Posted by John Collins (194.164.38.60) on May 09, 2003 at 00:38:40:
In response to Nick's suggstion that a verification service might be provided, I'd be pleased to verify any claims for a gravity-wheel (I'm with Vector on this, I always liked the simplicity of the term "gravity-wheel").
Whoever verifies needs some protection such as creditable NDA. I have signed a number of them in the past in order to comment on designs offered to me and have had to state that if the situation arose where a design proffered to me was the same as one I was working on at the time, I would retain ownership of my design. Whoever was first with a working model would take precedent. That situation however rare it might seem, is a tricky one because the there has to be a certain amount of unsubstantiated trust by the 'profferer'. The area of trust lies in the 'profferer' trusting me not to make use of his design and build a working model first. However if he should decide to try to patent his design before he had a working model,it might cause me difficulties if my design then worked and I tried to patent it. So there needs to be trust on both sides.
As far as verification goes that problem does not arise - as long as the machine works as a true gravity-wheel or perhaps a hybrid gravity-wheel, the working model is there for all to see, and I would not wish to try to pre-empt his patent application.
John Collins