Whacky inventor

I can’t be the first to think of this – wouldn’t it be useful to have photochromatic or thermochromatic roofing?

Dark when it’s cold and white when it’s hot, in response to temperature or radiation. This would keep those heating and air conditioning bills down

The odd thing about this invention disclosure is that anyone that figures out how to do it can now only patent their particular way of doing it.

This prior art forever prevents a first (free beer) claim of a patent that claims a roofing material that changes colour with temperature or radiation levels to attenuate heat transfer accordingly.

This implies that a whacky idea is (only) sometimes a necessary, but never a sufficient, part of invention.

Between the whacky idea and diligent innovation there lies the unloved and misunderstood world of patents.