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Strategies & Market Trends : Ride the Tiger with CD -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E. Charters who wrote (166753)	6/25/2009 11:20:17 PM
From: Cheeky Kid	Respond to of 313039

Yes here is more on that drill bit, I thought he sold them, but he leased them: His father, Howard, Sr., was a technologist in his own right who made a fortune in oil—but as a manufacturer, not as a wildcatter. During the great Texas oil rush early in this century, drillers were often stymied because standard drills, shaped like a fishtail, wore out quickly when grinding through hard rock. Howard, Sr., invented a rotary drill bit with 166 cutting edges. It quickly became an industry standard. He did not sell these bits but leased them at $30,000 per well. Protected by patents, they formed the basis for his enormously successful Hughes Tool Company. From another site: The tool bits were not sold, but leased. Major oil companies ordered them by the thousands. There was no competition. The tool company provided Hughes with practically unlimited cash flow to develop his ideas, dreams and his genius.