Plenty of innovative designs have died with the inventor. During the late 70's and early 80's I was fortunate enough to have some guidance from a very talented mechanical engineer. This guy designed the machine that folds the milk carton and designed and built the CAP cranes in Victoria. I met him after his factory burned down and he moved to Queensland. He called on us one day to have work done on his crane and ended up lending us a 6T telescopic 360 truck mounted crane for a very long time. He was a giver, never asking for financial reward for anything.
This great guy had a design for a solar powered air-conditioner that he was going to give me to develop. Unfortunately I packed up and left for the west and never returned. My guess is he's died now but I have no doubt his design would have been a successful one as he was an honest hard working guy who had a history of design and production of good ideas.
I regret not staying in touch...... :/ If you've got an idea, just get it out there. There's more to life than money.