<HTML>Hi Anthony,
Thanks for the clarification. If any money gained will be put to good use then I for one am satisfied. My concern was solely that it was for pure financial gain which in my view would be wrong given that apparently the Egyptians and Ed Leedskalnin had made such machines before.
I hope you at least can see my point of view. It is a reservation I have over the point of patents. The Australian lawyer that is trying to patent the wheel may very well succeed. His point is probably to highlight a glitch in patent law there but if he made money off the wheel I'd turn green, and hurl him in slow motion through across Australia!
If Ed Leedskalnin didn't patent the device can we be sure that he didn't because it wasn't suitably developed for industry (what invention isn't raw at the start?) or was it because he considered that the Egyptians had already invented it and he thus felt, from a moral perspective, that he had no right or justification to apply for a patent?
However, since your intention is not to line your pockets but to invest the money that is gained from the Herodotus machine in the pursuit of knowledge then it seems to me that you do have the moral right to patent the device because your intention is to further progress in knowledge. It is my feeling that, if you are right, your book will provide you and your family with financial security for life - Coral Castle is a famous mystery to solve, after all.
Regards,
jameske</HTML>
