I received this from “Interesting Engineering” this morning.
I was very impressed. if you watch this video to the end, you’ll see a basic idea built, then modified, slowly improved with each new iteration.
You can see how it is only after building one and using it that the improvements occur to the enthusiastic inventor. His enthusiasm is obviously a critical ingredient, but he also has intelligence, creativity, and the willingness to use his own two hands to build and try one version after another til he gets where he thinks he should be with his great idea! Oh, and he also has a good attitude AND a sense of humor.
No big budget.
No interns.
No grad students.
No “group-selfies”.
No “renting office space”.
No HR department.
No “conferences”
No millions of dollars needing to be raised.
This guy improved the millennia-old “bow-and-arrow”, mostly all by himself, with a little participation by others.
Check it out!
But do you really think every new thing must have the same development process? Its easy to se that the leap from something like this that could be built singlehandedly in a few days to a semi complicated AWE design is huge.
Hello Tallak: I only said it is an example. It could just as well have been a model-airplane-based AWE system. Still could have been done by one person, able to buy parts and subcontract aspects they don’t have the skills or equipment for. Besides serving as an example for the rest of us, what do you think of this guy;s actual invention? Personally, I’m blown away. Seems like he has combined several obvious-in-retrospect improvements to make archery easy rather than a pain in the butt, where anybody could do it in comfort. I always liked the idea of archery, but the reality of it seemed not-so-great. Kind of awkward, and more of a pain in the butt than enjoyable, with the occasional “ouch”.
Did you know the bow-and-arrow might be the main innovation that made modern life possible? Certainly it was a key milestone. The crossbow and compound bows were great innovations too, but this, to me, is amazing for one (very talented) guy to come up with all by himself, multiple improvements combined, and I think he explains it well. I vote this guy “inventor of the year”! Maybe he should get involved in AWE!
I’ll bet if you had a fifty million dollar budget, and could hire all the PhD’s, grad students, and interns you wanted, with rented office-space, a test-site you were actually allowed to use, company vehicles, paid vacations, an HR department, funding by “the smartest people in the world”, and maybe even a group-selfie, they wouldn’t come up with anything nearly this good. I hope it catches on! This guy deserves a lot of recognition, in my opinion. He’s an example to not only us AWE people, but to humanity in general. Too bad nobody thought of it back when people needed bows and arrows. It’s a little late at this point, but, “better late than never!”
Its pretty cool and very well done no doubt. You are right about one person being able to build an AWE rig, though I could see myself making both, AWE even in the simpler forms, eg a laddermill would require much more time, making that an activity that would be done in work hours rather than in evenings
I must also say that there is a large probability this will be forgotten soon. Maybe those who do archery are into traditions. Otherwise they may as well use a gun. And a bow without the new part is much lighter
Yes you are probably correct on that. I’d imagine archery is a pretty niche business by this point. It sure would be nice if someone found a way to mass-produce this guy’s invention though.
They have you only need to look at what the slingshot channel done recently in the 3 year to know where he’s at. He’s got it down to such fine art that they have machined attachments for the bow. Roller bearings and cross slides. He did have link to the sellers he teamed up with. It was pretty cool he even has a repeater version with a multi shot version. The instant legolas.
