I Needed Professional Engineering

After I processed thousands of films, I realized that I had done what no other major dental company was able to do: make a film processor that was incredibly reliable. My processor obsoleted the roller developer that had been the highly hated scourge of dental offices throughout the world. My percent of lost films approached zero. I hired Scott Steel, shown here to help me design the next model that would be necessary for me to make so that I could now interest companies in my new and "working" design. I built this model, and ran it in my office for months with the same great success that I had with my first model. I also added a "second cycle". Film would be placed on a holder in the upper chamber. When the start button was pressed, the film would rotate 180 deg. down into the lower tank, where processing would occur. A new set of film could then be placed in the upper section, then the "cycle B" key pressed. When the film in the lower section was finished, it would rotate up, and the film that was in the upper section would rotate down and begin processing. This second cycle made the processor far more efficient. An assistant who wanted to process film while one set was already processing would not have to wait until the process was completed.
Scott did an amazing job working with me on the processor. I always kidded that I was in the Steel Engineering School, since I really did learn a great deal from watching Scott work. It is amazing when working on devices such as the Freedom, how some things go well, others not so well, even though good common sense and engineering practices are followed. We worked on a special triple-opening valve that would allow the flow of developer and fixer solutions, and water in and out of the reaction tank. After six months, and t $10,000 in engineering costs, I mounted the finished valve on a processor. The vacuum pulled the valve open, and let bubbles through and into the storage tanks. That meant that contamination would occur. The next day I tried the strongest spring that would work, with same result. I removed the triple-valve and sent it straight to the trash. Out went six months of work and $10,000. Such is inventing. I found motor-operated ball valves that would do the trick without allowing leakage when the vacuum was on, which solved the problem.