve -> cheapo gang valves
One problem: the tanks were not all at the same level. Result: the
pressure differential between the tanks caused bubbles to only come out
of ONE tank. What's worse, the line had a tendency to spontaneously
become a siphon from the upper tank!
Manifolds are easy to make. About as easy as you put together the
regulator->needle valve fitting. You can buy a little piece of swagelock
"Tee" costing a couple bucks, and voila! And as Karen points out, the
ARO valves are $13 a pop. Definitely worth it.
> From: Charley Bay <charleyb at hpgrla_gr.hp.com>
> Date: Tue, 3 Oct 95 10:15:46 MDT
> Subject: Re: Yet another plant tank design
[nifty tank idea deleted]
>
> [embarrassing part]:
> I've heard of people that come up with ideas, use them, and somebody
> else patents it, and the author can't use it anymore (the courts don't
> care who the author is). I really like this design, and have
> commercial plans. I don't care who uses it, I just want to be sure
> *I* can continue to use it (I don't want anybody to patent it and tell
> me I can't use it anymore). Is this an issue, or am I just paranoid?
Why not send a copy of your mail/ascii art directly to the patent office?
Actually, archived postings are amazing things. Through them, you can
clearly see, for instance, that Silverstein was the first one to try
yeast CO2 on the Net, and the Narten was the first one to "refine" it to
the coke-bottle-and-sugar approach that everyone seems to take credit for
now. :)
- Erik
---
Erik D. Olson I'm baaaack!
eriko at wrq_com (was olson at phys_washington.edu)