paul dove via EV wrote:
The way I heard the story was that he made big promises but failed to deliver. He had trouble managing money apparently not unlike Nikola Tesla. Here’s an article in Forbes that has part of the story.
Like many innovators, Ovshinsky focused more on the ideas and inventions than on the details of implementation. He proved it was possible; and left it to others to work out the details of production and how to make money. His company (ECD) was all about R&D, and then licensing the inventions to others.
Thus, he licensed the nimh patents to many companies to perfect and produce them. As usual in such matters, the companies insisted on contracts that prevented their competitors from licensing the same patents. Thus Panasonic wanted to block Duracell and Energizer, and GM wanted to block Ford and Toyota.
Ovonic was set up as a joint venture between GM and ECD. ECD provided the patents and R&D; GM provided the money. But GM had 51% controlling interest. Ovshinsky just didn't have the money, or financial acument to match the likes of GM. So GM basically had a monopoly on large nimh cells.
-- Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius, and a lot of courage, to move in the opposite direction. -- Albert Einstein -- Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, www.sunrise-ev.com _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
