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I find innovations like this wonderfully elegant when they're so obvious in hindsight. It boggles the mind nobody thought of this before. There must be other
by ratherbefuddled 9y ago
I find innovations like this wonderfully elegant when they're so obvious in hindsight. It boggles the mind nobody thought of this before. There must be other problems with radically better obvious-in-hindsight solutions out there too.
- avip 9y agoWhat makes you think nobody thought of this before?
- ratherbefuddled 9y agoTo my knowledge nobody did it, and I can't see a reason why having had the idea it wouldn't be used.
- rasz 9y agoThere are patents for this from 1989.
- GuB-42 9y agoI think that many people thought of it. Water filled counterweights are used everywhere. That a washing machine uses water certainly helps making the connection. But ideas are easy, implementation is hard. How to deal with the lower density of water, its tendency to slosh around, how is the tank filled, how is it emptied, how to prevent leaks, staleness, what if it is improperly filled, the costs and benefits. These are all questions manufacturers have to answer. The University of Nottingham made a small step towards the solution by having a working prototype. But as hundreds of failed Kickstarter project show, there is a world between a prototype and mass production.