Having lived and worked in Africa for most of my life, I'm kicking myself as I read about a new type of refrigerator invented by a young lady from Britain. Why didn't we think of this before?
It's the kind of simple yet brilliant invention that would have the tycoons of Dragons' Den salivating with excitement.
Not only is the fridge solar powered, it can also be built from household materials - making it ideal for the Third World.
Emily Cummins, 21, came up with the idea while working on a school project in her grandfather's potting shed. The fridge is now improving the lives of thousands of poverty-stricken Africans.
And Miss Cummins hopes to patent a more sophisticated portable model for use in transporting medical supplies around hot countries.
From the age of four, when she was given a hammer as a gift, Miss Cummins has spent much of her spare time making things out of ordinary materials.
She has won awards for a toothpaste squeezer for arthritis sufferers and for a water-carrying device, again for Third World use.
Her 'sustainable' fridge works through evaporation and can be used to keep perishable goods such as milk and meat cool for days.
Without using any power, temperatures stay at around 6c.
The fridge comprises two cylinders - one inside the other. The inner cylinder is made from metal but the outer cylinder can be made from anything to hand, including wood and plastic.
Miss Cummins, from Keighley, West Yorkshire, said: 'A fridge is something that people can't seem to live without.
'I wanted to keep it really simple and so I set about researching how we cooled things years ago. The simplest method of cooling something could be seen when you look at how we cool biologically - through sweating or evaporation.
'That idea led me to the design and the fridge was born.'
After her A-levels she spent five months of her gap year in Africa, perfecting and demonstrating her product. In Namibia she became known as 'The Fridge Lady'. Miss Cummins returned to the UK to start a business management course at Leeds University.
She had been refused a place on an engineering course because, to her dismay, she didn't have the correct qualifications.
One wishes those idiot engineering professors could have seen her invention in operation. This is engineering at its best - simple, as close to 'idiot-proof' as possible, and cost-effective.
Peter
7 comments:
Maybe I'm spoiling the story here, but this is an old "invention". It's allready used in Africa and other places.
The version I've seen was simply two clay pots, the smaller inside the bigger, sand in between and a lid (which can be as simple as a rag) on top of the inner pot.
I saw it some years ago, when (googling) Mohammed Bah Abba received an award for coming up with this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Bah_Abba
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot-in-pot_refrigerator
There's really nothing complicated with the idea in itself, the same basic principle as an ordinary fridge or aircondition systems. Versions of it has been used for centuries.
The biggest problem I see with it is that most places where this would be really useful might also have a problem with water access. And without water to evaporate, this system wont work.
Not qualified to be an engineering student! I should not be surprised that the eggheads would reject a person with ideas that threaten their notion of the “correct” way to do things. I am reminded of the experiences of John Harrison when he invented the marine chronometer and had it rejected. The “University Men” as he called them said he had not taken the correct approach.
AJT from Ohio
I'm going to have to make one to play with. Who knows when it might become useful! Thanks for posting it.
A kid who has won awards for previous designs, and has just created this solar-powered fridge, doesn't have the qualifications to take an engineering course?!? Good grief.
I've used 'evaporative cooling' for years to keep my ice cooler colder for years when camping. I drape a light colored towel over my cooler and set up a water jug to constantly drip water on it. As the water evaporates it carries away a lot of heat. Ice in my cooler thus lasts about twice as long as the ice in other folks coolers. I also keep my cooler in the shade as much as possible.
If an engineering dept refused her admission, it sounds like even engineering schools have been infested with PC types.
--chicopanther
Sounds like it works just like the mohair liners in the military canteen covers.
I'm going to agree with Erik. I've seen old articles in Smithsonian magazine, National Geographic, and IIRC Mother Earth News about the Cool Pot which is 2 terra cotta pots which used evaporative cooling to chill foods in Africa. They were/are used by tribes in the Sub-Sahara if my memory is correct.
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