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To “turn on” the lamp, the user moves weights from the bottom to the top of the lamp. An hour-glass like mechanism is turned over and the weights are placed in the mass sled near the top of the lamp. The sled begins its gently glide back down and, within a few seconds, the LEDs come on and light the lamp, Clay Moulton said. “It’s more complicated than flipping a switch but can be an acceptable, even enjoyable routine, like winding a beautiful clock or making good coffee,” he said.
Moulton estimates that Gravia’s mechanisms will last more than 200 years, if used eight hours a day, 365 days a year. “The LEDs, which are generally considered long-life devices, become short-life components in comparison to the drive mechanisms,” he said.
Nicely done. My favorite in the Greener Gadgets competition.
To “turn on” the lamp, the user moves weights from the bottom to the top of the lamp
So really it’s powered not by gravity but by the user’s muscle power.
The next winner is the plug the electrodes in the lemon to power your lamp idea….
Very clever and 4hours of continuous light output is surprisingly long for this many lumen. Wow.
This would make a great desk, chair or bedside reading lamp – not to mention one for power outage!
I want one. It will look nice next to my Galileo thermometer.
You know though, this could replace a lot of battery driven devices with a smaller tower? I’m thinking of my “life time” weight scales that go out every 2 years with a non-replaceable battery. Why not just flip it upside down and get it powered for 3 minutes to get weighted?==No, maybe a wind-up mechanism would be better for that.
A little retro technology would be good for our future?
This is only useful on the small scale. If you want more time of output, you need a higher tower. Eventually for more output or more time you will spend too much energy moving the device back to the top of the tower than it’s worth.
However, I do like the bedside lamp idea…or lights for power outages. I live in the country and have rechargeable lanterns for outages and storms. This would be much nicer. And 600-800 lumens is great for night time reading.
This thing has 50 pounds of weight. Turning it upside down is no small feat.
So really it’s powered not by gravity but by the user’s muscle power.
When researching perpetual motion some time back, I read about a clock made in 1760 by James Cox (Cox’s timepiece) which was powered by changing atmospheric pressure. One of his clocks ran for hundreds of years until recently moved.
When researching perpetual motion some time back, I read about a clock made in 1760 by James Cox (Cox’s timepiece) which was powered by changing atmospheric pressure.
I believe these are still made by somebody somewhere (although I just did a quick Google search and couldn’t find one).
That would be the Atmos Clock — not sure they’re still around, but they were in the 50’s. As for the light, I like the idea of a wind up mechanism. Some competent engineer could easily figure how to wind it for 8 days of power….
If the white LEDs are perfectly efficient (250 lumens / watt), and the generator is perfectly efficient, and the light fixture is one meter tall…
The weight has to be 3526.5 kilos. That’s a heavy desk lamp!!!