Slashdot Mirror
Wind Powered Freighters Return
thatoneguyfromphoeni writes "It appears that sails could return to the ocean's freighters soon. Newsweek is reporting on a technology to assist with cross-ocean travel. From the article: 'SkySails' system consists of an enormous towing kite and navigation software that can map the best route between two points for maximum wind efficiency. In development for more than four years, the system costs from roughly $380,000 to $3.2 million, depending on the size of the ship it's pulling. SkySails claims it will save one third of fuel costs.'"
Hey, didn't KevinCostner's boat in Water World have one of these?
Funny that the first paragraph of the article deals about their recent deal with beluga, nice to see people read the article
the amount of tension on the parawing cable would scare the crap out of me, especially if I had to deal with that thing in/prior to bad weather.
So what if someone patented ideas revolving around this? There needs to be some very innovative design and engineering going on in order to easily, safely, and efficiently use an unmasted sail to move such a large ship.
It would be shocking if the USTPO awarded a patent revolving around the basic idea of moving a ship via a wind sail. But it wouldn't be surprising if many patents were awarded for the specific construction, deployment, recovery, and anchoring mechanisms.
There are many aspects of this that may be new, innovative, and non-obvious.
Please consider giving engineers some credit for innovative work. This is not patenting the FAT file system directory structure - it's a bit harder than that.
Maybe, but the real reason sailing ships went out of use wasn't the cost of transporting the cargo. Remember that sailing ships didn't need space for engines or fuel; and, by the end of the 19th century they were sailed by very small crews. They were always the cheapest way to get cargo from one point to another. What killed them was the unreliability of their passage times: In order to gurarantee a steady supply of a commodity you had to have big wharehouses at each end. Steamships eliminated the wharehouses so the end-to-end cost was less. Just in time inventory anybody?
Not all cheap labour is slave labour. In fact, "slave labour" as you call it, is vastly in the minority. Most shipping just takes advantages economic differences between countries. (ie cheap to make in one country, expensive to make in another.) "Slave labour" is the boogeyman people drag out to frighten people when they are against international trade for whatever reason.
While deplorable, it's hardly the standard.
A) This story was not about a patent.
B) I would say retrofitting a cargo ship with a sail in tandem with a computer system that can direct the sail mast to the correct angle to generate the most power from the available wind, dependent upon while altering the ships course, sounds pretty novel to me.
C) If you had RTFA, you would discover this is not some SCO'ish trying to build a patent porfolio, but a company that has achieved a sale of their first sail.
D) This is a German based company, so I would expect they would be patenting in the EU before the US.
In the future, if you wish to make baseless suppositions about articles, I request you post AC so I can filter you out like the other flametrolls. Or go read digg with all the other trend chasers.
The cancel button is your friend. Do not hesitate to use it.
Wasteful? If it's cheaper to make a good elsewhere and then ship it than to make it locally, it's more wasteful to produce that good locally.
Economics classes should be required to graduate high school.
"Slave labour" is the boogeyman people drag out to frighten people when they are against international trade for whatever reason.
I'm sorry, but as a typical Chinese laborer, you get paid only enough to barely feed and maybe clothe your family while shopping at your company's store, pay the rent to your company sponsored housing, wash your cloths at the company laundry, buy your medicine at the company drug store, and work 14 hour days 365 days of the week to do it--and having absolutely no means or opportunity to escape that life...that is slavery to any reasonable person. So maybe they don't get whipped physically, does that make it much more deplorable? The fact is, most Chinese laborers have no opportunity to advance, no matter how hard they work and they're certianly not the ones that receive the bulk of the profit of their labors?
If that's not slavery, I don't know what is.
'Waste' doesn't necessarily equate with price or cost. For instance, it is profoundly wasteful that, for instance, in the US we have non-refillable containers for just about every food product we purchase. This is very inexpensive, but is very wasteful - there is no technical reason why a store could not have a sanitary 2-liter filling station where you just take the same bottle over and over to obtain your beverage of choice. This would actually be less expensive in the long run, but it would cost people who make bottles their jobs, etc. etc.
Again, remember that cost does not necessarily match with waste. In fact, generally less expensive alternatives cost less than their less-wasteful alternatives - at the initial investment stage. However, the long-term costs are always lower with less waste.
"There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)
Yeah. *smacks forehead*
Just like they bought up the patents for that 100 mile per gallon carbuerator and hid it away in their 'secret idea warehouse' in Area 51.
there is no technical reason why a store could not have a sanitary 2-liter filling station where you just take the same bottle over and over to obtain your beverage of choice. This would actually be less expensive in the long run, but it would cost people who make bottles their jobs, etc. etc.
Actually there is. Well, it's not a technical reason, but a sanitary reason. Heath codes/standards, especially with concerns about people possibly deliberatly tainting stuff, rose to the point that the required cleaning/powerwashing/sterilizing to reuse containters costs more energy than the oil that that utterly cheap containers we use today. There are some places where you can refill filtered water though. It wouldn't be an unworkable idea to refill all your milk/soda/tea/juices at the store, but even if you had everyone bring their own containers, you'd have to worry about rotating, cleaning&sanitizing the various taps.
Again, remember that cost does not necessarily match with waste. In fact, generally less expensive alternatives cost less than their less-wasteful alternatives - at the initial investment stage. However, the long-term costs are always lower with less waste.
It can depend, actually. Sometimes the capital costs of a 'less wastefull solution' are such that you'll never make back the investment.
I don't read AC A human right
Actually, US manufacturing could be a hell of a lot cheaper than it is now while maintaining our good standards of living. Sadly, our labor unions don't support increased automation, so we are forced to rely on cheap foreign drudge-labor, often in countries that aren't our friends.
-b.
Only on slashdot could a post saying there are similarities between the solar wind, gravitational plots and actual winds be moderated insightful
It's interesting how all the attention is consistently directed at 'abuses' in countries where it's convenient for the media to report them.
Amazing how the media only talks about things it has access to, and amazing how they talk a lot about thigns which interest it's viewers. Because in all honesty the average american gives a donkey's ass about the conditions in China.