As someone who has spent 10 years in pharmaceuticals, including handling of bulk powders, I have never seen this device in my life, and just seeing this, and the amount of days that could've been made so much easier, astounds me!,(reply>), @BillyTheKid <br>Well, if a professional didn't came up with the idea for 200 years, even though it is obviously superior, you can definitely call it inventive and novel;)<br><br>What you mean is, when something is obvious. But this is NOT obvious that it works plus that it has advantages over the screw moving. It's as simple as that.,(reply>), @BillyTheKid The majority of patented inventions are improvements on prior technology. It doesn't matter that it's similar, only that it's distinctive.,(reply>), ​@BillyTheKid The novelty mostly comes from the fact that no one thought of doing it this way until now. Like you say it's the same concept, they could have made this in the middle ages if they thought of it. And if it produces less airborne dust then it's clearly the superior machine for handling anything you don't want hanging in the air as dust, like flour. You'd expect this to be invented in the middle ages, not the 2000s.,(reply>), Then this is going to absolutely blow your mind. Look into how they used to move large amounts of flour in the middle ages, it's the same machine only the inside screw was the moving part vs the outside casing. Otherwise exact same device functionally. <br><br>I honestly don't get how this is considered novel it's just a inversion of a century's old idea.,(reply>), @ShadowDragon8685 and anyway, patents only last 20 years, so looks like this will be public domain some time next year :)