Glad you took no offense, Budz.
Yes, I have a great respect for the Russian people. I sometimes visit
http://rt.com/ Russia Today interesting some times.
^^^ Beez, got in while I was writing.
Mckdenton, this isn't a short answer, sorry.
Where did the name Pandora come from?
Definition 1 is the origin.
Though, I think you might say, 'the jar was predestined to be opened'.
Let's say, it's amusing that her curiosity is blamed.
[ I am into astronomy and the space program. I find something interesting on
http://www.spaceref.com/ nearly every day. It's not from there. ]
Back to definition 1, it points out that Pandora and the jar were sent, "to avenge Prometheus's theft of fire".
Early in the development of my stainless steel heat exchanger design I nearly failed. Stainless is tricky stuff (heat and flame don't work well (in a normal atmosphere)). The back story is in the PD experience thread. I nearly gave up.
Then a couple days later there was an epiphany. The 'trick' was a crossbar, that you see in our design, combined with a bottom flare and 'fin' washers (spring tension) and post tensioning the flare. Unique and new. And eliminating the need for welding or brazing in this style heat exchanger.
What about patents? Well, I have confronted that question before this. (another story)
Patents take money to obtain, long before any revenue is seen. And trying to defend a patent can take more money than it is worth in the long run. Patents are for the big guys, who are playing the game against other big guys who can't afford to not play fair. And the playing field is even more un-level now that China is our great ally. Rip-offs are tolerated, because there is no way to defend against the modern industrial espionage, unless, you are a huge corporation. Even those big boys, are finding that patents are worth nothing, if you have a player who doesn't play by the rules.
Side note: Stanley Kubrick made at least two of my 10 favorite movies.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is my favorite.
For those that don't know, it is about a doomsday device. Of course, the twist is, that nobody was told it existed.
Within the first few days after coming up with the crossbar - post tensioning - stainless steel design (BTW the radiating fins came much earlier in the design) I saw that this was vulnerable to copy cats. And of course I had no resources to obtain a Patent or defend it world-wide, never will.
That's when the idea of a doomsday device came about. The 'Pandora Plan' was from that time, and the name is too, about three days after the crossbar. The Pandora Plan eventually became the Pandora Kit a few months ago.
The idea was this, if I was copied (commercially) I would make my design public.
Hey, I have a Wife and dog, and bread ain't cheap...
So I make some money by doing the hard stuff (boring and metal work) that take special tools, and I gather and modify the materials, make sensible instructions, etc... But the DVD (build info) is out there and the design is out there, fully described now. You, or anyone, can build as many as you want, from scratch. Makes it an unlikely business investment when dozens can do the same tomorrow.
I never kept any secrets around here. If you read the PD Exp. thread someone says I did everything but provide an X-ray (or some similar comment). But a condensed, organized build plan was never given.
That's where the Pandora Kit name comes from. Shortly after I was copied (including the use of a picture of a Purple-Days Diffuser [which I turned and built right here] on
their commercial website) I released the PDP.
And for those who think I copied another before me... I improved on previous work, in many ways. That's good engineering. We aren't driving on Fred Flintstone's tires anymore. I'm not an engineer, but three years, at a real drafting table, sorta makes me think of things in that way. Improvement is not copying.