I Wonder if They Give Credit to Heinlein on the Patent Application?

[Tuckerfan]

Douglas-Martin Sunscreens, anyone?

Solar PV developers have been spending more time on aesthetics recently. They’ve created solar roof tiles that blend in with a building’s roof and now RSi Solar has announced that they’ve designed transparent solar windows.

The photovoltaic windows generate 80 - 250 watts each, depending on the size. What is more impressive are the extra features the windows contain. Besides harnessing the sun’s energy, they reduce heat, which reduces cooling costs and they provide a 100 percent reduction in UV and infrared radiation. They can be customized to include bulletproofing or to meet specific weather or climate needs.

The company claims this new design could result in energy savings of 50 percent based on a recent case study. The company is also working on smart home features like an electrical privacy curtain and the ability for the window to transform into a light panel.

In one of his short stories (“Let There Be Light”), Robert Heinlein has his characters invent the “Douglas-Martin sunscreen” which works almost identical to the panels RSi has invented. The characters wind up making the technology open source because of vested interests trying to suppress it.

[Typo_Knig]

I don’t think Heinlein described Douglas-Martin sunscreens well enough for anyone to build one. (I should check this at some point, in my copious free time - he might have!) However, he did describe the waterbed in enough detail that the person who built the first one, and who is generally given credit as the inventor, could not get a patent on it.