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BBC:
[...] The O-Wind turbine is a 25cm spherical device which sits on a fixed axis. The geometric structure of its vents means that it spins when wind hits it from any direction.
This wind energy turns the device which triggers a generator, which, in turn, converts the wind energy into electricity.
The next stage of its development will focus on finding ways to build it so it will be cheap enough for anyone to buy.
[...] "Using low-cost and sustainable materials like recycled plastic we hope to produce the O-Wind Turbine at a low cost, allowing it to be sold at a price accessible to everyone."
ROI has been a killer for urban wind solutions.
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Urban Wind Turbine Wins UK James Dyson Award
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A Smith & Wesson beats four aces.
(Score: 3, Informative) by anubi on Friday September 07 2018, @12:15AM (1 child)
Yeh... about ten years ago, we had a discussion at The Oil Drum [theoildrum.com] on Rossi's E-Cat machine, which was claimed to be generating "copious" amounts of energy by a form of Cold Fusion.
I did some napkin type calculations, came to the conclusion that for the device outputting the thermal energy claimed, how much water per second it would have to be vaporizing, and given my steam tables, how much volume of steam per second at 1 BAR, and given a hose which looked about 5/8 inch ( given he was holding it in his hand, and it looked like that standard stuff they put on cars ), I did a quick calculation of expected steam ejection velocity. It was nowhere close to that observed in the video the article linked to.
Rather, the steam ejection velocity was right at that expected from an energy input of about 750 Watts ( or Joules/Second )... which was exactly what Rossi was showing going into his apparatus.
So, it showed all appearances to me that what the investors were being shown was a multimillion dollar teapot, that did not even brew a decent pot of tea.
But do you think any of those investors would try to retain ME? Hell no. I do not have PhD and big University names associated with me. They don't want a crackpot like me touting mathematics and steam tables..... they want the handshake with the suit men.
Had something very similar happen about three years ago.. this company was being led on by an "inventor" that was leading them onto a "proprietary method for nearly infinite bandwidth on a plain old fiber optic cable"...
I was asked by the inventor to come onboard to develop this. Frankly, I had no idea how he was going to do this, but he was dropping all sorts of high educational degreed people's recommendations at me, and all sorts of big-name companies interested, so I went ahead and signed all those NDA's he had for me, before he would reveal how he was doing it.
Well, the NDA's are expired now, so I can spill the beans...
He was taking white light from an LED, splitting it up with a prism, splitting the light into thousands of individual colors, running each color through an optical modulator, then recombining the light back into white light with another prism, then he's going to "lens it down" into a pinpoint of light to get it all into the cable.
I tried to explain about how the light was not coherent, nor collimated, but that was just met with condescending comments about my ignorance.
He was an inventor, I was just an engineer. An ignorant one at that. I mean, who is the money-men going to listen to... a guy with a great presentation and lots of big-name high-degreed people, or some engineer who had actually done data communication with optical fiber? The patent attorney ( charging $600/hour, no less! ) was working with the inventor, egging the investors on big time.
This went on for MONTHS! Until the investors finally pulled the plug on it. I had distanced myself from the project, agreeing with the inventor that I was just too ignorant to be of any use, but in reality, I felt I was dealing with a whole truckload of dung and I did not want it all over ME.
Besides, one of the NDA's I had to sign specifically banned me from discussing this with anyone but the inventor himself! I could not even TELL the investors what I thought of it. And it was the Investors that were backing so wholeheartedly that I had to sign that damned NDA!
I've been around investors of that type. They seem to think everything is just a "get everything covered with the correct legalese and turn the crank", and money will happen.
I cannot reason using physics or math with this kind of individual. They are too high up the social ladder for that sort of thing. Putting this kind of thing in front of them is like giving a cat a saucer of antifreeze. Or investment counselors getting a bunch of wealthy old geezers together for "investment advice meetings" where they get a commission every time money changes hands. The end result being the transfer of wealth from the geezer to the counselor in the form of commissions.
So, I guess you know how this played out. The Patent Attorney made off with almost a million dollars in patenting fees. The Inventor had his living expenses paid for the time he worked on it. I got nothing, but a bit of entertainment watching this play out. They called in their "big name companies" to try to sell them the patent, which every one of them looked at and came to the same conclusion I did... in just about the same amount of time, no less.
Some people.... one really wonders how they survive! If anything, I learned that "suit people" are extremely vulnerable to being hoodwinked by presentations, and they are way too high up on the ladder to talk to people who actually do this kind of stuff. They will simply call it a "disappointment" and move on to the next lot of people they convince to invest their money. Who can resist a smiling suit-man with outstretched hand?
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday September 07 2018, @06:07AM
And I had to go and misplace my electronic thumb.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?