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Gravity Lamp Grabs Green Prize
eldavojohn writes "A lamp powered by gravity has won the second prize at the Greener Gadgets Conference in NYC. From the article, "The light output will be 600-800 lumens — roughly equal to a 40-watt incandescent bulb over a period of four hours. To "turn on" the lamp, the user moves weights from the bottom to the top of the lamp. An hour glass-like mechanism is turned over and the weights are placed in the mass sled near the top of the lamp. The sled begins its gentle glide back down and, within a few seconds, the LEDs come on and light the lamp ... Moulton estimates that Gravia's mechanisms will last more than 200 years, if used eight hours a day, 365 days a year." The article contains links to the patents and the designer/inventor Clay Moulton's site." I think my laptop would require a slightly larger weight to pull this off.
Say what?!? Why on earth would they tell you that?
This is slashdot, we have articles here, not thinly disguised advertisements.
At the bottom of the
How about a clock?
i'm going to use the light from this lamp to power my photovoltaic weight lifting machine.
Will it still be cool to light up your lamp with gravity, when there's no gravity left and people are spinning right off the planet into outerspace? I guess it will eliminate the greenhouse gas issue by allowing the atmosphere to disappear when there's no more gravity left - but unfortunately it will also not allow people to live (the ones that are still on the planet after the other ones spun off into space as noted earlier)
But what will we do after peak gravity?
You don't know the difference between a lamp and a clock?
One tells time, the other emits light. I thought that was fairly obvious.
Duh! Because it's a *light* powered by weights!
No sig for you!!
I've already started looking into buying "gravity offsets" and trying to use as much rope, glue, velcro, and static cling as possible.
I like basketball!!1!
I can't really see why a small electric motor couldn't be incorporated into the design to do this, surely it would be much more convenient?
All you'd need is one that ran on heat, assuming you're not into necrophilia.
For the average male, yes. But this is slashdot. One only needs the strength of a wet noodle to post here, and actual exercise is frowned upon. As is leaving the basement for fresh air and/or a little sun.
120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
He could've made this even greener by incorporating a small bird or monkey whose job it was to crank this to the top. This way, the people of the world are motivated to preserve wildlife so that they can read novels at night.
I never won a green prize for that.
I guess I was ahead of my time.
All I remember was.. the brakes didn't work, and I felt pain for 2 weeks.
Upon further inspection, it turns out the 50 lb mass is actually 50 6-volt lantern batteries. Oops.
You doubt the power of His Noodly Appendage?
Your story reminds me of the time when I turned an ordinary bicycle into a gravity-powered superbike. I still have a scar from that one.
Legalize it.