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 _______________________________________________ Stoves mailing list to Send a Message to the list, use the email address Stoves mailing list to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org for more Biomass Cooking Stoves, News and Information see our web site: http://www.bioenergylists.org/ [email protected] http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org
