Category: Feasible inventions

It’s not that surprising that petrol stations generate large amounts of potentially toxic chemicals (Benzene and Hexane, among others).

Today’s invention aims to lessen the chance of a lungful of this stuff as you fill your tank (and prepare to fork out £60 or so for the privilege).

Each filler nozzle would have a small vacuum cleaner, activated when fuel was flowing, which would suck air and the dangerous vapours back through a valve before they could be breathed.

The vapours might then be condensed and passed back into liquid storage (although this would depend on the volume affected, since it might be possible inadvertently to alter the composition of the fuel on sale).

My guess is that eg Formula 1 pit crew already have this technology in place, for reasons of fire safety.

For arenas which are large and yet must be used flexibly, enter today’s invention.

It’s a wheeled robot which can pick up chairs, even when they are randomly lying about, and place them, nested, within its body.

The robot can then move itself so as to position the chairs very precisely -according to a layout described by a remote technician with a touchpad.

Layouts could even include eg circles for group discussions, rearranged rapidly from the normal rows, during a coffee break.

Today’s invention is a telescopic inner shaft for an umbrella.

When it’s raining and you are stuck outside for a while, watching some match, for example, this extra shaft can be extended downwards from inside the normal umbrella handle and locked at a convenient length.

This acts as a monopod to take the weight of the brolly, so that one’s arm doesn’t get fatigued.

The lower end of the shaft could have a point, a turf screw or even a small fold-out tripod so that it stands securely anchored.

I watched a woman knock over a cup of coffee whilst traveling by train today.

Today’s invention would have helped avoid such a small-scale disaster.

It is a coffee cup lid with a depression in the top. Take off the top and press the cup into the depression until an interference fit is achieved.

This forms a drip tray/saucer as well as a base which maintains stability -even when the level of coffee remaining is low.

Today’s invention is a ski outfit adaptation for novices in the sport.

The surface of the suit would be covered in numerous rubbery prongs (say 20mm long) so that when in collision with someone’s helmet or another skier’s body at speed, the novice would have an extra, lightweight impact barrier.

Falling on hard snow or ice, as happens about every 30 seconds, would also be cushioned.

In addition, the prongs would rapidly slow a skier who was sliding bodily down the slope, before too many subsequent crashes had occurred.

Mountain rescue dogs (and their handlers) do a great job. Today’s invention is aimed at supporting their efforts.

Every time a mountain walker heads off from base they open a packet containing a scented stick. The manufacturer would make these with carefully controlled amounts of a number of scents, so that they are differentiable by dogs.

One half of the stick is attached to a board or a car parked at base. The other is inserted into a spring-loaded slot in the base of one boot.

During walking, the spring forces the stick into contact with the ground so that tiny, smelly crumbs are shed.

If a walker or mountaineer does not return, a tracker dog can be allowed to smell the half left below and then follow the trail of scented crumbs direct to the missing person.

Amazon and other book-sellers are trying to address a number of problems by the use of e-readers.

There is still a stubborn body of customers, however, who want their books in hardcopy.

This entails postal costs which are enormous (to say nothing of the environmental effects). Today’s invention is aimed at lessening these.

Books would simply be printed with a very narrow margin. If you want to study the book and make marginal annotations for posterity, buy the full-page edition. Otherwise, save the planet by ordering a tightly-cropped, tabloid version and avoid shipping a billion tonnes of blank paper.

Airliners have specific periods for which their jet engines must be warmed up before they can take off. This can involve generating significant quantities of hot exhaust for minutes at a time.

Today’s invention is a simple tool to help airlines recoup some of the wasted energy.

An airport tractor would be fitted with two large heat exchanger coils. These would be separable laterally in order to line up with the exhaust from two jets on an airliner’s wing. The exhaust flow would pass through the central duct in each, allowing for heat transfer but providing minimal reaction force on the plane.

Two such tractors could be driven up to a four engine jet in order to extract some of the heat which would otherwise warm the atmosphere over the tarmac. The energy could be used to heat water for use in the terminal building.

The vast majority of contact lens wearers use two identical lenses.

Today’s invention is a way to reduce the huge amount of waste packaging associated with these valuable articles.

It simply involves placing two lenses into each fluid filled container instead of one, when lenses are being packed in the factory.

Such double lens packs would be differentiated by eg a different coloured foil lid.

There is even an argument for doing this with all lenses so that someone who needs +1.0 and +1.5 dioptre lenses would get one package with 2*+1.0 and one package with 2*+1.5 (since the cost of two lenses can’t be that much more than that for one).

Clay pigeon shooting can be a bit of a let-down. Most of the time you miss, but even when you do manage to smash a clay, it’s not exactly visually rewarding.

Today’s invention is a small disc of firework material which can be attached, using adhesive backing, to a clay pigeon.

When this is hit, the shooter and his/her audience see a coloured flash in the sky.

The discs could be made in different colours and sizes so that the colour and extent of the flash indicate the degree to which a shot was on-target.

The approach also has the benefit of comminuting the clay debris even more finely, so that there may be marginally less damage to the local environment.