WE USUALLY steer clear of perpetual motion and anti-gravity machines. The
inventor is always just on the point of getting rid of the power source needed
to make the prototype work and only needs another few million dollars of
investors鈥� money to finish the job.
So we were intrigued by the carefully worded claim that came with a gadget
from China that a correspondent found in a little shop on the outskirts of
London: 鈥淣ear perpetual motion anti-gravity device鈥攏o batteries
谤别辩耻颈谤别诲.鈥�
The device consists of a torpedo-shaped plastic slug with two bulges along
its length. Normally the slug sits immobile and snug in a plastic cradle which
has a vertical transparent plate at the end.
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Turn the slug around, however, and something quite magical happens. It
levitates and hangs horizontally above the cradle, with no visible means of
support other than lightly touching the vertical plate at one end. Twist it and
it spins like a top.
An evening spent with screwdrivers and magnetic field detectors revealed that
the bulges in the slug each contain a magnet, and each recess in the cradle has
a pair of magnets. The six north/south poles are reversed to make the cradles
thrust the slug upwards against gravity. The magnets鈥� positions and strengths
are so finely tuned to gravity that the slug hovers and spins in free space.
The toy is completely pointless, of course. But anyone tired of their desktop
Newton鈥檚 cradle will surely crave one. There is only one problem. The shop only
had one in stock and has been unable to get any more. There is no maker鈥檚 name
on the box. It just says 鈥淢ade in China鈥�, and China is a big place.
New Scientist readers have always been good sleuths. Where can we
get one for the office?
TALKING of inventions, did you ever have an idea that was so good you wanted
to share it with the world so everyone could see how smart you are?
If so, there鈥檚 a nice website you can send your idea to and see it published.
Called Lazy Entrepreneur and run by Scott Adams, the site is a collection of
inventions that haven鈥檛 been developed yet, but show distinct promise.
We particularly liked the submission by 鈥淨ueen Joanna鈥� of an alarm clock
attached to a toy train running on a track round your bedroom鈥攂ut not too
close to the bed. The idea is that you have to get up and chase the clock round
the room when it goes off, rather than just rolling over and hitting the snooze
button.
We also liked the keyboard-powered computer, submitted by 鈥淐ompbert鈥�. The
idea here is that you generate power with every keystroke you make. The power is
stored in a battery and is used to run the computer.
Sadly, however, this idea is not new. Compaq already has a patent on it
(New Scientist, 24 July 1999, p 10), though we鈥檝e yet to see the prototype.
This shows what a minefield of property rights the world of inventions
is鈥攕o it鈥檚 just as well that amongst all the wacky ideas on the site,
Adams includes some sensible notes on protecting ideas and developing them.
Any budding inventors who want to know more should go to
http://umweb3.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/lazyentrepreneur.
PSEUDO SCIENCE crops up in the most unexpected places. When veterinarians
failed to treat a sick lion at Newquay Zoo in Cornwall earlier this year, staff
called in a local faith healer to try and cure it.
According to a report in The Guardian, the lion had been moved to
the zoo to recover from injuries sustained in a fight with another lion in a
safari park. Sad to say, the attentions of the faith healer made no difference
to its health, and it was eventually put down.
Perhaps we shouldn鈥檛 be too surprised. An autopsy performed on the lion
revealed that the real cause of its illness was a feline version of BSE.
DOES YOUR computer have slovenly handwriting?
Some of them obviously do. Why else would Telstra, the Australian telecoms
company, have this as a condition for using its online service: 鈥淎ny notices to
Telstra in relation to these Terms and Conditions must be in legible writing, in
English, and sent to the e-mail address shown below . . . 鈥�
READER Geoff Palmer says he has taken a Lego Mindstorms 鈥淒ark Side Developer
Kit鈥� off his Christmas wish list. He thinks the kit鈥檚 robots look very
impressive and there鈥檚 a great Star Wars-style video clip on the
company website at http://mindstorms.lego.com. But unfortunately the clip has a
subtitle that reads: 鈥淭he actual product does not have the ability to shoot
lasers.鈥� So Palmer will have to look elsewhere for death-dealing Christmas
toys.
FINALLY, when spending his last few coins in Greece this summer, reader James
Butler decided to buy something typically Greek from the airport, so he picked a
jar of olives. It was only later that he found that what he had purchased bore
the label 鈥淭raditional Italian olives鈥�, followed by 鈥淧acked in Portsmouth鈥�.
