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New Idea of the Week - September
How about a power-free desalination pot? Using today's advanced materials, such as sorbent materials and oolite clays, it should be possible to create a jar with a massive internal surface area, in which salt ions could be trapped. An alternative would be a system that uses reverse osmosis in order to separate the salts from the water. The water would be forced through the filter by the action of gravity, and a small trickle of water would emerge. This would fall a small distance, and pass through another filter, and another, until the salt content was low enough to be drinkable. All bacteria and viri would, of course, have already been removed by the filters. A constant supply of saltwater would prevent the system stalling as the salt built up. A third option would be to use a layer of water repellant material, which would allow the higher speed water up it, in preference to the heavier, and therefore less rapidly moving for a given temperature, salt molecules. The problems of pressure gradients could be avoided by clever design.
Landmines are still a problem. So is worn tyre disposal. Combining the two may bring many benefits. Using several easily found parts, it would be a simple matter to rapidly reduce the number of mines found in an area. By reaching a slightly higher area, a row of tyres perhaps 15 wide, of the same diameter, could be tethered together with a rope. The "roll" of tyres is then assembled to point downhill over the mined area. From cover, the chocks are pulled, and a loosely assembled cascade of tyres is released. The amount of bouncing is reduced by the combined weight of the heavy rubber, and the loose restraining action of the rope. The rope is simply knotted at the appropriate place to hold two wooden discs. This prevents them scattering or diverging paths. As a further precaution, the rope is also looped for slack. In the event the tighter line breaks, the slack line will not, allowing the dragging of all the tyres back to the top, to be reset, and run again.
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In this way, a large path through a sloped area could be cleared by unskilled labour. The rope allows the tyre roll to travel quite slowly down the slope, so avoiding missing any mines by jumping over them. The loose and resilient nature of the tyres should mean they are never totally broken on a side, and, of course, there are many spare bald tyres to repair the roll.
A series on LUF and homesteading the high seas. The Living Universe Foundation is a group dedicated to bettering the world and furthering Mankind's chance of survival. Most of the members are simply well-meaning, but we hope to colonize outer space. It all gets horribly complex very quickly, though. Click for my contributions.
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