Today’s invention is another way for tracked military vehicles to maintain mobility when their tracks are damaged.
A number of individual, three-wheel drive units is provided. Each has its own motor and track. These tracks bear on the larger regular tank track which is still powered by the drive wheels in the usual way.
When the main track is broken, the small units can independently keep the vehicle going.
Today’s invention is a fold-out saw in a penknife format. Two of the three elements are hinged together and swing out from the penknife handle.
These are then clipped to a third element which has been pulled from the other end of the handle.
The spring tension in the knife body is enough to keep the combined blade straight and taught and to provide a sensible length of cutting edge -as well as a usable handle.
Many cities are divided by a wall or a fence intended to keep warring factions separate. Often, the warring is not being done by inhabitants but by gangsters or zealots who have a vested interest in maintaining a culture of fear on their side of the barrier.
Today’s invention is a door which can be placed in any such wall at multiple locations by the government which installs it. Each door has two apertures, each with a very heavy-duty lock and also a lockable porthole.
Many keys would be quietly distributed for each door among the people living on that side.
After a period of mistrust, people may develop curiosity about the others on the other side of the divide and, without being controlled by the local mobsters, they can gradually open the porthole and take a peek. Children might begin to leave notes in the internal space and the portholes may one day be opened simultaneously, allowing a low-threat way for people to see each other.
Eventually, locals may decide that they are ready to open their door briefly. Doing so, noisily, allows the others to consider their position too. When several doors have been left open for a while the power of the local thugs on both sides is diminished and trust may be given a chance.
I’ve been reading about the McLaren sports cars (great design, but a website so annoying I’m not going to post the link).
Today’s invention is for high-performance, mid-engined vehicles like these.
Since many are equipped with an inverted wing section to increase downthrust, this should actually be the vehicle’s radiator.
Coolant could flow directly from the engine, up the support struts on the leading edge and down the rear pair. This would raise the centre of gravity only slightly whilst greatly improving heat removal from the engine (and possibly allowing the car’s frontal area to be reduced too).
The number of tools which a penknife can be expected to accommodate is now phenomenal…but any of these with even the slightest possible use as a weapon are banned from air travel.
You can even buy eg an MP3 player from Victorinox which, oddly, comes “with or without blades” (In the latter case it seems to have none of the essential pull-out functionality of its stablemates).
Today’s invention, however, is a ‘penknife’ with only an entirely innocuous collection of tools on board: eg magnifying glass, tweezers, torch, memory stick, watch …
Drumsticks which are used outside eg by military bands can be hard to handle in cold weather (especially if the uniform doesn’t include gloves).
Today’s invention is to equip drumsticks with a hollow core into which can be inserted a tube of exothermic chemicals.
Any problems arising from the effect of this on the balance of the sticks could be addressed by fitting a small, screw-out weight to the distal (ie non-drumming) end of each to help finetune its feel.
On beaches which are so popular and dangerous as to warrant lifeguards, I’m concerned that the whole lifesaving thing relies on having beefy swimmers plough out through the waves to reach anyone in trouble.
Rather than waste this time, today’s invention is a tall, whippy tower with a rotating hinge mechanism at the bottom, unlike the normal watchtowers.
A lifeguard would perch at the top of this so as to be able to scan a very significant length of beach. On spotting someone in difficulties, the tower could be pointed in the right direction and allowed to hinge forward -throwing the guard more than 50 yards offshore and thus greatly speeding his or her rescue attempts.
If necessary, a line could link guard to the gantry, enabling both saved and saviour to be lifted ashore fast.
Loose change is generally a nuisance -especially the brown shrapnel kind.
Today’s invention is to create coins which each contain a bar magnet. This would allow all coins automatically to align themselves into a convenient column within someone’s pocket. No more rattling during presentations and, when you need to spend some change, just flip the required coins off the top of the stack.
If you wanted to go one step further, you could have slightly dished coins so that these could be arranged, partly overlapping each other, in the form of a bracelet or necklace.
I was struck, when passing some parked cars the other day, by how many of them had been left with lights on.
Today’s invention is a way to reduce this problem for people whose vehicles don’t yet have a lights-left-on alarm (or who are in such a rush that they fail to notice it).
People who spot lights left on can text the licence plate to a well-publicised number. This is linked to the licensing computer which automatically issues an alert to the mobile phone of the owner.
An alternative might be to plant a receiver in the car’s lighting circuitry, so that, if it is parked, the lamps can be automatically disconnected.
Crampons are all very well for ice climbing, but today’s invention represents an attempt to upgrade them to something better than the era of heroes like Hillary had access to.
Imagine boots whose soles have an array of studs. These studs are in the shape of sharp screws of differing diameter.
When the studs sense that they are pressing against a surface, a motor in each boot rotates the studs in contact with the surface so that the boot is temporarily screwed to it.
Another sensor then detects any pronounced tension as the wearer attempts to lift the boot and rapidly unscrews the studs from the ice.
In this way, more secure contact is established when walking or climbing, even enabling someone to walk on overhangs or eg the roof of an ice filled cave.
