[Harp-L] Re: Blu-Tack: I Deserve All the Credit

["Brendan Power" <bren@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Rick Epping wrote:

"Sorry for coming in late on this. I did indeed get the Blu-Tak trick from
Brendan. Up till then I used a mixture of beeswax and powdered brass,
inspired by the mixture of beeswax and powdered lead used to tune shengs."

That's just typical! Bloody Rick Epping...!! I think I've come up with a
brilliant original idea, and then find it's just a variation of something
Rick has already thought of. Though I guess the anonymous Chinese person who
originally tuned his sheng with beeswax should really get the credit :) 

As Chinese history is understood more and more in the West, it's quite
incredible how many of the inventions we thought originated in Europe were
predated by Chinese inventors (the printing press being notable amongst
them). Apparently they also 'discovered' America before Columbus (along with
the Irish, the Danes, the Polynesians, the French - not to mention the
Native Americans). Why everyone is so keen to lay claim to such a calamitous
event is beyond me (ooops, Extreme Irony Warning!!).

 A similar tale unfolded with 'my' idea of using extra responder reeds in
each chamber of a diatonic to make an all-bending harp: I dreamed it up in
splendid isolation in far away New Zealand in 1989, and showed my prototype
to Suzuki in 1991 - only to discover later that Rick had already applied for
a patent to the concept that same year. DAMN!!**!!

 Mind you, in that case it wasn't an anonymous Chinese person who was the
precursor: Will Scarlett deserves the credit for the original concept. He
was ahead of both of us and showed Rick his one-cell prototype which
eventually led, through Rick's clever development and hard work, to the
XB-40. 

Just goes to prove that old adage: "There's nothing new under the sun". 

Brendan Power
WEBSITE: http://www.brendan-power.com 
YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/BrendanPowerMusic