RE: Don't you dare say "levitator!"

[William Beaty <billb@eskimo.com>]

> At 9:24 PM -0500 7/1/98, C wrote:
> > Hi all-
> > 	I think that Beatty's posting was what a lawyer (like me) would call
> > a cheap shot.   The posting was:

Are you serious?  I have been using the term "levitator" for decades.  I
don't know if it is common enough to have appeared in english
dictionaries, but "magnetic levitator" is a normal technical term.  In
science fiction, a "levitator" is the device on the bottom of your
automobile which makes it hover.  :)

I have no doubts that this superconductor company knows that they did not
COIN the word "levitator".  They are trying to take an english word as
their own, and I find such a practice unethical and quite offensive.

If they had coined "superlev" or "levitron" for example, I would see
nothing wrong at all.

But to go around on internet and warn people that they own the word
"levitator"?  To me that indicates that either their ethics are based on
greed, or that their legal department is out of control.  Regardless, I
think their actions deserve lots of free publicity.  If nobody else has a
negative emotional reaction like I do, then that company is getting free
advertizing here.  After all, they are selling the little superconductor
disks used in physics classroom demonstrations.  We all should know the
type of people we buy from.


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William J. Beaty                                  SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
billb@eskimo.com                                  www.eskimo.com/~billb
EE/programmer/sci-exhibits          science projects, tesla, weird science
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