Bryon O. Griffith worked in his spare time to develop an umbrella-style plug that could be deployed inside the damaged pipe, an idea that has been placed on a short list for consideration.
BP has fielded some 60,000 calls from the public that led to 10,000 tips. About 2,500 people sent in forms spelling out their ideas in greater detail, and BP advanced 700 to the next phase.
"And then we ask, is this something new?" BP spokesman David Nicholas said. "Can we incorporate it into our stuff, or is there an overlap? There hasn't been one that's come from that system that's come all the way."
Costner, the "Waterworld" and "Field of Dreams" actor, has invested more than $24 million in developing the centrifuge invention, along with business partner John Houghtaling II of New Orleans.
On Tuesday, Houghtaling said BP has agreed to test the devices, which can be dropped into the oil spill and separate water from oil, storing the petroleum in tanks. The smallest weighs 150 pounds; the largest 4,500 pounds.
"It's like a big vacuum cleaner," Houghtaling said. "These machines are ready to be employed. The technology is familiar to the industry."
It's not just BP that's been receiving ideas.
"You name it, it's been suggested. At least 15 times a day we get something about exploding the well — bombs, nuclear bombs, torpedoes," said Coast Guard Senior Chief Petty Officer Steve Carleton, who helps handle the flood of social media responses. He said he receives about a dozen emails a day with a link to a YouTube video of a man using hay to sop up oil.
"There's so many ideas you become numb to them."
http://cbs5.com/national/oil.spill.inventors.2.1704215.html
They should get plumbers to tell them about the worst clogs they have ever seen.
When I was a plumber in the Navy , I once had to deal with a clog caused by the cooks when they dumped a whole bag of rice into the drain. That rice swole up and packed the pipe as tight as a tick for fourty feet.
Ironic that the flow is warm enough untill it exists the pipes that it flows freely through a crack, yet soon after it enters the water it congeals into hydrates so badly that it clogs a house sized collector,... quickly ,...solid.
