[Stoves] [biochar-policy] More on briquettes and pellets

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Otto

It is pretty clear from your many statements to this group that you feel a
large number of stoves are based on or directly copied from Paal's sheet
metal burners from Uganda. You are surely aware that nearly no one has seen
them.

It would be good if you learned enough about how these stove work to know
the combustion and operation principles that differentiate them. Paul
Anderson has done a creditable job trying to categorise the burning
principles of a number of stoves.  Reading some patents on stoves would be
one way to know what might be (or is) patentable about a new stove. It
sounds to me as if you feel people are patenting and re-patenting Paal's
burners. This is not the case.

Not everyone is capable of making their own stove, just as no one really
makes their own pots or matches or cell phones. But they have them.

If we are trying, as a group, only to promote products that individuals can
make (with or without tools) the selection will be pretty limited as would
life itself. We could replace cell phones with two cans and a string I
guess.

If the public is going to rely on volunteers only to do their designing,
training, testing, manufacturing and evaluation, we are consigning the whole
needy public into the hands of enthusiasts who, as experience has shown,
tend to promote what they thought of in ways they want it implemented. The
biochar craze is a perfect example.

I greatly respect the actions of the millions of volunteers who make this
work run better. I also do not begrudge those who work full time on these
marginalized problems and still manage to feed their children by earning a
living. There is nothing wrong with that.

Jock asked:
"So let me pose two questions:  Is it better to teach a person how to make a
stove or to sell them a stove?  Is it worth promoting independence and self
sufficiency?"

If the person can't make a decent low emissions stove, like most urban
people I know, then it is far better to sell them one when there is a
willing seller, willing buyer. Should we sell them steel to make the stove
or should they hammer their own sheets from iron ore? What does
self-sufficiency mean to the stove manufacturer in Kaolack whose production
is limited by the number of scrapped refrigerators he can find - his only
source of sheet metal? 

The secret to economic growth is specialisation and trade. No one is
self-sufficient save perhaps the San in the Kalahari. They can get by but
prefer steel arrow tips and fish hooks so they are voluntarily part of the
market economy.

In a refugee camp where there is nothing, training stove people to make a
stove quickly results in specialists developing talents at doing it better,
faster and cheaper than the masses. The same goes for knitting, weaving,
pottery and all sorts of things. 

If they invent something new they are entitled to patent it. It might look
similar but work differently and that is what an invention is. Patenting
something is easy - defending it in court is not. With stoves it is usually
not worth it because someone with money can tie you up in litigation as a
negotiating tactic. As we have seen for years with stoves, private companies
are not usually interested in developing new products to the point of going
to market unless they can get back the development money with some kind of
protection. 

Some unkind things have been said recently here about private companies
bringing stove products to market in a sustainable manner. Why should
spectacles, pots, watches, shoes, earrings, matches, knives, nails, sheet
metal and thousands of other products be brought to market in a sustainable
manner but not stoves? This makes no sense and smacks of extremism.

If Paal had patented his stove in the 80's, if it was patentable, it would
have expired by now. It is in the public domain and one can use it or
incorporate it into an more complex device. If it had been protected he
might have found private capital to bring it to a far wider market. We will
never know. I think he did the best he could and is still doing so, like
many others. 

A calmer tone would be appreciated all round.

Regards
Crispin