A newish twist, by a man named Olds, on a screwy old idea

The Olds elevator is a fairly simple machine that apparently no one thought up until recently. It’s a fairly new twist, by a man named Olds, on a screwy old idea: Archimedes lifting screw:

Peter Olds has US patent #US7314131B2, which describes the invention.

(Thanks to Mark Dionne for bringing this to our attention.)