#1595: Rungrails

I’ve seen people in a gym ‘working out’ using a system consisting of a central rail with moving handholds and footpegs on the outside.

Today’s invention (didn’t find it in a search of the patents) is a variant on this which works as a ladder.

As shown, a person would place their feet in the stirrups and hold the handles. Both stirrups and handles would be free to slide up in slots on the inside of each of the risers.

When any downward pressure was applied to either, a simple ratchet would stop any downwards movement.

This would allow someone to climb the ladder conveniently, using steps with a variable size.

#1594: Rollauncher

I’ve always loved the Eureka Magazine Coffee-time Challenge (although I don’t always agree with the published solutions).

The most recent one is about how to launch boats in bad weather and/or when the tide is far out.

Today’s invention is a large tyre-like ring. This starts onshore in a lagoon (right side of the diagram). The ring would be part-submerged (perhaps even tipped to one side) and the boat sailed in onto the water it contains.

The boat’s propeller drives it up against the ring’s front wall and the whole system moves out of the lagoon and rolls down the beach.

When the wheel hits the water, the ring submerges, disgorges the boat and waits for it to return.

#1593: RungRinger

Today’s invention is a safety device for ladders.

The ladder contains an embedded smartphone, incorporating accelerometers. This is switched on when a sensor in the first rung detects the weight of a foot.

If, in the next second or two, the ladder moves, or remains at a dangerously non-vertical angle, the phone issues an alarm (and may automatically contact the hire company -or the homeowner).

#1592: ButtonBoard

Have you ever noticed the big difference between even The best keyboard keys and the way your mouse button works?

The keys are designed to move vertically through a relatively large distance, so that your fingers can change their mind in the course of a mistaken selection and also, I guess, so that touch typists can rest their hands on the keyboard without accidentally typing. Most people, though, aren’t touch typists.

Today’s invention is a keyboard for the rest of us -ie with keys made in the manner of mouse buttons. These would have a very small travel, require little force but also give crisp auditory and tactile feedback -something that conventional keys rarely manage.

The keys would probably be best hinged from the edge nearest the screen and could still be separated from each other by a gap, to help with locating them. This would lessen the severity of finger impacts which occur thousands of times per day and perhaps reduce rsi-type injuries.

#1591: Volumesh

Someone recently said “You’re an Inventor? What can we buy that you’ve invented?” Good question.

The expert staff at Maplins (“sorry we don’t have that in stock”) tell me that I’m not supposed to use crimp connectors on solid wire. Bull.

Today’s invention is a way to build 3-D models and sculptures using these connectors and solid, garden-quality iron wire. Once each section of wire has a connector crimped (hard) on the end, they can be joined, several at a time, using a nut and bolt. This can be used to make robust, 3-D forms of everything from DNA to Buckyballs to birds. I tend to favour uniformly triangular connectivity.

If you fancy your own sculpture, I’m now selling plans at £5 and kits at £50. I also do commissions -just email me.

#1590: RopeProps

I have a pretty boring car but I’d still like to preserve it until I can afford a real one. So when people bang the doors of my vehicle shut, I lose my sense of proportion (such as it was).

Today’s invention is a simple add-on to stop the eardrum and door-catch damage caused by well meaning, but mechanically inept, door users.

Each door has a nylon rope attached to it firmly. Along the length of each rope are tough foam cylinders.

When someone is getting out of the car, just as they are about to slam a door shut, the driver, who is holding the other end of the rope, pulls it tight whilst gripping the nearest cylinder.

Like the legs of those wooden toys that collapse when their elastic limb cores are slackened, the door in question would be braced -even against an enthusiastic exiter. You could say “I’ve got the door, thanks” and then pull the rope until the door closed properly.

These props would be flexible enough to lie within the car out of the way when not being used and might even offer a new chivalry in that once a door catch was released, the driver could push the door open from a seated position.

#1589: Tentaclean

I have a real problem when I find rubbish dumped on the street within a few metres of a wastebin.

Today’s invention is a way to help deal with litter. It achieves this by making bins more interactive.

Each bin would contain a large number of fine threads held on reels. The free end of each thread would be equipped with a small magnetic catch, leaflike in shape, so that a loop could be formed in the end of the thread.

Periodically, a fan within the bin would blow these ends of the threads high in the air, causing them to fall to earth in a circular distribution, up to say 5m from the bin.

People would be able to attach light items of rubbish and then watch as these were withdrawn back into the bin under the action of the same motor that drives the fan.

Each thread’s catch would be opened simply by coming into contact with a constriction within the bin, releasing the item of waste to fall inside.

#1588: Leavesneeze

Today’s invention is a way to add value to those paperbacks which people buy to read when traveling.

Each such tome would have several additional blank pages at the end, made from absorptive, soft paper.

When overcome by the sudden urge to sneeze, a reader would quickly turn to the back of the book and press their face into one of the tissues there. Each of these could then be torn out and discarded.

This could help lessen the productivity losses of national economies -a significant saving, given the cross infections that occur in planes, trains and buses.

#1587: ScentSwitch

When applying deodorant, you can never be sure that you have used enough.

Today’s invention provides a way to make more effective use of deodorant in the form of a solid stick. The stick material would resemble a glue stick or lipstick, being supplied in a tube with a screw mechanism to advance the deodorant.

The stick itself would be clear and non-marking but it would have embedded within it a layer of different perfume every few mm along its length (or whatever spacing was required to provide an armpit with adequate protection).

The stick would be applied to armpit 1 until a new perfume was sensed by the user and then the process repeated on the other side until another new perfume was smelt. Each armpit would smell different, but that might be used to provide a quirky advertising advantage.

#1586: Drawareness

Today’s invention is a holster for handguns that guarantees that, when drawn, the weapon’s safety catch is automatically released.

The interior of the holster would be fitted with a moulded channel component. This would act as a cam for the particular gun in question, bearing on the safety catch both when withdrawn and re-holstered so that moving the gun relative to the holster moves the catch relative to the weapon.

This means that every time a gun is unholstered (from a safe condition), the user can’t be confused about whether or not they are holding a live weapon.