Innovation in oil clean up technology: it could be said that early reports of its demise may have been exaggerated. Major media outlets such as the WashingtonPost and CNN soon looked foolish for publicizing an expert's laments over the "primitive" state of the science after news broke of actor–director Kevin Costner's Ocean Therapy centrifuge technology. Within four weeks of the oil rig disaster, BP had agreed to test it (and eventually ordered 32 Ocean Therapy machines). Three weeks later, on June 9th, Costner himself testified before Congress to explain how his equipment separates water from its contaminants at a rapid pace, resulting in a high level of water purity. If 20 machines had been used when the Exxon Valdez spilled oil into Alaskan coastal waters, he said, 90 percent of the oil could have been recovered for just $5 million, compared to the $4 billion eventually spent.
Mr. Costner is not alone in his long–held and sincere interest in cleaning up oil spills: retired NFL quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Drew Bledsoe and marine biologist and conservationist Jean–Michel Cousteau are investment partners in a different company, Ecosphere Technologies, which has perfected a method of treating contaminated water without chemicals. Ecosphere's Ozonix technology uses ultra-fine bubbles to raise the oil to the surface of the water, and it's already been used successfully at well sites to remove contaminants.
While Aikman, Bledsoe, and Cousteau are investors in Ecosphere, Costner actually purchased the rights to the centrifuge separation technology outright. Inventors and investors often share the same level of enthusiasm about the invention or innovative technology they have created or adopted.
History has demonstrated that the invention process is quite often motivated by a sense of service to mankind, and that some of the most prolific inventors have found satisfaction in the process and in the practicality without great concern for accumulating excessive wealth. If the investments of Costner and others are any indication, we may see much more of that in the future. Indeed, while there is nothing wrong with profiting from a great idea and the hard work and sacrifice often needed to make it succeed in the marketplace, investors such as Costner, Aikman, Bledsoe, and Cousteau seem to be motivated by much more than the possibility of material gain.
Ben Franklin, for example, never patented his many inventions (the Franklin stove, bifocal glasses, and the lightning rod, to name a few), but in all fairness, he was quite a wealthy man and most certainly a true celebrity of colonial America. Franklin served our fledgling nation in many capacities, including as a prolific and altruistic inventor during very simple and sparse times. "As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others," he wrote in his autobiography, "we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously."
Roughly a century or more later, Thomas Edison made a very successful career of inventing; his path was somewhat different from Franklin's. Edison greatly expanded the science and discipline of innovation as he developed the first industrial research center and had a staff working in a laboratory setting. One might say his passion was for the next great idea, the next product improvement. By the end of his career as a professional inventor, Edison held nearly 1,100 U.S. patents (and many foreign ones as well) as he transformed the nation with the improvement of the light bulb followed by the delivery of electrical power to homes.
By contrast, Edison's contemporary, Luther Burbank, worked diligently throughout his career without any benefit of patents to protect his rights to profits from the 800–plus varieties of plants and trees he created. His work had an incredibly positive impact on our food supply. Although he was not wealthy from other endeavors as Franklin was, Burbank held similar sentiments about his role as inventor and innovator. Known to be a spiritual man, Burbank, at the age of 77, spoke these words to a church congregation: "What a joy life is when you have made a close working partnership with Nature, helping her to produce for the benefit of mankind new forms, colors, and perfumes in flowers which were never known before; fruits in form, size, and flavor never before seen on this globe; and grains of enormously increased productiveness, whose fat kernels are filled with more and better nourishment, a veritable storehouse of perfect food – new food for all the world's untold millions for all time to come." Fittingly, Congress enacted the 1930 Plant Patent Act four years after Burbank's death, and the authorities issued numerous plant patents to him posthumously. The legislation was passed with the help of Edison's testimony. In voicing his support, Edison commented that he believed the bill would "give us many Burbanks." Most would agree, however, that Burbank's passion and results in plant breeding have never been matched by a single individual.
Without a doubt, inventors and the business of innovation have evolved considerably in more than two centuries of American history. While the R&D departments of many larger corporations continue to generate new products and technologies to profit their shareholders, we are reminded that the passion that fuels what are deemed to be important technologies can yield astounding results and produce unexpected heroes. At the first reports of Kevin Costner having a solution for removing the oil from the ocean, there was widespread ridicule and disbelief among the general public that someone in the entertainment field would have anything serious to contribute. How wrong that initial reaction was. How much we need to remember that passion and an attitude of service are two very important – if not vital – aspects of innovation and invention.
