#1419: ShowerShot

I was reading today about the AK47 assault rifle. It seems this has been adopted in such huge numbers largely because of its insensitivity to dirt.

Today’s invention is therefore a technique by which more accurate, and therefore less grime-tolerant, weapons can clean themselves.

The rounds used would include an occasional one with no bullet. Instead, the cartridge would fire a plug of wadding, soaked in cleaning agent, down the barrel, clearing out the detritus left by previous rounds and helping to keep the rifling suitably polished.

#1418: Lactometer

There are now at least three different degrees of skimmed milk easily available at my local supermarket (leaving aside the various goat’s and soya varieties).

Today’s invention is to transform this selection into a continuum.

It consists of a plastic unit into which two milk containers screw (one, say, red top (skimmed) and the other green top (semi skimmed)). A tap within the unit allows the relative amount of each to be regulated when filling a glass or pouring onto cereal.

In this way, the degree of fat present can be controlled continuously, and exactly to the user’s taste in a variety of different scenarios.

#1417: Acceleratrain

Today’s invention is a way for people to board trains and disembark from them without the trains themselves ever slowing.

Having trains stop is pretty inefficient and it also means that the only place you can get aboard is at a station.

Instead, the idea is to have a small, electrically-driven micro-carriage running parallel to the train itself. People could get on this, via a simple siding, get up to speed, and when the two vehicles docked, simply walk from one to the other.

The accelerating engine would then disengage and run backwards to its siding, to wait for the next train and its passengers. Obviously this requires that the accelerative micro-carriages have efficient drive mechanisms and are monitored rigorously to avoid collisions. Some might stay docked, to allow for extra flexibility (A super clever system would have a range of microcarriages which would feed passengers from walking to bullet train speed).

In this way, main trains could avoid the problems of variable speed and passengers could board or get off at any one of a very large number of intermediate locations.