#1638: HourGlass

Even though I’m sceptical about the net value of bottle recycling, I like bottlebanks -maybe it’s partly the urge to avoid waste.

One problem, though, is the terrible continuous noise created when people drive up at random times and smash the contents of several boxes full of empties.

Today’s invention is a way for this smashing to occur only at fixed times.

Glass items would be left in a series of plastic milk crates on top of a cylindrical housing (thus creating very little noise). The crates have no bottom floor.

An inner cylinder (blue) with holes rotates so that when the holes and bottle/jars coincide, the glassware falls through and makes a smashing noise.

This system rotates at a speed which causes the cratefuls all to drop through on the hour, thus causing much less disruptive noise -like a town clock striking.

In addition, the cylinder wall allows people to insert bottles in holes at different heights. As the inner cylinder rotates, these positioned bottles fall inwards creating a slow, introductory ‘chiming’ before the main crash.

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