Forgoten invention

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

I just read an article in Polish press. It seems that the invention was not forgotten after all - Some guys from Cambridge University patented it as his own.
moto.wp.pl/kat,89554,title,Wojna … caid=1d844

The case is going now to the European Patent Right Court, as for obvious reasons mr Łągiewka is not too happy about it. It seems that the English man took advantage on the law differences: in Poland the patent right procedure is still pending, as Polish law requires the explanation of the idea, and there is some discussion, as the bumper seems to do not follow the d’Allembert right. Yet his rights to the idea are recognized in many countries. He have financial support to fight in the court against the Englishman from Poland and Sweden.

so it seems that Poles not only wash British dishes, transport British goods but also invent British inventions :stuck_out_tongue:

There is a research centre in Kraków developing Łągiewka bumper, here some of their demonstrations:

In meantime Swedish Royal Sience Academy awarded this invention a title of “The best invention of first decade of XXI century”. And the system will be mounted in the motorway bareers in Poland. Here is a news item (sadly, in Polish only):

I keep my fingers crossed for this guy!

2

I just bumped up the movie about Lucjan Łągiewka, a self made inventor from Poland.

About 12 years ago he presented to public his construction of bumper - energy absorber, which works on the basis of converting energy of the impact onto the rotary movement.

This movie (in Polish, sorry) presents that public presentation. My brother was present.

This Fiat 126p is driving with a speed of 45 km/h and the driver is not wearing seatbelts!

Here you have some more experiments with Łągiewka’s bumper:

watch at 00:35, the driver does 22 km/h and he can barely feel the impact.

This is another use of this solution: braking by converting movement energy to the rotary movement. Watch the liquid, which stays in the glass…

Here is someone’s own experiment to check if it works:

It simply working and the research conducted by the Kraków technical university shown that this invention is able to absorb up to 60% energy of the crash.

I just had a quick read in what’s abvailable in net (not much) and I think this is a great invention. So where is the problem?

Mr Łągiewka seems to be some kind of self taught crazy inventor, who claims that this invention breaks the basics of our physics such as Newton etc.

The academics off course do not believe in it, but at the time they were playing with it, they weren’t able to provide proper explanation of the phenomenon…

Anyway, explained or not, would you like to have such a toy fitted into your lorry?

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iirc nottingham city transport had a leyland atlatean fleet number 666 which had a similar front bumper set up but filled with water. it ran for years like it right old bulbous bumper sticking out the front. maybe someone has a photo of said bus ?.

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r slicker:
iirc nottingham city transport had a leyland atlatean fleet number 666 which had a similar front bumper set up but filled with water. it ran for years like it right old bulbous bumper sticking out the front. maybe someone has a photo of said bus ?.

As we go that way:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrobus

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I love gyros, especially with tzatzizki :stuck_out_tongue:

The hydraulic bumper seems a good idea but maybe defeats the object of crumple zones I think

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The bumper I posted is not hydraulic - it just changes impact force into the rotary movement of the balance wheel.

And as for the crumple zones: look closer at this Fiat 126p. It has a special bumper fitted to put all the force onto the Łągiewka bumper, but according to my brother, who was at this presentation, at the end they mounted this device onto this tiny car and the son of the inventor hit the concrete wall at 70 km/h (this time he was using seatbelts) and the maluch front wall was only slightly damaged.

It happened that my brother had identical car and he was an appaling driver, so I can tell you from witnessing some of his adventures that it’s very, very easy to damage it: with an original bumper slight bump on the car park is enaugh to bend the body - the point where the bumper is attached to the car goes inside…