I didn't catch the NBC Nightly News report that Hexslinger wrote about, but it
sounds like they were interviewing Trevor Baylis, inventor of the Baylis
Clockwork Generator. His company, Baygen, makes an AM/FM radio, an AM/FM/SW
radio, and a lantern-type flashlight, all powered by their self-contained
wind-up generators. No word online about the stand-alone generator for laptops
that Hexslinger saw on the NBC report.
The radios run for about 30 minutes, and the lantern about 4 minutes on a full
wind of the generator. They're manufactured in South Africa.
Any Art Bell listeners on the list have heard Art spiel the C. Crane Company's
ads for the Baygen Freeplay radios for years now.
Baygen's main homepage (a UK site) is at http://www.baygen.com/nhome.html
Baygen's USA homepage is at http://www.freeplay.pair.com
C. Crane Co.'s URL is http://www.ccrane.com
Baygen seems to be running intentionally low key (i.e., they haven't ramped up
the spring-driven concept to a 5KW home-power generator that will run for a
week on a five minute wind that can be done by a five year old).
Gee, with springs making a comeback as an "alternative" power source, perhaps
Timex will retool and bring back their good old analog wind-up wristwatches.
Better yet, they could bring back the self-winding models that wound with the
motion of your arm.
Jerry, are inernal springs the secret of the Bessler/Orffyreus wheel, giving
the overbalanced wheel a little push? A 1712 Timex self-winding watch, if you
will.
Hexslinger wrote:
> I know this ain't related to the electric vehicles or batteries - but it
> reminded me of something I forgot to post about earlier. Was anyone
> watching NBC Nightly News on 03/02/98 (ie Monday)? There was a report
> there on a guy who lives in some place called 'Eel Pie Island' near London
> who's pioneered work on mechanical-powered radios, flashlights, and even a
> small mechanical-spring generator to power his laptop. The problem?
> I didn't catch his name -- and using Altavista and every other search
> engine I can think of has wielded nothing. Did anyone catch this guy's
> name? The idea isn't totally new -- but using mechanical-motion and
> springs to store energy for electrical appliances is really rather
> ingenious -- it's one of those "duh, why didn't *I* think of that" things.
> The idea of adapting a on-the-spot rechargable spring-battery for powering
> a laptop or other portable appliance is fantastic.
<snip>