[Stoves] Disapprovals about being too closed. Re: Air supply in TLUDs

[Anand Karve]

Dear Paul,
I agree with you. We have had the same experience with stoves as well as
with biogas plants. People having loads of money use our technology and
knowledge, but after they have patented their own designs, which are based
on ours, they claim quite openly that the entire technology was developed by
them. We have to accept this as a fact of life, because we just don't have
the money to fight legal battles or to place costly advertisements in the
media.
The obvious question that people ask is, why we didn't patent our design to
begin with. Well, firstly we don't have the money even to  patent our
own design, and secondly, if somebody really wants to steal our idea, he can
modify the design to look sufficiently different from ours, so that in a
court of law, he can always claim that it was different from our patented
design.
Yours
A.D.Karve

On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 3:09 AM, <psanders at ilstu.edu> wrote:

> Dear Otto, Dean, and all Stovers,
>
> I take issue with one statement by Otto, who wrote about Aprovecho's
> efforts:
>
> Good advice:
>> Leave it to others to test and tune the TLUD ND Gasifier Units,
>> please....................
>>
>
> I disagree.  We (the Stover community) need everyone working on these
> issues.  And Dean at Aprovecho has great facilities for doing testing of
> emissions.  Dean, keep up the good work!!
>
> Having said that, I now take issue with Dean and the apparent Aprovecho
> approach which is:
>
> 1.  Not providing all of the information that the others want to have about
> what testing is going on with the TLUD stoves.
>
> 2.  At Aprovecho, not involving to any noticable extent any of the pioneers
> or other experienced advocates of the TLUD stoves.
>
> 3.  Having made a major shift of direction from many years of "polite
> tolerance of TLUD gasifiers" to very recent "strong advocacy of TLUD
> gasifiers with bias toward Aprovecho recent initiatives."  EVERYONE is most
> welcome to get onto the TLUD bandwagon, but let's not get into "private"
> separate bandwagons.
>
> Comments:
>
> Sure, everyone is chasing the money.  The money for stoves has been so
> sparse in the past, and it now looks to be like major piles of funds could
> come to some participants, especially those with a tradition of being the
> advisors of the funding sources or recipients of grants in the past.
>
> I commend Aprovecho for its leadership and contacts in the past.  But not
> if it takes a self-serving approach at the expense of those who have
> cumulative decades of experience.  Is Aprovecho trying to enter the big-time
> with corporate approaches to the stoves problems?
>
> And while I am at it, why not "prickle" the entire "corporate world
> approach."  The major work by First Energy India (former BP project) and the
> Philips efforts got mentioned in the recent article by Kirk Smith as if they
> were the only serious accomplishments with the most modern stoves.  Those
> cooporations have thrown major money (millions of dollars) to have products
> that now can attract Dr. Smith's attention.
>
> But those corporate efforts have SHARED NOTHING  with the rest of us.  No
> info about emissions levels, no cross-fertilization with others.  "Do it
> alone or do not do it at all" seems to be too closed, in my opinion.
>
> And does that apply to others such as Stove Tech, Enviro-fit, World Stove,
> and any others?  They all seem to be determined to do it all in isolation,
> keeping everything to themselves.   (Some exceptions like giving away
> tid-bits of designs or info does not equate to openness, but is good
> salemanship.)
>
> Is that the way to do business to benefit the poorest of the poor and even
> the moderately poor?  Perhaps it is, or so it seems to be in the capitalist
> model of stove work that is getting the attention.
>
> However, the world arrived at its 2009 state of TLUD knowledge almost
> entirely by the efforts of dedicated individuals primarily on personally
> donated time and materials or as side-efforts to their main employment.  Not
> one of those person is yet deceased, and all are still willing -- and highly
> capable -- to donate and contribute to accomplish their dreams.  But there
> are limits, especially when exclusion is stronger than inclusion.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Paul
> "Dr. TLUD"
>
>
>
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