@dkdkrd posted:Good one, Dan.
Reminds me of that day in 1970 when the boss plopped on my desk a model of a Rolamite, Mr. Donald F. Wilkes' (Sandia Laboratories) 'invention-of-the-century'. Said the boss: "Here, see what you can do with this in our product line!?" (automotive components). It became a desk-top amusement gizmo, was passed around, ended up back on my desk, gathered dust, disappeared for good one day...never spoken of or brought to mind thereafter, AFAIK. I'm not sure it even ended up finding application in our national nuclear armaments (Sandia's project area du jour). Not a very long list (
) of everyday items the rolamite principal ended up revolutionizing, either, per Google.
And so it goes...
It actually did, it was used as part of an accelerometer on nuclear warheads according to a video I saw.The Rolamite is basically an almost frictionless simple machine that could in theory replace bearings in some applications (that honestly I don't know where it would be applicable). I could see people in the auto and appliance industry turning white as a sheet, something with this kind of reduced friction would also likely mean a long life for the product using it. Bearing failure was a common component of planned obsolescence back in the day.
