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 | Friday, November 6, 2009 at 7:50:40 mst
Comment ID: #1
Name: James
E-mail: james.adkins(at)marshall.edu
This reminds me of the inventor of the bullet proof vest. He was having trouble getting police departments and individual cops to purchase them even after seeing them stop a bullet while on a dummy. So he got in front of a group of cops with his vest on and shot himself point blank in the chest with a .357 magnum then spun around and used the gun to shoot at some bowling pins. This demonstrated that it would stop a very powerful pistol round and still allow the wearer to engage his attacker after being shot. After that he has sold millions of them.
The video is out there. If i can find it I'll post it unless someone beats me to it. |
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| Friday, November 6, 2009 at 8:35:08 mst
Comment ID: #2
Name: Shea Levy
"I personally think that it was unnecessary risk for the inventor to take."
What risk? Assuming that he did his job as inventor properly, he _knew_ that it would stop. From his context of knowledge, the "risk" was the same as the "risk" we face every day in, say, using a microwave: the risk that _somehow_ some _unknown_ factor never before observed might mysteriously cause harm. That's no risk at all. |
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| Friday, November 6, 2009 at 9:38:16 mst
Comment ID: #3
Name: Kyle Haight
E-mail: khaight(at)alumni.ucsd.edu
URL: http://www.leftist.org/haightspeech/
There is actually at least one historical parallel of an inventor placing his life in the hands of his invention: Elisha Otis, the inventor of the elevator safety brake. To demonstrate its effectiveness and reliability, he introduced his invention to the public by riding up an elevator equipped with it, then having the cable cut while he was several stories in the air. These demonstrations were so striking they effectively reset the public's perception of elevator safety and jump-started an entire industry. Without the safe elevators Otis made possible, later developments like the skyscraper would have been effectively impossible. |
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| Friday, November 6, 2009 at 10:44:11 mst
Comment ID: #4
Name: Mike Hardy
E-mail: (my last name) (at) math.umn.edu
On Oprah there appeared a man who had cut off one of his fingers with a power saw, and then had it regenerated by means of stem cells or something like that. His fingernail on the newly grown finger grew faster than those on his others. He explained that it was three years old and the others were 70 years old.
So I asked my dentist when they'd be doing that with teeth. He said it had already been done in a small number of cases, and that there was a complication: the new teeth didn't fit together right with the others since they didn't have the many years of wear.
Maybe with some patients they'll just regenerate all of the teeth, so that won't be a problem. |
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| Friday, November 6, 2009 at 12:11:26 mst
Comment ID: #5
Name: Dan G.
This very cool. But I've got to say it... Trust - Reason = Faith. Is it worth pointing this out when people use "faith" colloquially?
I think Jonas Salk did a similar thing with his polio vaccine.
As an inventor of a drug delivery device (electrically delivered nucleic acids into the cornea), I get asked "Would you do it to yourself?" all the time. I think that thinking about ones invention this way is appropriate, it is a gut check to make sure you know you've accomplished what you say you have. My device isn't ready enough for me to use it on myself, and accordingly, I haven't asked anyone else to use it. That said, even if an invention is risky/dangerous, the risk might be better than not using it. For instance, one of the drugs my device was designed around is for treating herpes keratitis (herpes in the eye), which can lead to the need for *repeated* corneal transplantation. The device carries with it the risk for mild burns, which would reasonably preclude me not using it on my completely healthy eyes, but it might be a worthwhile risk for someone under different circumstances. |
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| Friday, November 6, 2009 at 14:13:30 mst
Comment ID: #6
Name: James
E-mail: james.adkins(at)marshall.edu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIhyETXW1u0
I couldn't find just the video I remember, but here is a montage that contains that clip. The old video towards the end (the skinny guy) is the one I remember watching. Apparently he's still at it - the time stamp on the first clip is 2002. |
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| Friday, November 6, 2009 at 21:04:00 mst
Comment ID: #7
Name: Anthony
Okay, but:
* There was very little risk, and not just because he trusted his invention - many tests were conducted on the device before Mr. Gass put his finger near it, including real world scenarios where fingers were saved. And it's not like he shoved his finger into the blade like the hot dog demonstration (which likely would have caused a minor cut), he put it near the blade very slowly and carefully, and pulled it away as soon as he felt something.
* Sure, the risk was "unnecessary", but it was certainly beneficial to marketing his product. People engage in much more "unnecessary" risk every day when they drive to work (many of them even work in marketing).
* Mr. Gass has apparently been petitioning the US government to mandate the installation of his patented invention. (http://www.designnews.com/article/5897-Man_on_a_Mission.php) |
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| Friday, November 6, 2009 at 21:10:50 mst
Comment ID: #8
Name: Sajid
"There was very little risk, and not just because he trusted his invention - many tests were conducted on the device before Mr. Gass put his finger near it, including real world scenarios where fingers were saved."
Exactly. They probably used animals and cadaver parts to make absolutely sure that the device functions exactly as it should. After that its not about risk, just knowing that it is a fact of reality that the machine will not fail.
What I am interested in is how sensitive this device is. It seems the machine seizes up and destroys itself almost immediately after sensing a finger. But what if the wood has a defect in it (like a wet spot or a nail lying on top or something) and the conductivity suddenly spikes? Does the machine work too well? Well I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. |
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| Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 10:32:37 mst
Comment ID: #9
Name: Ryan M
"What I am interested in is how sensitive this device is. "
There is a FAQ on the SawStop website which explains what materials can or cannot be cut. |
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| Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 10:51:25 mst
Comment ID: #10
Name: pdr
E-mail: pdr(at)yahoo.com
Gosh - not just Hank Rearden and Dagny Taggart! What about Tony Stark when he displayed enough confidence in his judgment and workmanship to jet around in his first series of armour? Or Reed Richards displaying confidence in himself when he invents a new weapon to battle Galactus with thus saving all of mankind from the planet-eater?
History is filled with real-life examples of real people who had confidence in themselves and their new invention to try them out themselves. The Wright brothers flying their new plane. Or jacques-etienne and joseph-michel montgolfier who invented the hot air balloon. Or Chuck Yeager who was the first to break the speed of sound in a jet?
Literary characters (thus, imaginary characters) are brave or confident only because their authors wrote them that way. Real people are confident or courageous because they choose to be. |
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| Wednesday, November 11, 2009 at 18:35:30 mst
Comment ID: #11
Name: Obsequiosity
E-mail: obsequoisity(at)yahoo.com
SawStop's been out for a couple of years. Sounds like the hot dog demonstration is losing its wow factor at the trade shows so they're kicking it up a notch.
What's neat is to read the reviews in all the woodworking magazines. It's not enough to prevent accidental amputation and package that into a lousy saw. They had to go out of their way to put a straight rip fence that stays parallel, cast iron table that stays flat, etc. Because if it builds a crooked cabinet, most hobbyist will just keep their fingers off the saw blade.
--Obs, In my experience, the table saw brake is a nice thing, but the tools that are going to cause injury are band saws and routers. Something about a ten inch saw blade makes you respect it, but a 1/4" band saw blade, you'll get right up next to it without thinking about it. |
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