Teen Invents Flashlight That Runs On Hand Heat

Very cool. The author, on the other hand is uncool because he just had to mention that her home is just 25 miles from Washington state as if that's pertinent.

Next up, a genetic breakthrough in Bern Switzerland that is just 3894 miles from New York.

 

As a HAM, I think it's great that they mentioned both she and her parents are HAM radio operators. And her invention is awesome.

 

Not meaning to slam the "inventor" but in reality, this is not a new concept. I saw demonstrations producing a small amount of electricity from a heat source (hand, sun, whatever) some 30 years ago.

 

haha. not posting somethings geographical relevance to us (me) would make the article pointless.

where do i buy one of them lights...

ever since sandy i'm very into having flashlights that don't need batterys. those damn shake-it-to-charge-it ones are great, but... sigh. shaking it for light? in 2014? cmon! i need something easier.

seriously, cool story.

 

Watching the video, it looks like her dad has quite a nice machine shop at home. It is nice to see a 16 year old girl operating a lathe. Most 16 year old boys around here don't even know what a lathe is.

 

In other news, teen makes breakthrough discovery with new hand heat generated fleshlight..

 

Peltier's aren't cheap, well, they aren't expensive, but you'd struggle to make it a viable option for impoverished countries (which was one of the goals they stated).

Will be interesting to see if they get a patent on it, well done if they do (combining two common technologies in a very simply way). We messed about with them in the past (use them as coolers for lasers).

 

hahaha

i was wondering if that was a home shop. looks more legit than most bass luthier's shops i've been to!

 

I missed that. Still it is nice to see her operating the equipment.

 

What a charming and smart young lady! So clever of her to figure out how to use some existing technology to solve a big problem. These would also be great for emergency backup and should be in every car and emergency bag. I hope she applied for a Patent. The licensing rights could make her wealthy.

I don't think that the Peltier modules are cheap, however. For 3rd world countries this is a big deal. Another issue is that many of the poor countries that need this are hot by nature - there may not be enough temperature differential to make it work.

The soda bottle light is another very clever idea to bring light into windowless slum homes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHTD_RX3J2I

 

Hand crank flashlights and radios have been around for years.

 

I honestly assumed that it's about the other flashlight, that maybe vibrates when you hold it? Wasn't sure about how to feel about a teen inventing it.

 

She was on fallon a few weeks back, they also had two other kid "inventors". She made both of the other two look like complete morons...i mean her invention was cool and useful, the other two it was just ******** kid stuff (well one was kind asupposed to be a joke really i think). But yeah i liked her personality even in the little time she got on tv.

 

Uhh... I though tit wasn't possible to convert heat energy to electrical energy. Or else we would have solved the problem of recapturing energy stolen by friction and achieve perpetual motion.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peltier_effect#Peltier_effect

The effect, being used as the girl is using it (heat to light) here:



(also one of the reasons I'm not sure if she'll get a patent)