AUTOMATIC FLOOD BARRIER
Every year, thousands of homes in the UK and around the world are flooded. The water doesn't usually get higher than about three feet/one metre but that is enough to ruin floors, furniture and precious possessions, so I tried to think of a solution that would use the water that won't flow away to raise a barrier at the entrance to a building. Not having the skill to make a prototype, I resorted to plastiscine. This was the only idea that I spent money on by patenting it.
Once the patent lawyer had made it safe for me to reveal this brilliant money-making idea to the world in general, I contacted a company that manufactured gutters, drainpipes, etc. and they asked me to demonstrate my idea. So, I set up a jug of water and my plastiscine model on the impressive long table in their impressive long boardroom.
'Imagine there is so much water that the drains cannot cope,' I said, pouring water into the first chamber. To my great satisfaction, the floats in the second chamber slowly lifted the barrier across the gap that represented a doorway.
'Yes, that certainly works,' said one of the directors, smiling, 'but we don't make them.'
Bloody hell, how can you, it's taken me three years to think up this solution and it's a new idea I silently ranted.
I soon discovered to my cost that it was a typical UK business reaction. Now I wish I'd dared to take the idea and my little plastiscine model to America. Humph!! (I did take it to Ron Hickman (see footnote) on the island of Jersey though. He was running a company designed to help inventors. My idea got through to level 3 which apparently was very good and quite unusual but only one or two products were taken on each year. And mine wasn't one of them. Humph again!)
Once the patent lawyer had made it safe for me to reveal this brilliant money-making idea to the world in general, I contacted a company that manufactured gutters, drainpipes, etc. and they asked me to demonstrate my idea. So, I set up a jug of water and my plastiscine model on the impressive long table in their impressive long boardroom.
'Imagine there is so much water that the drains cannot cope,' I said, pouring water into the first chamber. To my great satisfaction, the floats in the second chamber slowly lifted the barrier across the gap that represented a doorway.
'Yes, that certainly works,' said one of the directors, smiling, 'but we don't make them.'
Bloody hell, how can you, it's taken me three years to think up this solution and it's a new idea I silently ranted.
I soon discovered to my cost that it was a typical UK business reaction. Now I wish I'd dared to take the idea and my little plastiscine model to America. Humph!! (I did take it to Ron Hickman (see footnote) on the island of Jersey though. He was running a company designed to help inventors. My idea got through to level 3 which apparently was very good and quite unusual but only one or two products were taken on each year. And mine wasn't one of them. Humph again!)
Water also often enters buildings through air bricks which have to be kept uncovered in order to allow a flow of air. My idea comprises a chamber positioned underneath the air brick. The chamber holds a barrier attached to floats and the chamber floor is either a grid or grille allowing the rising water in. The floodwater pushes the floats, and therefore the barrier, up, and the barrier is guided over the air brick. When the floodwater subsides, the guard automatically lowers back down into the chamber. Brilliant or what!!!!
