Gas-Powered Boots As Metaphor For Cold War

News.com has a piece up looking at a set of gas-powered boots that were developed during the cold war. While the technology itself is interesting, article author Andrew Kramer uses it as a launching point for a discussion of Russia's technological stagnation during the cold war. Outside of military applications, many of the innovative ideas developed in the former USSR during the 80s and early 90s were left to rot on the drawing board. The boots were eventually brought to market, but failed sometime last year. They do, of course, also go into how the boots work: "Taking a step down will compress air in the shoe--as in a typical sneaker, said Enikeev, who was a designer on the project. But then, a tiny carburetor injects gasoline into the compressed air and a spark plug fires it off. Instead of fastening a seat belt, the institute's test runner, Marat D. Garipov, an assistant professor of engineering, strapped on shin belts at a recent demonstration. Then he flicked an ignition switch."

Comments

Re:Disambiguation

[CmdrGravy]

Motor car fuel is called either Petrol or Diesel, gasoline is something used to light lamps. I wish posters here would learn to use the correct terminology.

Gas powered pogo stick

[jack_n_jill]

These seem to be a variation on the gas powered pogo stick. Like this; http://www.bpmlegal.com/wpogo.html They were a commerical product. They were also pretty dangerous. They appear on ebay on occasion.

Nuclear powered was better

[Flying pig]

At University we worked out the feasibility of a nuclear pogo stick. The idea is that the piston and the top end of the cylinder each contain subcritical masses of a suitable isotope. As the pogo stick compresses, the masses approach, generating heat, which expands the gas driving the stick. As the piston expands, at one point it uncovers a suitable gas to air heat exchanger through which the gas flows, cooling it and allowing the cycle to resume. (Basically a Stirling cycle). The air side of the heat exchanger is cooled by air movement.

Shielding is a bit of an issue, also ensuring that the helium used as the gas doesn't get out, though a suitable nuclear isotope would replace a slow loss of helium with alpha particles.

So there you have it, a carbon neutral, cheap and easily manufactured transport system. I'm honestly amazed we couldn't get anybody interested in manufacturing it in volume.

Re:Military secret, not a political problem

[xoyoyo]

Funny that you think I'm complaining about the oppressive industrial-military complex. Couldn't give two hoots about that, to be frank. I was more interested in picking apart the TFA's author's logic. He was making an argument that the lack of access to a modern IP regime and a lack of experience in entrepreneurship has led to Russia falling behind the rest of the technologically developing nations, but chooses an eyecatching story to back him up that doesn't actually have anything to do with that thesis.

As far as "falsibly" equate: well, in the Soviet Union if you invented something that might have military use they'd make it a military secret. In the US (as in the UK, Australia, Germany etc) if you invent something that breaches a military secret or could be used by the military, they'll declare it a secret - read the links I attached with my post. The two systems are identical in that respect. Of course the rules were/are applied differently, and the Soviets were much keener on suppressing such information than the west, but that doesn't invalidate the comparison.

George Orwell said it best...

[jimmydigital]

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a [gas powered] boot stomping on a human face -- forever.