Low-tech Inventions That Help Change Lives 174
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."
Drill-style water pump (Score:4, Interesting)
My understanding was that it's a lot better than many of the bucket+rope configurations used with wells.
my favorite.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Mousetrap (Score:5, Interesting)
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 [about.com]
even more :More about Shawn at MIT (Score:4, Interesting)
A MacGyver for the Third World
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aidg/612856202/in/set-72157600466239024/ [flickr.com]
flickr
http://instapundit.com/archives2/010388.php [instapundit.com]
instapundit is blogging the conference
http://www.aidg.org/component/option,com_jd-wp/Itemid,34/p,33/ [aidg.org]
some blog
Shawn Frayne is the founder of Haddock Invention LLC and its recent spin-off company, Humdinger Wind Energy, LLC. The mission of these companies is two-fold. First, to create technologies that can address long-standing problems in developing countries; and second, to leverage the novel aspects of those inventions through licensing deals in capital-rich nations such as the U.S., thereby generating a self-supporting revenue stream for the projects.
His work has so far focused in the fields of solar water disinfection, inflatable packaging, food preservation, charcoal-production, and wind power generation, with several products successfully licensed or sold. It was during his time as a student in MIT's D-Lab that Shawn first became convinced that the key inventions of the next century won't necessarily be born in wealthy countries. Rather, the new industries of the coming years will be founded on breakthrough technologies invented in Haiti or Zambia or Guatemala, where the hardest problems in the world will yield the greatest inventions.
Re:stupid (Score:4, Interesting)
I know, right? Like those "New World" American colonies. Look what a shithole those ended up as... The UK's little experiment-that-rebelled, barely able to feed the rich, nevermind the poor; Canada, France's version of the same, we have to accept that they always had the climate against them anyway; And the mishmash in South America, man, a real sob-story with the Spanish taking their gold and the Vatican taking their souls.
Colonialism makes a nice "White Man's fault" excuse. Yet, I'd have to say that we really don't have a lot of examples that do anything but contradict that stance. Europeans found Africa in a state of savagery, and such has it stayed (though they've upgraded the weaponry used in tribal warfare - Though they need to thank (or curse) the Europeans even for that humble advancement).
The closest Africa ever came to pulling itself out of the mud (Biafra), it excised like a tumor. And how does it view attempts at Western aid to its woes? They seriously believe we've sent them condoms poisoned with AIDS to kill them all off (on a good day - On bad days, they accuse us of witchcraft).
Re:Water purification (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Several years ago I read an article online about how some group was purifying water will ceramic, clay, pots. Water would be put into the pots then it would slowly seep through, when it did contaminants were removed. I just did a quick Google of purify water ceramic OR clay pots [google.com] to see if I could find TFA and the first result was Oxfam on the border: Where the crisis in Darfur meets Chad and Central Africa [oxfamamerica.org] with a paragraph on how pots with sand in them are used to purify water. Those making the pots are able to create an income in making them.
FalconRe:my favorite.. (Score:2, Interesting)
Over 100 years older, and it would seem to more effective (wind + water cooling) as opposed to just water evaporation.
Don't these award people have the internet?
Winiarski Rocket Stove (Score:1, Interesting)
http://www.repp.org/discussiongroups/resources/stoves/apro/designp/Design%20Poster.pdf [repp.org]
It's basically a chimney stove, but adds insulation to keep the temperatures
higher in the combustion chamber which causes complete combustion (no smoke)
and tries to keep the cross sectional area of the chimney constant even as it flows
around the pot by making the hot gasses pass very close to the pot.
This results in higher heat transfer
These principles can be used in many different stoves. Here is one
cleverly developed by Ken Goyer which uses 6 bricks made from local
clay, fired and then wired together and can be produced for around 1 dollar. He has
produced 10,000 of these.
http://www.aiduganda.org/cgi-bin/s-mart.pl?command=showpic&currpic=Stoves/lira01454.jpg&start=0 [aiduganda.org]
More information can be found at the approvecho research institute
http://www.aprovecho.org/ [aprovecho.org] or by googling for "rocket stove"
Re:Hexayurts (Score:3, Interesting)