I walked past a lorry the other day shredding papers from an office building. The whole thing was covered in ‘confidential shredding’ notices and yet anyone could have walked off with a wheelie bin full of secrets.
Today’s invention is a way to ensure that if you are daft enough to commit anything private to paper, it will stay private.
It is a novel shredder fitted with a seats and a set of bicycle pedals.
A small amount of non-secret paper is inserted in the slot and the pedals are used to shred it initially into the collection box (which is sealed, apart from a small air inlet and a chimney which protrudes through an open window).
The cranking also causes a lighter flint to spray sparks on the paper, igniting it.
A small steam engine boiler is located within the system, above the burning paper. Once heated, this helps to drive the pedal crank, making the job of shredding less arduous.
In this way, the secret papers are rendered completely unreadable, there is no costly, street level lorry and office staff get some exercise.
