Dreaming Up Inventions

I WAS FASCINATED BY Deirdre Barrett’s article about dreams begetting inventive insights (“In Dreams Begin Technologies,” Fall 2001). In my 40-plus-year career as a physicist in IBM’s development laboratories, I’ve had the experience numerous times. In fact, I’ve learned to count on it. Not that I go to sleep on any given night expecting solutions to my problems; they just seem to appear on their own. Picking up on the concept of the incubus and succubus in classical literature, I call my nocturnal tutor my “techcubus.”

Dreaming Up Inventions

I WORKED FOR 19 YEARS in the computer industry and for 19 years in automotive safety, always in advanced research, and I have had the good fortune to have been awarded 3 8 patents, with 2 or 3 more pending. As a young electromechanical engineer in the mid-1960s, I became very frustrated with all the technical problems I was trying to solve and all the time constraints involved. One of my colleagues lent me the 1964 book The Wisdom of Your Subconscious Mind, by John K. Williams, which outlined a technique in which before retiring to bed, the inventor reviews a statement of the problem he’s trying to solve. In most cases a partial solution, and sometimes a full solution including detailed outlines, is revealed when he begins to awake. The author recommended keeping pencil and paper close to the bed to document a solution before it is forgotten. After reading this book and using this technique, I became less frustrated in attempting to find solutions and started to let my subconscious mind do most of the creative work.

Dreaming Up Inventions

THE ARTICLE “IN DREAMS Begin Technologies” reminded me of a famous (to chemists) example of a problem’s finding its solution in a dream. In 1865 Friedrich August Kekulé was struggling to figure out the chemical structure of benzene. It was known that the molecule consisted of six carbon atoms and six hydrogen atoms, but because of valence considerations Kekulé could not construct a linear molecule. He had a dream in which snakes writhed about and ended up each biting its own tail. This inspired him to theorize that the benzene molecule takes the form of a ring of carbon atoms with a hydrogen atom attached to each. His theory proved correct.

Fascinating Fastener

“HENRY PHILLIPS’S SCREWY Invention” (“Object Lessons,” by Curt Wohleber, Fall 2001) is an interesting and very accurate article, but it unfortunately promotes the belief that Phillips screws’ “shortcomings” are “maddening.” In fact, installing or removing a Phillips screw can be difficult or impossible using the wrong driver but surprisingly easy using the right one.

There are four common causes of difficult Phillips-screw installation or removal. First: using a poor-quality driver. Many commercially available Phillips screwdrivers have a poorly shaped tip and will cam out even when new. A good driver will not wobble when inserted. (The screwdriver pictured in the article appears to be an inexpensive one with a badly shaped tip.) Second: using a wrong-size driver. Most Phillips screws in common use are No. 2, with Nos. 1 and 3 less frequently found. To select the right driver, simply use the largest one that will fit into the screw. (The screwdriver shown in the article looks like a No. 2., and the screw a No. 3; this combination is sure to cam out.) Third: using a worn driver. A Phillips driver cannot be sharpened and so must eventually be replaced. Fourth: using a regular Phillips driver in a Pozidriv screw, or vice versa. Unfortunately, Pozidriv screws are hard to distinguish; Pozidriv screwdrivers can be identified by the extra “wing” between the blades.

The best thing is to buy a professional-quality replaceable-tip driver handle with a variety of tips, and throw out any Phillips screwdriver that cams out.

Fascinating Fastener

HAVING BEEN IN THE fastener business for more than 40 years, I was attracted to the article about the Phillips drive. The invention and promotion of this drive system was, in my opinion, a turning point in the development of our modern methods of assembling products. However, I think the author should have at least mentioned Herman G. Muenchinger, the inventor of the Pozidriv recess, a substantial improvement over the original Phillips because of its superior wrenching characteristics. Mr. Muenchinger received his patent in 1966, and it is among many he won concerning drive systems and thread-form designs. He was a giant in our industry.

Fascinating Fastener

ANOTHER TYPE OF screw head is probably unknown outside the aircraft-maintenance industry. The Lockheed L-1011 used a screw head called the “tri-wing,” with three flutes instead of the usual four and the flutes turned at an angle rather than perpendicular to the axis of the screw. The idea was that it would cam out easily when tightening, to prevent overtightening, but grip hard when loosening. Anyway, that’s what the people at Lockheed told us. We always thought they must have gotten confused and angled the flutes the wrong way; we expended many evil words and much needless effort trying to remove these screws-from-hell.

Fascinating Fastener

EARLY THIS PAST JULY , my eight-year-old son told me he needed a plus screwdriver rather than a minus one. I was a little surprised by this but, being a math teacher, not deterred in the least. It thus came as a shock to see similar language on the back cover of your magazine. I truly appreciated learning the history behind it all.

Remembering Space

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN’S “Docking in Space” (Fall 2001) stirred some embers, evoking recollections from my time with the Gemini Guidance and Control group at McDonnell-Douglas in St. Louis around 1966. I have one small quibble with the otherwise excellent piece: During the Gemini 8 spinning emergency, Neil Armstrong did shut down the orbital attitude system’s fuel supply, but I’m not sure he or Dave Scott would agree that “the spinning immediately eased.” Without further intervention, Gemini 8 would probably still be spinning at 60 rpm today.