Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Steve Byrne
Trad climber
Flagstaff, AZ
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 21, 2012 - 10:42am PT
|
The "Zebra Seam", got bolted? Who decided that was ok? I don't care. It's just so lame from the standpoint of tradition, that I'm actually surprised. As for my climbing it... I had it so wired before I led it, it was ridiculous. It should have just stayed a top rope problem, but I wanted the bonus point!
|
|
couchmaster
climber
pdx
|
|
|
Feb 21, 2012 - 11:19am PT
|
Sorry, didn't mean to make your narrative take a hard left turn Steve. I don't know the history of those extra new bolts .....but it is Smith. I looked it up on MP and that has it listed at 5.11d now. They curiously list Alan as FFA (TR) and you as the "FL" (does that mean First Lead??) and note the 8 bolts but don't say who or when they arrived, but that you did it without them.
http://www.mountainproject.com/v/zebra-seam/105804292
NOW! Back to the narrative and the foot amputations about to be.....what a great tale you are telling.
|
|
Steve Byrne
Trad climber
Flagstaff, AZ
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 21, 2012 - 02:11pm PT
|
Well, I guess it would be later that morning when I woke up, the sun was out and it was getting warm. I just layed there for a long time... probably until afternoon.
The spare, fourth rope had snagged on something and was the reason I couldn't haul. I unclipped it from my haul bag and dropped the end without even watching. Problem solved. I packed up and rapped back down to the last belay and got into cleaning mode. I coiled the third rope and climbed with it hanging from a sling below me. If I had any more problems hauling I was probably going to cut the bag loose and I wanted to make sure I had the needed ropes for the rappells off the top.
On top, I guess I celebrated (not that I had saved anything... ran out at p13). I should have gotten busy, but it's hard to do that sometimes. How bad could it possibly be getting down? I divided my stuff between what I was going to leave on top (canned food and water), what I was going to drop off the top and what I was going to carry down. I rearranged the haul bag so it had the empty water bottles on the bottom, then intermingled sleeping pad, bags and gear, with the pins and hammers on the bottom and more fragile stuff as you went up. I put everything in that I was allowed to drop and carried it up to the diving board.
It's hard to imagine a path off the edge of a 3,000 foot cliff that looked worn, but there it was. All of El Cap's base jumping history that I knew of had funneled down this little ramp. It's the perfect launch point. I'm guessing it slopes down about 20 degrees and is about ten feet from standing there to flying down the cliff. Three or four steps... I imagine for a moment and caught myself leaning forward in my mind. Yeeee! Those guys have some Balls!
I setup the bag as instructed, with an aider hooked to each corner of the rain fly and to the top of the bag forming a parachute. Then I scooched the bag down to the edge, gave it a push with my feet and it was gone. I never looked down from the top. I was still pretty gripped from the night before and finally got focussed on getting down. The snow on top had melted back from the edge a bit and so far, wasn't a problem up high.
Below the top of Mescalito was another story. I still had two ropes, the porta-ledge, ghetto blaster and all the special gear like friends, TCU's and Jumars. Maybe that's not a heavy pack for some guy's, but I was now down to 120 pounds and struggling hard. The snow was at that perfect point where you could almost stay on top of it, but every few steps, I'd "post hole" through and it would take several more hard steps to get back on top, and then again. Several times I had fallen over and had to take the pack off to get back up. Finally, I reached the top of the rappells very late in the afternoon. For anyone unfamiliar with El Capitan, the standard decent route is off the top to the right. The top slants down in that direction, and the base angles up, to a point where three long rappells will get you down.
The first and second rappells were uneventful, but slow from wet ropes. Then when I tried to pull the ropes after the second rappell nothing moved. A better grip confirmed my worst fear. My body weight wasn't moving the ropes. I started to worry and to think... "What do I have with me?"... Jumars, but no aiders, portaledge, but no sleeping gear... no rain fly = no shelter. "Oh God! Not this again!!!"
|
|
Steve Byrne
Trad climber
Flagstaff, AZ
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 21, 2012 - 06:01pm PT
|
This time I was mid face, not even on a route and it was almost dark. Not a good place to be stranded. I tried to think of how to use the jumars to help somehow. I put them on as handles to pull on the rope with, then clipped into one and sat on it. Still nothing. Ithought maybe if I sat on it and lifted and whipped the other end, maybe it would go... still nothing. I only had one more possibility, I climbed up a few feet and tied a knot in the line and clipped into it then I climbed up a few more feet and let go, dropping onto the end of the rope I got nothing but rope stretch down to the ledge... I screamed out "Noooooo!" and then suddenly felt something. Not much, but maybe... I clipped into the jumars and tried it again. It was moving... just and inch or so at a time, but that was big. Each thrust moved the rope a little further than the last... Finally the rope pulled free and cascaded around me. Oh, yes! I was getting down.
I arrived at the bottom of the last rappell a little while after dark. I clipped on a little fanny pack with some candy in it and headed downhill. I left my pack right there and didn't even bother trying to pull ropes. I'd deal with everything in the morning.
Normally, I think the hike out takes 1/2 an hour, I did it in three. It was very dark with very obscure shadow and lighter areas where bare white granite was exposed. I was headed down some kind of gully and occasionally found myself on top of boulders or ledges I had to feel my way off of. I fell many times, but I didn't care. I'd stopped trying to catch myself and took most of them on my knees or hips. Sometimes I cried a little, it was so frustrating to just not know what was around me. Once, sliding down off a boulder, I was airborne for a moment. I thought I might have blown it, but hit something quick enough and kind of just rolled with it. Finally, I was walking through trees. I had no idea where the trail was and didn't care. Then there was road noise... headlights, the road, finally my car. I thought "God, I hope it starts". I gave it a fifty-fifty chance, but it came through. I was back down and sitting in my car. Unbelievable.
My plan was to head back to Camp IV and crash in the bathroom. There was some heat in there, so it would be a hell of a lot better than last night. I would have slept somewhere in my car, but with no sleeping bags I was choosing the shitters instead. Then I figured I ought to tell my folks what was up, so I headed over to the lodge to use a phone.
They said they had wondered what was up, since we usually talked about once a week. I told them a few very broad strokes and they asked where I was sleeping. I told them and they suggested that they could put a lodge room on the credit card. I said "Ok. That actually sounds really good!" I hadn't even hoped for that option. It was wonderful.
Back in the room I showered and looked in the mirror. There was no fat on me. I looked scary. It wasn't me, it was some skinny charicature of me. I put on fresh clothes, turned on the tv and went for a snack from the machine.
At 2:00 am I woke up. My hands were burning. I put them under cool water in the sink and it helped. Over the next few days they dried out and started peeling badly, I assume from the cold rappel. I eventually went back to sleep. My break from insomnia was over.
That morning, I got to be the star at Camp IV and it felt soo good! First, I got marched over to the gym for a weigh in (120 lb, 0 Oz.). I had lost ten pounds. Then it was back to the parking lot for debriefing. Someone had found my big stash bag at the base and brought it to me. I showed them the ball-nut, which had been very useful, my new hat and glove, and told them my story. Werner was there and Ron Kauk, two of my heroes, and they were praising me. It was a great moment for me, possibly my very best moment. Then it was off to the cafeteria, where I easily skarfed down a double breakfast. One of the guys hiked to the rappells with me and helped me carry my stuff down. When I found my haul bag it was pretty close to where it all started, but laying over with the rainfly draped over it.
I liked to drive at night, but didn't make it. Barstow found me with a bad alternator and another benighting in my car. These days, that would bother me. Back then it was almost expected. I finally parted company with the Audi on the dirt road leading south from the Dragoons following another Beanfest. It had been plagued with electrical problems and I finally concluded that it was cursed. I loved that car... We had some great times. I thought about it for a moment, and by the time I had coasted to a stop, I knew what was going to happen. I remember glancing in the rearview mirror as I rode away in a friends truck... that dumb headlight look.
Finally arriving back at the Wired Bliss shop, I was greeted by a nice welcome home banner and then a very worried girlfriend. It was finally, really, over.
|
|
steelmnkey
climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
|
|
|
Feb 21, 2012 - 06:27pm PT
|
Awesome!
|
|
mucci
Trad climber
The pitch of Bagalaar above you
|
|
|
Feb 21, 2012 - 07:36pm PT
|
One of the best running stories ever.
Thanks again Steve!
|
|
michaeld
Sport climber
Sacramento
|
|
|
Feb 21, 2012 - 08:51pm PT
|
So awesome!
|
|
R.B.
Trad climber
47N 122W
|
|
|
Feb 21, 2012 - 09:11pm PT
|
Great story Steve;
I especially like how your parents and all your climbing friends came thru for you at the end, I bet that felt great.
When Todd Applewhite and I were doing an attempt on Mescalito in 1988, I came upon a fixed tcu on pitch 4(?); It was one of your 3/4 units from your solo-ascent.
You certainly earned big-time respect and bragging rights for your bold "first" el cap route. You did good. I always wondered about how that went for you. Thanks for sharing the story.
I remember my first el cap route had multiple epics; It is amazing how vivid your memory is about the ascent; but I remember my first el cap route (the nose, with Dan Nguyen in '83) and about how many times I almost bought the farm myself.
Take care, Thanks for the memories. RB
|
|
dee ee
Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
|
|
|
Feb 21, 2012 - 10:05pm PT
|
Great story!
|
|
Russ Walling
Gym climber
Poofter's Froth, Wyoming
|
|
|
Feb 21, 2012 - 10:06pm PT
|
Nine thumbs up! Great stuff Steve!
|
|
Scrubber
climber
Straight outta Squampton
|
|
|
Feb 21, 2012 - 10:54pm PT
|
Another hearty thanks for the great stories about life, business, and climbing.I sure love the couple Wire Bliss tcu's I have on my rack. I bootied both of them over the years, but the damn things just won't die. Quality craftsmanship.
|
|
Steve Byrne
Trad climber
Flagstaff, AZ
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 22, 2012 - 06:45am PT
|
Back in Flag, I got busy on the Ball prototypes and we did some big friends.
The big friend were 5.5" and 7". One of the previous pics shows a 5.5". If anyone has a 7" and doesn't use it... I would love to find one for the Nut Museum. We can negotiate.
The Ball was a fun project and I found a way of laying the cable next to a piece of steel and soldering it on without drilling a hole. It allowed a ball nut to be made that was as thin as the cable itself. It was tricky and I don't know if the manufacturers down the road ever made it work. I had it in my mind somehow that the Ball nuts should cost about $20, but was a bit worried about the production aspects. There were more skilled steps and scrap points further down the process.
I also didn't want to get screwed again, so I met with a patent lawyer and started the patent process. My lawyer was excited to be working on the project for me. At this point I was 24 years old and his youngest client by ten years or so.
I had made a couple of novelties. One was a double sided Ball nut with the split ball halves on the outside. I told my lawyer all the configurations I thought were useful and he added one or two himself. This is standard practice when writing patents and I think is what got me into trouble with Deucie a little while later.
Patent lawyers are really good at defining what the invention actually is and getting all aspects of that covered. They take it apart, flip it upside down, put two back to back, then two side by side, and try to make sure that all foreseeable modifications are covered. I didn't write the claims in the patent, but the two aspects that were novel, were the Grooved ramp (from John) and the split ball (from me). When the options were explored, one of them was two split ball units placed together, upside down and pulling on the Ball. This is essentially the "Monkey Paw", an invention of John's that came after the patent was filed, but before it issued.
The Monkey Paw is a really cool thing. A whole ball was in the center and it had two gooved ramps that interfaced with the rock. There was no differential friction needed with the rock, and they won't get stuck like a ball could. Back in the car coming from Vegas we didn't explore that possibility and I wish we had. I think it was what John was looking for all along. What John had suggested that day in the car, had a whole ball actually touching the rock. At that point it wasn't quite useful. In retrospect, from that seed there were two ways of making it work. One was to cut the ball, making it thinner and the other was to pad it with another grooved wedge making it fatter.
I had never conceived of it myself. I was focussed on making the super thin ones, but It got written into the patent. I don't think John and I ever talked about the patent, and definitely not about the claims. At the time he was very generous and gave me an "all yours" kind of feeling. We were best friends, or very close to that. He was busy setting up A-5 and making big wall hammers and other big wall specialties. Gradually our interests drifted in separate directions. Women became an issue between us a little later and our relationship became very strained. I think for a long time, John may have thought I claimed more in the patent than I should have, and that I did it to take away his idea. That was never the case.
My wrist also became increasingly symptomatic (a problem) and I had plateaued in my climbing skill. I made it up a couple of more things on my list... Sail Away, which turned out to be a boulder problem, and Gunsmoke, at Granite mountain, which turned out to be just contrived and dangerous. I was done free soloing also. It had been fun, but you can't do that forever, or forever will get kind of short. I was losing motivation to climb and was increasingly distracted by other things. Dirt biking, mountain biking, kayaking and skiing were all on the agenda.
I wasn't done climbing completely, but it was fading. Hard climbs had stopped feeding my ego and the fun stuff was getting boring if I roped up. I considered doing another wall... Maybe something in the Black Canyon or be bold again and go do Cerro Torre? No, I just couldn't get motivated. The wall was a great experience, but it was more work than fun and not how I wanted to spend my life. I'd be doing it for my ego and was starting to understand all the stuff I had done for my ego.
We started selling the Ball nuts in three sizes ranging from 1/8" to 1/2". The smallest ones we sold were the orange ones (1/8" to 1/4") and they feature the new soldering method. I don't think later manufacturers ever got that small which is a shame. Those orange ones must be highly coveted, assuming any survived. I made a smaller one (3/32"), which would be good for aid only.
Being called an inventor is something a lot of people seem to covet. I used to like it too, but inventing is such a short little mental step compared to the rest of the work that it shouldn't be the label used. The guy who usually gets credit is the guy at the end of the line who finally spits out a useful product, not necessarily the guy with the most novel concept. This leads to endless disputes and is the kind of thing that makes a lawyer drool out loud.
In the case of the "Friend", for example:
Cams were used to extract oil drilling pipe from wells (1897?). The thing looked like a friend for a round hole. Abolokov (Russian) makes some cams for climbing that work, but aren't terribly useful and it's way too early for a climbing market (1947?). Greg Lowe comes along and puts a spring on it, almost making it useful. Then, finally Ray Jardine sculpts it into a useful, marketable product and gets sole credit and royalties for the invention. Greg Lowe was pissed, and their argument sets the stage for the explosion that was to come.
|
|
Steve Byrne
Trad climber
Flagstaff, AZ
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 22, 2012 - 07:58am PT
|
Capitalism is a bad answer for an economic system. It's like saying unequal is fair, and then you have to define a fair way to distribute things unequally. In the case of inventions it's the patent system. This is such a complicated legal and administrative process that it can't efficiently do the job anymore. Patents are expensive because they are complicated and they are a legal product, but the patent itself is the cheap part. The real expenses come when you have to defend your patent in court. I don't know what the numbers are now, but in 1985 I was told it would cost a minimum of $50k to bring an infringement case to court, About as much as I ever made selling TCU's.
The TCU was a ripoff of the friend. It was totally covered by the friend patent. I think everyone making cams back then got a "cease and desist" letter from Ray Jardine's Lawyer and we all ignored them. Had Ray come and talked to me I would have paid a royalty, but that wasn't being offered. Jardine's mistake was not making small friends early on, and creating a void that needed filling. It became apparent that Lowe was letting it go with Wild Country. I'm sure most of us figured if Lowe can't afford to sue Wild Country, He's certainly not going to bother suing me, and neither is Wild Country.
Doug Phillips must have known this in 1984, but maybe not. By 1987 there were 5 companies making TCU's and I was flattered by all of them except Doug. In his case, he had been my friend, or at least pretended, and then misled me. I would have been happy to stay in Oregon and split the TCU with Doug, but he wasn't giving me that option.
I think what happened, was that after I had left, he received a request for 150 TCU's from Japan and got greedy. Maybe he figured he would just do the 150 or just sell to the Japanese?... but then, you can't tool up and make that many of them without people noticing. They ask questions and you come up with your best excuse. "We worked together on it". Come on Doug... How does that happen? I took an hour to make the first one and the basic design never changed. I did it in his shop though, and more importantly I had moved away. Apparently, throwing me under the bus (trade friend for money) was a viable option. In the end it has put him into the 1% and I have nothing from it now, but this story and a few souvenirs. Such is life. Well played, Doug.
For a time I thought the Ball would help Wired Bliss compete and regain our due credibility. Then I got a call from Greg Lowe, who had seen a Ball nut at the store in Boulder and really liked it. He talked a good story, flew me up to meet with him and told me how big this was going to be. We toured a machine shop they used and he talked about production methods. It all sounded good, and I was worried about ramping up with all the tricky procedures. I decided licensing to Lowe would be the best thing for the Balls and for me. Wired Bliss would be what it was.
My patent lawyer wrote up the license agreement, structured in such a way that I would get $26k up front and I would pay for patents in the U.S., Canada and the European group. After paying for the patents, I would have about $10k to play with and at a maximum would wait another 5 years before getting more royalties.
It turned out I wasn't done getting pooped on. My patent lawyer got a job at honeywell and left me with his partner, who was less enthusiastic and charged me much higher numbers than what I was unofficially quoted (and had based the license agreement on). The other thing was that Lowe sold his business to a british company with little interest in climbing hardware. I think Greg was just bolstering the company's portfolio and had no real intention of making Balls himself. No mention was ever made of a possible sale of the company and the news was a big surprise when it came. The result was a very feeble effort to produce and market them.
|
|
Steve Byrne
Trad climber
Flagstaff, AZ
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 22, 2012 - 12:30pm PT
|
There were some positive things... The license agreement allowed me to move into a house with roomates. The reduced Wired Bliss, was moved into the garage, and I enrolled in classes to continue work on my engineering degree. Most of the employees had finished school or gone on to other things, but a few stuck around for several years. Alan Humphries had been my best employee ever, and was really running the business for me.
John Sherman (Vermin) came to town and rented a room at the house. We biked a lot together, played a lot of Scrabble and climbed a little bit. He was into bouldering and I couldn't touch anything he found even interesting. I was more focussed on motocross and desert racing and wasn't climbing much anymore.
When I did go climbing, there were too many reminders. I've lived hand to mouth for most of my life and seeing Metolius TCU's on people's racks was always very painful. When I realized that his established name, Oregon base, $50k, business degree and deception had beaten my naivete', climbing focus, $10k and ideas... I became bitter.
I had given up on trying to compete. I moved to another house with a lesser garage and Alan moved Wired Bliss back into a small warehouse. When Alan was finally ready to move on I sold the business to Tony Crosby for $3k. He had it a short time and then it was sold to Mike Clifton and Jim Babbitt. They pumped some money into it for a while, but it didn't do well enough to keep going, and then Gene Hacker took over for a while. It is currently revived by Michael McGuinn in Loveland, Colorado.
I feel bad for not trying to help the various owners or popping in more to say hi. It's been a real mixed bag. For a long time I just tried to forget.
I finished School and went to work at a medical products company. After a year I got onto a project trying to make a product to treat diabetes. It would have made many lives much better if it worked. We had difficulties and so did other companies trying to solve the same problem. A certain competitor published a paper on a trial they had done with semi-encouraging results. The reaction on our end was a meeting to gather all patentable material that we might be able to use to impeed our competitors progress. I was in disbelief, because I thought the point was to help these people, but it was all about the money and who might control the market. If not us , then nobody. In the end the project failed and a bunch of technology got buried. Diabetics didn't benefit, and everything invested was lost. I quit that job after 5 years. Future jobs met similar fates for differing reasons.
I hate that the Ball patent stopped the Monkey Paw (and its patent) and I wish it had been produced in spite of it. I never said that to John, because we were already at odds by then, and the patent wasn't mine anymore. I think the recognition and royalties aspect would have been disappointing. It's probably easier for me to say that, because I got out before climbing got big and my standing in the community was therefore irrelevant. I feel very sad that it may have changed his outlook on anything. Since then he's gone to Harvard and done a lot of impressive, higher level engineering work.
My own pattern has been to go to work for some company for five years and then spend a year trying to start a business, run out of money, then repeat the process. I come up with something decent every couple of years, but I have some pieces missing to put it all together. I hate sales and marketing and tend to bog down when I get to that point. I also get overly focussed on infrastructure. It's a reaction from not being able to keep up at Wired Bliss. The biggest problem is always running out of money.
At this point there probably aren't any more engineering jobs left for me, at least not around Flagstaff, My last five year stint was installing Directv. When the recession hit, my boss quit her business and I've been back in development mode. Last spring I was broke again, but found a key source for one of my easiest products, so I invested our tax refund in my current business, "ByrneOs". I make a tool for the dirt bike market that's going over pretty well. I can't afford to go full on wholesale yet so I mostly sell direct from my website so far. Perhaps the deja-vu from that, is why I started writing this.
The big lesson for me from all of this is that greed and vanity rip people apart, and capitalism fuels it. It's heartbreaking to realize that we can't really share anything anymore. In place of trust, we need non-disclosure agreements and contracts and patents. The system we have hinders creativity and makes it a lawyers game. Someone might get wealthy from time to time. It's just not very often that it's actually the inventor(s).
When someone asks me what I do, I tell them I'm an engineer. If we talk long enough I'll let on that I invent things sometimes. I hate the word "inventor". A lot of people think of "Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang", and crackpots making candy trombones or something and risking everything to get rich. It's not like that... Most of the stuff I come up with, should already be out there and the reason I do it is because I simply can't buy what I want. I can list a few places where industry has missed the target... Wood stove tools, snowboard bindings, wrist guards for skateboarders, orthopedic cast ventilators, computer desks, ambulation therapy, child carriers and a few others. As I go along there will be many more.
If I make it once there will be a cascade of new products. Maybe that's the idea, and success at 22 would have been a mistake. I can't regret too much yet. There are too many years left and I plan to make good use of them. I'm 49 and have two kids now, Lauren (5) and Quentin (3) and a sweet, beautiful wife.
I also have a particular "dream project" I want to share. It's going to be awesome... but it may not be patentable.
Any takers?
|
|
Gunkie
Trad climber
East Coast US
|
|
|
Feb 22, 2012 - 12:49pm PT
|
One word: Awesome
Thanks for sharing!
Me: Patent # 6622978 with other inventions pending (ha ha ha ha)
|
|
Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
|
|
|
Feb 22, 2012 - 02:25pm PT
|
Thanks Steve. a great narrative, and it if filled in a lot of the gaps I've wondered about for years, now.
|
|
Jonnnyyyzzz
Trad climber
San Diego,CA
|
|
|
Feb 22, 2012 - 03:19pm PT
|
Steve I've really enjoyed this thread. Great story's and reflections.
My own pattern has been to go to work for some company for five years and then spend a year trying to start a business, run out of money, then repeat the process. I come up with something decent every couple of years, but I have some pieces missing to put it all together. I hate sales and marketing and tend to bog down when I get to that point.
I can relate to this as I could have written those words my self. I have two pattens and have shared similar struggles being out of my element when trying to market and sell my product. I keep coming up with stuff though and maybe someday we'll both get one of them to take off for us.
Best of luck, Jon
|
|
Steve Byrne
Trad climber
Flagstaff, AZ
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 22, 2012 - 04:14pm PT
|
Thanks all, it was good for me to do this. This was from memory. Part way through, nutstory (Stephane Pennequin) sent me the pic with the tree and that night all flooded back.
If anyone knows anyone who has one of our (Wired Bliss) #7 big friends, I'm trying to get one for his museum and will pay well for it.
There's another thing I made and gave to the general manager at Choinard, when I met with them. This would have been late 1987? Anyway's, it was a TCAU (Three-Cam-Alot-Unit), and I only made one. It had the double axles etc., but in a TCU format, 1 1/2 friend size. I'd love to track that puppy down and get it to Stephane as well. It was very trick.
Thanks again,
Steve Byrne
|
|
Steve Byrne
Trad climber
Flagstaff, AZ
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 23, 2012 - 09:11pm PT
|
There are a few on the "Anyone remember Wired Bliss?" thread from a while ago, but I'm afraid I don't have any new ones.
|
|
deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
|
|
|
Feb 27, 2012 - 10:47pm PT
|
{EDIT--Major Snip]
I had originally posted some email correspondence here between Steve and myself, which highlighted our differences of what transpired between us, but doing so was unfair to Steve, and I apologise.
I've had a think about it, and I concede: Steve deserves credit for bringing the ball nut to reality. I helped with the original concept, but Steve did all the work, and made it happen. Steve, if you're reading this, I'm sorry about harbouring resentment all these years, and I hope you'll forgive me. I forgive you too, and I'm sorry this all came between us. Ideas can be powerful and dangerous, and it was my doings that made this one more so.
I'd like to fill in some blanks on how the concept originated:
The origins of the ball nut came from the desire to create a nut that could adjust for both top-and-bottom flares, and side-to-side taper flares. At the time, there was the Metolius Slider, the Rock-N-Roller, and Don Best's Quickies. In Yosemite, the Don Best Quickies were the preferred nut of choice. I took to studying why, and it became clear to me that the way the small nut on the Quickies sometimes rotated on the main nut allowed the essential side-to-side taper to alter slightly, so the nut fit more securely in cracks that were horizontally tapered. In other words, adjustable nuts at that time were designed for vertically parallel cracks, but real cracks have both up and down taper, and side to side taper. I set about designing a nut that could specifically adjust for both, and came up with the ball and cylindrically grooved wedge design. This concept of a nut that could adjust for flares in both directions, and the specific design of a ball and grooved wedge, were the ideas I brought to the table, and shared with Steve. I had pages and pages of notes, some showing designs that were similar in function to the half-ball (examples below), but in the end, my mistake was not showing Steve all the thoughts I had developed. I had only described my thoughts to him, which did not provide a complete picture of what I was thinking, and also I did not clarify my interest in the development (until it was too late), as he mentions here.
In the end, Steve came up with his own solution, made the first working prototypes, and made it work.
The bright side of all this is that it has really clarified to me how two friends can share ideas--I think there are three levels:
1. The category (e.g. an adjustable nut).
2. The concept (e.g. an adjustable nut which can adjust for both up-and-down flares, and side-to-side flares).
3. Potential designs (e.g. a written description and isometric sketches illustrating the idea in detail).
Certainly, care should be taken when sharing this third level, as without a clear way for both minds to acknowledge the source of the designs, there can be trouble and misunderstandings as Steve and I experienced.
To minimise conflict, each person perhaps could document their thoughts in a provisional patent sort of way, then ask the other to sign non-disclosures, or some similar sort of acknowledgement. If the other also has ideas related to the concept, then the discussion of how to share any eventual fruits of the idea can take place very soon thereafter.
Not really sure how this can be implemented in practice, outside of an actual business partnership, but perhaps ideally, I think there could be a way to do it. Perhaps inventive people could form an alliance and set up their own internal idea "patent agency" so the ideas within the alliance have some documentation.
I've never really seen any value from actual patents--they are expensive, take years to become approved, and are a struggle to maintain. My philosophy at A5 was to just out-innovate the copiers, which kept us slightly ahead of the curve, and I think the energy spent innovating new stuff is better spent than energy preparing and defending a patent, so it would be good to create a system so like-minded innovators could work together collaboratively.
I'm really rambling now, but coincidentally, prior to Steve's story and all the old wounds getting exposed, I had been thinking of exactly how what happened with the ball nut could be prevented in the future.
I hope this experience can provide some value to the small-business innovators out there.
Cheers
John Middendorf
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!