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Low-tech Inventions That Help Change Lives
angelaelle writes "The current issue of Popular Mechanics is featuring their Breakthrough Awards program for inventors. Some of the winning inventions help improve the living conditions for people in third world countries using low-tech materials and assembly methods. Technologies like this cookstove for people in Darfur, and in the case of this Windbelt developed by Shawn Frayne, could be used to provide cheap, clean energy alternatives. The website features fascinating, inspiring videos talking about the inventor's 'eureka moment', focusing on the inventor as well as the technology."
It sounds like you're talking about Archimedes' screw.
"The fight for freedom has only just begun." - Geert Wilders
I do believe that this invention is known as an Archimede's Screw.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes_screw
The fact that it is named after a dead Greek should tell you how well known the principles of it are.
A lot of these sorts of technologies were aggregated (PDF) by the Hexayurt folks. The hexayurt is itself one of these technologies. A roomy shelter costing just over $200, takes just a few hours to build, and has the R-value of a typical house.
http://hexayurt.com/
The problem is that invention can be countered by the Roman Catholic! :-P
Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
Have you ever tried to catch mice?
If you have, you will know how brilliant idea the normal mousetrap actually is. It's ridiculously cheap and efficient, and has practically remained the same for almost 100 years. Here is a link to the pantent:
http://inventors.about.com/od/weirdmuseums/ig/History-of-Mousetraps/James-Doubt---Mousetrap-Patent.htm
My master's degree is design of an appropriate technology vehicle -- turns out, the appropriate technology movement was abandoned, even to the point of making the phrase a faux-pas in the engineering community based on the idea that it provided mediocre solutions, and that the modern world was simply trying to placate the developing world with sub-par solutions. After projects like the OLPC however, I think it's become evident that applications of simple technology to problems that demand it deserve just as much attention. Giving someone who can't afford gasoline or buy spare car parts a car is like giving Robinson Caruso a cell phone where he can't get reception.
Quiz: True or False -- On a scale of 1 to 10, what is your middle name?
They went out, and studied the needs, and the current stuff they used, every thing from the size of pots, to the long stick they use to stir it, and that women would leave villages for hours looking for wood, and get their arms chopped off by bad people. So, they tailor made and engineered something stable, cost effective, designed for the size/style of equipment they already use, and it uses 1/4 the fuel, meaning less trips out into the dangerous woods.. they are not just a store bought BBQ starter..
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
I read an article some time ago which outlined a very low-tech way to help purify water in countries with high incidences of Malaria, Dysentery, etc. By painting the surface of huts/housing flat black and placing clear plastic water bottles on them for a few hours. The sun & UV help to kill off most parasites and biological pathogens quite effectively and at a price much cheaper than other filtration solutions. Nice low-tech solution which is cheap, effective, and requires no special equipment.
Do not taunt Happy-Fun Ball
You can't take the sky from me...
People can do their part by using these personal conservation technologies in their own lives.
A few times a week, I set out a big pot of stew or chili or soup in my solar cooker. Even in the dead of winter, I come home to a hot meal at the end of the day. It Works. And it's awesome.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
The Stoves BioEnergy Discussion List (web site http://www.bioenergylists.org/) is a really great resource if you are interested in the global effort to build better, cheaper, low tech cooking stoves. Appropriate technology isn't dead, it's thriving in a lot of these areas where there are limited resources, and not a lot of press coverage. This is My favorite Darfur stove: http://www.bioenergylists.org/en/taxonomy/term/909 It can be built in the refugee camp instead of shipped there, and it can easily be modified to handle charcoal. Fuel flexibility is important when there are limited resources.
Um, no.
Archimede's Screw is not a replacement for a rope & bucket. Or at least, not for the sort of deep well seen in many parts of the world where surface water is unavailable or contaminated.
Archimede's Screw requires substantially more run then rise; making it suitable for moving water up and over from a river to a settling pond or canal. Wikipedia has a good explanation of the mathematics; for the casual reader just figure about a 30 degree angle or less.
On the other hand a rope & bucket is all rise and very little run; it just brings water up, on the very close order of 90 degrees.
So they're substantially different sort of devices, and not interchangeable at all. Nor is either particularly new, Archimede's Screw dates back 2,500+ years, the rope and bucket considerably further.
All of that said, I have to note that not knowing about Archimede's Screw is a pretty spectacular gap in a decent education.
The six classes of simple machines - wedge, ramp, screw, lever, wheel & axle, and pulley, are fundamental to how the machanical world works. I'd have hoped this is covered early on in anyone's education, particularly anyone with any sort of interest in 'how the world works'.
If your educational system neglected this material perhaps a note to them detailing this gap, and resulting gaffe, might inspire the current generation of educators to review the curricula and see if that can't fit it in somewhere.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.