New Technologies?

I made the remark in the top quote in a topic and received the comments in the other quotes.

Movable ballast :?: as old as sailboats..... Not having external keels and ballast at the time, they used internal ballast stones, which were moved around to trim the boat for efficiency etc.
I would say that this method used hundreds (thousands?) of years ago was at that time the equivalent of our canting keels. They just had not had the technology available then to do it the way we do it now.

Any other "old" new technology ideas anyone

 

Bunch of slaves chained to oars...Ramming speed...

 

That's precisely the point

Waynand,

You cannot get a utility patent for an idea -You can get a patent for an invention, that is a way to make (I.E. create, produce, manufacture) something.
It's precisely the "How" that's important in the case of defining whether a technology ("knowhow") is new - not the "what".

For example: You can't patent "an omelette" since it's "prior art" but you can patent a new and useful process for making omelettes.

Yoav