- Joined
- Jul 16, 2007
- Messages
- 3,025
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When one of the Chinese miniature engine builders started out (no names mentioned) he made a water cooled type hit and miss. Ok the engine has been around forever in both full and model sizes. But as this builder expanded his line some of the designs took on rather close resemblances to engines designed by people that were in the hobby who built them for their own pleasure and some of the drawing sets were made available either freely or for a fee.
I visit several model engineering forums and on one of them (no names mentioned) a Chinese fellow is a regular visitor, advertising his wares and new designs. One of "his designs" was an exact copy of my Holt engine in a smaller scale. When I say exact that's what I mean. I contacted the owner/administrator of the forum and told him of my concerns. He agreed with me and notified the Chinese builder that if he was going to market this engine he should at least give credit for it's origin. Well this fellow then comes up with every answer under the sun, the pictures are on the internet, it wasn't my design to begin with etc. etc. The forum owner also notified him that if he continued to do such things he would be banned from posting on the forum. Well that didn't last long.
Everything I have designed and built I have made drawings for and offer them to prospective builders for a reasonable fee. I guess it's human nature to want something for nothing. At one time I would build tiny hit and miss engines and sell them for a reasonable hourly fee. Anyone who knows my work knows the quality of it. Then came the Chinese CNC cheap hit and miss engines and multitudes of people jumped onto the bandwagon and bought them. The main reason was they were cheap, just like every other product out of China. That's the problem with where we are today in the rest of the world. People want the cheapest product they can buy.
As far as these Chinese engines go I don't even want to hear the excuse that it gets people into the hobby that don't have the equipment or the skill. All you are is collectors! In the 30's and 40's magazines like Popular Science and Popular Mechanics would publish drawings for engines that fellows would build with a drill press and files, and they ran. So don't tell me it gets you into the hobby. At what point were you going to buy machinery to get into the metal hobby?
As far as when I'm ready to leave this place I should place my drawings into the public domain, hogwash! Somebody will just take them and make money from my work without any credit going to me. It's already taking place so I don't want to hear any defense of it.
gbritnell
I visit several model engineering forums and on one of them (no names mentioned) a Chinese fellow is a regular visitor, advertising his wares and new designs. One of "his designs" was an exact copy of my Holt engine in a smaller scale. When I say exact that's what I mean. I contacted the owner/administrator of the forum and told him of my concerns. He agreed with me and notified the Chinese builder that if he was going to market this engine he should at least give credit for it's origin. Well this fellow then comes up with every answer under the sun, the pictures are on the internet, it wasn't my design to begin with etc. etc. The forum owner also notified him that if he continued to do such things he would be banned from posting on the forum. Well that didn't last long.
Everything I have designed and built I have made drawings for and offer them to prospective builders for a reasonable fee. I guess it's human nature to want something for nothing. At one time I would build tiny hit and miss engines and sell them for a reasonable hourly fee. Anyone who knows my work knows the quality of it. Then came the Chinese CNC cheap hit and miss engines and multitudes of people jumped onto the bandwagon and bought them. The main reason was they were cheap, just like every other product out of China. That's the problem with where we are today in the rest of the world. People want the cheapest product they can buy.
As far as these Chinese engines go I don't even want to hear the excuse that it gets people into the hobby that don't have the equipment or the skill. All you are is collectors! In the 30's and 40's magazines like Popular Science and Popular Mechanics would publish drawings for engines that fellows would build with a drill press and files, and they ran. So don't tell me it gets you into the hobby. At what point were you going to buy machinery to get into the metal hobby?
As far as when I'm ready to leave this place I should place my drawings into the public domain, hogwash! Somebody will just take them and make money from my work without any credit going to me. It's already taking place so I don't want to hear any defense of it.
gbritnell