[sclug] RepRap provenance?

[Philip Hands]

On Sat, 3 Sep 2011 13:29:37 +0100, Neil Haughton <haughtonomous at googlemail.com> wrote:
> I remember once seeing a demo of something similar by a company called
> Leonardo Systems, also based in Reading Uni Science Park. It was based on a
> 3D CAD modelling system called 'Silverscreen', which exposed an API that
> allowed you to use it as a modelling engine for your own app, which is
> exactly what they had done. It was pretty powerful as a system. In those
> days they used it to drive a hacked Roland A1 pen printer to trace and cut
> contour layers from a plastic or card sheet, which you then hand-assembled
> to produce your physical 3D model.
> 
> Is this derived from that project, I wonder? The location seems quite a
> coincidence.

Seems unlikely -- Apparently RepRap started out as a result of Dr Adrian
Bowyer (of Bath Uni) writing a paper (or perhaps muttering in the SCR, I
forget) pointing out that one ought to be able to build a partially
self-replicating machine, having been inspired by the rapid prototype
machine they'd got in the Mech Eng dept.

He was apparently hoping that someone else would take the idea and run
with it, but he was eventually shamed by his colleagues into doing
something about it himself (or at least pointing some of his students at
the problem).

... to precis what he said when I asked him where the thing had
started.

Cheers, Phil.
-- 
|)|  Philip Hands [+44 (0)20 8530 9560]    http://www.hands.com/
|-|  HANDS.COM Ltd.                    http://www.uk.debian.org/
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