Technology and new ideas spread when they get transferred from one person to another, and experiments are conducted on them. In these modern times, some control has been clamped on the spread of ideas because of copyright and patent rules. With the Industrial Revolution, although development and implementation of new ideas became a costly affair, they got copied and were dispersed throughout the globe. Technology grew in this manner. It is generally said that whatever was invented in Europe was subsequently replicated in America, later in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China and so on. We talk about copyrights but we know that Chinese phones come cheap because money is not spent on acquiring patent rights for the technology involved in their manufacture.
Recently, I tried to copy a technological idea but it went horribly wrong. That was when I started thinking seriously about the consequences of copying. Let me share my thoughts with you. When we implement a new idea, we must try as far as possible to seek the advice of those who have implemented it successfully. Otherwise, it will end up in a failure.
I have a friend at Kilimanoor named Ajithkumar. He is an engineer with the ISRO, and has a fine engineering brain. He plants saplings only after meticulously taking into consideration factors like climate, Nature, the path of the sun and so on. He set up a solar tunnel some time back to light up his house most beautifully, and I replicated his model here. I presented it in one of my earlier episodes in this series. With his model, Ajithkumar harnessed solar power to light up his house. But when I replicated it here, I did not seek his advice. As a result, along with light I received insufferable heat too in the new house I built recently. It was Aravind, a computer engineer and colleague of mine, who observed it, and that was when I took serious note of it. The next day, I took a piece of sack, draped it over the glass dome, and secured it. The heat inside the room dropped considerably as a result of it.
Later when I called up Ajithkumar regarding this issue, he told me that the pipe should have been at least 10 feet long. If the pipe is shorter, heat will get radiated into the room. My regret is that I did not consult him or understand the concept properly before I made use of the technology. I share this experience so that you don’t make a similar mistake. Before we implement an idea, it is advisable to take lessons from those who have done it successfully. Another point is that Ajithkumar installed the solar tunnel where sunlight does not fall on it directly. In contrast, I installed it right in the middle of my house in such a way that sunlight falls right on top of it from 12 noon to 6 in the evening. In fact, sun rays fall on the top portion of the tunnel in the morning and on the lower side from afternoon. So I had created the circumstances for the tunnel to heat up. Besides, I should not have installed it on that side. If I had fixed it on the southern side of the house, I would not have had this problem.
Therefore, whenever we implement a new idea – be it Miyawaki method of afforestation even – if we do not talk to the experts and gather comprehensive knowledge of the subject, we are bound to make mistakes. I described my mistake so that you don’t commit any.