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#1399: Splashield

When adding food to boiling water, it can be dangerous to remove a saucepan lid and dump it in. The splashing is particularly bad, even if the steam doesn’t get you.

Today’s invention is a saucepan with a handle which behaves like a chute. A small platform at the distal end of the handle allows you to slide food elements (eg gnocchi) into the water, without removing the lid or getting splashed.

Any steam which travels up the handle will be avoidable but most will actually condense on the inside of the handle, lubricating the downwards movement of the food.

#1389: SupperSpray

We are told that too much salt in the diet is unhealthy.

Today’s invention is to provide salt pre-dissolved in vinegar for use on the dining table. A water spray, of the kind used on plant leaves, would be filled with vinegar and a small amount of salt added in the factory so as to form a solution of known concentration.

This would allow foods, such as fish and chips, to have only limited quantities of salt applied to them (and in a more uniform way than sprinkling separately).

#1385: CleanerShield

Today’s invention is a modification to those conventional (and pretty effective) vacuum cleaner bags that many of us still use.

I’ve noticed that sucking up fragments of rubble and sharp debris tends pretty quickly to make a hole in the side of the bag opposite the inlet (rendering the whole device temporarily useless).

The idea would therefore be to place a cheap, multilayer cardboard pad on the inside of the bag at the impact location. This would effectively resist damage whilst not limiting too greatly the flexibility or the air-permeable area of the bag itself.

#1366: RollReel

Sick of staring at those old plain-painted plaster walls?

Today’s invention is a networked projector which allows the user to download wallpaper patterns (and user-chosen combinations of sub-patterns) from a large database.

These are then colour-tweaked, according to taste, and projected onto one’s walls to give a realistic impression of the flock effect William Morris paper of your dreams -in situ.

Press the button and a selected number of rolls of personalised paper are in the post to you.

#1359: Pokair

Todays invention is a poker for wood-burning stoves, ovens and fireplaces.

Instead of just aerating the fuel by agitation and exposing fresh surface material, this device contains a replaceable cannister of compressed air in the handle.

When jostling the fire, a trigger on the poker can be pulled to inject a stream of air and thus stoke a reluctant fire more effectively.

#1346: Plasterpix

Today’s invention is a small way to reduce a child’s distress, having sustained a plaster-worthy cut.

Each plaster would have an outer surface capable of retaining pen marks.

This would allow the injured party to do a little drawing of the incident which caused their wound, so that when asked “how did you do that?” they could simply brandish the evidence of the whole grisly event .

#1343: PainterPointer

Today’s invention is a new paintbrush.

This contains a detachable handle (orange), which allows a range of different ‘profilers’ to be inserted (blue).

This forces the bristles (grey) to adopt a profile ideally suited to the painting task of the moment -ie from broad brush to very fine detail

It can be swapped quickly when eg up a ladder without having to carry multiple, paint-covered brushes.

#1340: PileParting

A twin-blade razor extends the stubble hairs with the leading blade so that the trailing blade can cut it even shorter.

A similar approach is employed in today’s invention: a new carpet cleaning head for a vacuum cleaner.

The leading suction branch pulls the carpet fibres to one side, making it easier for the following branch to extract dirt particles from within the depth of the pile.

#1336: SpeakerSpacing

It seems the guidelines for optimal placement of one’s speakers in a room are reasonably straightforward.

Today’s invention is a pair of speakers which are set on movable stands. The speakers can be driven vertically upwards and downwards and the stands are also mobile, being driven across the floor by onboard motors.

The system comes equipped with a remote control unit (containing a wifi transmitter). Sit down, holding this facing the speakers, in your listening chair and they will automatically dispose themselves adaptively to suitable positions and heights (relative to the corners of the room, the listener and each other).

The remote allows the selection of different test music and also fine tuning of speaker location/orientation.