(Image: Paul McDevitt)
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Star in a jar
FOLLOWING discussion of patent piracy in the sex toy start-up world (29 August), Michael Berkson is reminded that the UK patent office is well stocked with incendiary ideas. “I suggest patent , ‘Transmutation of Elements’, which claims the synthesis of helium and the simultaneous generation of energy by mixing aluminium powder, solid sodium hydroxide and water in a steel pressure vessel,” he writes.
Incredibly, this patent was granted to Noel Ignatius Rafferty in 1964. “To use a…
