Family chit chat - The Beal Mobile

It's late, but it's been another fun and interesting day. Gosh, how do these times get so full and layered? Are your days like this?

Kamen's release of the IT, Ginger, has caused a little buzz in our family. About 15 years ago, my father began to circulate a design for a 2-wheeled vehicle he'd invented that was remotely piloted and stayed up on its own, using gyroscopes. He had a company called E-Systems (he's quite the inventor) and worked with a motorcycle firm for awhile on the project, eventually shelved.

We called it the Beal Mobile.

Mom called me at 6:00 am on Tuesday, wondering if "they'd somehow got a hold of [your] Daddy's vehicle." I ran a short e-mail message around to the family, and now we're all a-talkin' and it's really grand.

We've gone our separate ways for most of the last few years. We're a somewhat nerdy bunch - get us all in a room together (I've got brothers, and they all have sons) and it sounds like a bunch of geeks who won't leave the computer lab after school. We're hopeless.

Anyhow, we were all really supportive of my father's attempt to get out there and market some of his work. He's really an amazing designer. When he took on the 2-wheeled vehicle, he was mostly doing it for self-amusement. I asked him why he didn't do a 3-wheeled vehicle, since it would be much easier to balance than a 2-wheeler, and he told me it was because it would have been too easy. (I guess I come by some of my stubbornness honestly, at any rate).

But, alas, the man's not a marketer.

However, he *does* have a completed 2-wheeled gyroscopic controlled vehicle invented and ready to go, which is no small feat to have accomplished on the eve of Kamen's groundbreaking announcement. And he owns all the patents.

He's generally quite the mild-mannered Clark Kent type (he says "shoot!' when he needs to cuss) so we were surprised to hear that he's actually going to check into whether or not any of the patents inside the Kamen invention are his - chances are they're not, but one never knows. After all, his work was finished in 87 or so (I think) - goodness knows where the xeroxes of the drafts and proposals could have inadvertently ended up in the ensuing years between then and now.

The best thing about all this will probably end up being that we're all talking - well, e-mailing - again. Even though mom and he were divorced 35 years ago, they're still friends. They still love each other. We're still a family, in an odd sort of way.

Mom even e-mailed me this morning, telling me that they talked on the phone and that Dad wants to know how to get me to talk to him more. I suppose what he doesn't know is that the way it works is that he tells her and she tells me and then I write to him more. Of course, he would never think to just say it outright, to me. I'm not sure if that's a Dad thing, a Man thing, or a Scientist thing. Whatever it is, I guess I need to be writing my daddy more.

Well, I suppose I am.

************

It's almost midnight.

I like telling you these little bits of my life and day. I hope you're having good days, and that the story you weave yourself into is a strong one.

*

love,

cynthia

PLUR. Remember PLUR

Peace
Love
Unity
Respect

Peace
Love
Unity
Respect

Peace
Love
Unity
Respect

P

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001