Reverse osmosis
publication date: Feb 1, 2009
I enjoy watching Dragons' Den, the BBC programme where those asking for money for their businesses or inventions are cross-examined by potential investors. Very often the supplicants are poorly prepared with facts and figures, and the resulting mauling they get from the infuriated millionaires is entertaining.
I recently was reminded of an invention by a repeated episode. It was from Series 5, and had originally been shown in December 2007. The invention was called ROSS, and was explained by two student inventors from Edinburgh University, Amanda and James.
It was emphasized that it was a low-technology invention that would assist the Third World where often the only available water needs to be purified. Water is placed in a wheeled container and it is then taken to the village. The rotation of the wheels drives the reverse osmosis mechanism that purifies the water.
ROSS stands for Reverse Osmosis Sanitation System. It involves forcing the water molecules through a screen so that the water gets through, but the larger impurities are left behind (the screen's holes are too small). It is the reverse of osmosis, where there would be equal amounts on both side of the screen following migration through a screen.
It sounded ingenious. It was both a means of transport and of purification. However, if the water is too close to the village then the water may not get the chance to be purified, something that to my surprise was not mentioned on the show.
The dragons are normally thought of as hard-hearted, with pound signs for eyes, and wanting stakes of 40% or more. On this occasion all the dragons were impressed, and each contributed £10,000 for a 2% stake, making 10% in all.
I assumed that the invention would not be published as a patent application as they were obviously so keen to help the Third World. Nevertheless I looked for their company, Red Button, and to my surprise found WO 08/099158, "Fluid transport apparatus", published 21 Aug 2008, my Patent of the Month.
It looks in the main drawing like an interesting idea for moving luggage around.
www.thisisredbutton.co.uk/ does not give a price for the product as it is still in the development stage, but suggests that charities in collaboration with a corporate sponsor purchase the units. Microfinance is also suggested, where low-cost loans are used to purchase units which could be rented out by the owners. The company has "development partners" in Malawi and India.
Yes, it's a company. The site states the reason for this rather than charities that for "long term development projects it is an unreliable, unsustainable source of income. By running a successful for-profit business in the humanitarian sector, Red Button Design can stimulate competition leading to the reliable development of more effective product and service offerings to benefit some of the world's most under-served communities." Other may disagree, but it is certainly true that self-interest is a powerful motive.
As so often, the site states "Red Button Design have a patent for the ROSS" when they actually mean that they have applied for a patent. It needs to be examined for novelty, and this is based on the search report in the PCT patent application cited above, which means that they have applied to numerous countries.
The search report at the end of the application cites US 6641729 as being relevant. The Japanese invention is for a "Mobile water purifying device", where a bicycle carries is used both to transport the water and to purify it by using "water purification tubes". I couldn't quite understand how these tubes did the work, and I strongly suspect that that this patent will not affect the novelty of the Red Button invention.
Our Patent of the Month is provided courtesy of Steve Van Dulken from the British Library. Steve is a patent specialist at the British Library and has his own blog at http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/patentsblog/
Steve has worked since 1987 as a patents librarian at the British Library. Author of Inventing the American Dream, Inventing the 19th century and Inventing the 20th century, both popular science, and of British patents of invention, 1617-1977: a guide for researchers and editor of Introduction to patents information.
I recently was reminded of an invention by a repeated episode. It was from Series 5, and had originally been shown in December 2007. The invention was called ROSS, and was explained by two student inventors from Edinburgh University, Amanda and James.
It was emphasized that it was a low-technology invention that would assist the Third World where often the only available water needs to be purified. Water is placed in a wheeled container and it is then taken to the village. The rotation of the wheels drives the reverse osmosis mechanism that purifies the water.
ROSS stands for Reverse Osmosis Sanitation System. It involves forcing the water molecules through a screen so that the water gets through, but the larger impurities are left behind (the screen's holes are too small). It is the reverse of osmosis, where there would be equal amounts on both side of the screen following migration through a screen.
It sounded ingenious. It was both a means of transport and of purification. However, if the water is too close to the village then the water may not get the chance to be purified, something that to my surprise was not mentioned on the show.
The dragons are normally thought of as hard-hearted, with pound signs for eyes, and wanting stakes of 40% or more. On this occasion all the dragons were impressed, and each contributed £10,000 for a 2% stake, making 10% in all.
I assumed that the invention would not be published as a patent application as they were obviously so keen to help the Third World. Nevertheless I looked for their company, Red Button, and to my surprise found WO 08/099158, "Fluid transport apparatus", published 21 Aug 2008, my Patent of the Month.
It looks in the main drawing like an interesting idea for moving luggage around.
www.thisisredbutton.co.uk/ does not give a price for the product as it is still in the development stage, but suggests that charities in collaboration with a corporate sponsor purchase the units. Microfinance is also suggested, where low-cost loans are used to purchase units which could be rented out by the owners. The company has "development partners" in Malawi and India.
Yes, it's a company. The site states the reason for this rather than charities that for "long term development projects it is an unreliable, unsustainable source of income. By running a successful for-profit business in the humanitarian sector, Red Button Design can stimulate competition leading to the reliable development of more effective product and service offerings to benefit some of the world's most under-served communities." Other may disagree, but it is certainly true that self-interest is a powerful motive.
As so often, the site states "Red Button Design have a patent for the ROSS" when they actually mean that they have applied for a patent. It needs to be examined for novelty, and this is based on the search report in the PCT patent application cited above, which means that they have applied to numerous countries.
The search report at the end of the application cites US 6641729 as being relevant. The Japanese invention is for a "Mobile water purifying device", where a bicycle carries is used both to transport the water and to purify it by using "water purification tubes". I couldn't quite understand how these tubes did the work, and I strongly suspect that that this patent will not affect the novelty of the Red Button invention.
Our Patent of the Month is provided courtesy of Steve Van Dulken from the British Library. Steve is a patent specialist at the British Library and has his own blog at http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/patentsblog/Steve has worked since 1987 as a patents librarian at the British Library. Author of Inventing the American Dream, Inventing the 19th century and Inventing the 20th century, both popular science, and of British patents of invention, 1617-1977: a guide for researchers and editor of Introduction to patents information.
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