#1288: N-shooter

Again, the boyish obsession with firearms, I’m afraid…

Today’s invention is a cylinder for a revolver with a massively increased capacity.

This would be fitted to any revolver of the right calibre by ‘breaking’ the weapon as usual and replacing the existing cylinder with the one shown in the diagram.

This would be driven from chamber to chamber using the cocking mechanism and a ratchet formed on the inside surface of the new supersized cylinder (exactly the same type of drive as is used on conventional revolvers).

#1287: Showheels

Trade shows and exhibitions are so last-but-one century.

People pay vast amounts to have ‘stands’ so that many more folk can pass by semi-somnolent and maybe pick up horrible free pens and product literature.

Today’s invention is to have an exhibition space filled with ‘stands’ which are free to move very slowly from place to place. These would each be mounted on an electrically-driven trolley and allow anyone to hop on and off (or wheelchairs to roll on roll off).

Just having stands appear next to each other in interesting juxtapositions would be exciting and thought provoking, but I’d also suggest having stands of differing sizes so that many people (eg startups) might have one that was like a powered shopping trolley.

How about stands which could be directed by delegates’ mobile phone messages?

#1286: Contourkeys

Rather than cart around a collection of Yale keys, today’s invention allows a user to carry only the outer profile of each key,

These can be made of very stiff metal so that twisting within the lock can be sustained repeatedly without breakage.

The key outlines might also be nested, so that the whole ‘keyring’ can be conveniently stored flat in a wallet, for example.

This might take the form of a metal business card with laser-cut profiles in it -each of which which could bend outwards independently to allow door opening.

#1285: Verturbine

Vertical wind turbines suffer from the problem that their blades cause a huge amount of drag when rotating around into the wind. Today’s invention aims to overcome that.

A (blue) platform carries a fin and is free to rotate into the wind like a weathercock. On this platform stands a vertical cylinder with a semicylindrical blade attached via a springloaded hinge (shown in red).

The wind, blowing from the bottom half of the diagram, rotates the cylinder anticlockwise about its axis on the platform (A). Rollers attached to the platform then close the blade, removing its drag component and compressing the sprung hinge (B).

Inertia carries the cylinder around until the blade is released for another cycle (C). More blades of course would be better.

#1284: SackSack

Wine-in-a-box is actually wine-in-a-metallised-plastic-bag-in-a-box.

This is great for keeping the wine fresh, but not so good in terms of elegantly serving a ‘luxury’ product.

Today’s invention is therefore a bottle which contains a plastic bag full of wine. The bottle comes with a bag inserted and with the usual plastic tap incorporated into the bottle neck.

This allows the contents to be dispensed from a bottle which can be resealed conveniently, without allowing air to contact the wine in between openings.

#1283: Camouflag

Military vehicles often need to carry various electronic self-identification technologies on board to ensure that they are not accidentally attacked by their own side’s missiles.

Today’s invention is a simpler, less costly version of this approach, applicable to every vehicle, in which a 2-D barcode (eg QR code) is carried on a pull-out, printed panel (as flags are traditionally used).

This ensures that optically guided missiles will not engage with friendly vehicles marked in this way and it also allows the code to be almost indistinguishable (to human eyes) from the background camouflage pattern applied to the vehicle in question.

This makes it hard for enemy spies to copy the code and use it to protect their own tanks (especially since a new code panel could be printed out daily).

#1282: Remotivation

Today’s invention is a combination of social networking and exercise technology.

It consists of a regular gps running device with a phone built in. When running in a big event, information about your distance and heartbeat is automatically provided to your Twitter followers (especially tagged eg #exhortation if the readings indicate that you were flagging or in distress).

The followers can then tweet replies which are text-to-speech-ed, via a small loudspeaker, so that you can hear their words of support.

#1281: Hysteresteps

Public safety sometimes relies on having crowds behave in sensible ways. I’m always surprised when using underground train systems that there are signs saying “keep to the right when ascending” and yet the stairs themselves offer no incentive to conform.

Frequently, the whole system clogs up because of someone with a wheeled suitcase deciding to climb on the side that is being used by 1000 others to descend.

Today’s invention is a side-by-side, two-lane staircase which makes it easier to climb on one side and descend on the other.

The stair risers are of different heights. This alone stops people using them in a daydream or when eg running.

The red profile is best suited for ascending, having bigger steps at the bottom and shallower ones at the top (when you are getting tired).

The blue profile has deeper steps nearer the top, but once one’s downward momentum has gathered, the steps get smaller towards the bottom (so that one’s knees and ankles don’t suffer from ever-increasing jolts on the way down).

#1280: FramePipe

Motorcycle exhausts are never really an attractive feature of any machine.

Today’s invention is to use the frame of a bike as a conduit for exhaust flow from the engine. This would work particularly well in those machines with large-section box frames (into which various filters might easily be fitted, without significantly increasing ‘back-pressure’ on the engine).

There would be an outlet from the frame, somewhere at the rear of the machine.

This would also lessen the weight of a bike (even if some local strengthening were required and a silencer attached to the exit).

#1279: Namemory

There is a real problem that people aren’t yet opting-in, in large enough numbers, to donate their organs after (brain)death.

Today’s invention is a web-based mechanism which makes it easy for a person to assert online that they’d like to donate in this way.

The website would also make it a very easy requirement for the recipient to change their name to include that of the donor. So Joe Smith who lives on after a donation by John Doe would be immediately and officially converted, in all official documentation and correspondence, to Joe [John, Doe] Smith.

In this way, a donor and his/her family could feel that their memory lived on and was fully appreciated by the recipient.