Why So Many Different Plugs?
I went to China and took an electrical adapter with eight different plug-ins, and still managed to stay at one hotel in which none of them fit. Why are there so many types of electrical plugs and sockets in the world? When household electric use began in the late 1800s, different areas of the world settled on basically two voltage systems, 110-120 and 220-240 (with some exceptions). Then each nation had their own reasons for developing the plug-in system they have.
But once they were set up, who cared what style plug their customers used? What were you gonna do, lug your new vacuum cleaner across the ocean on a boat? Early efforts to standardize the plug by organizations like the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) had trouble taking hold—who were they to tell a country which plug to adopt?
For example, Britain incorporated fuses in the appliance plug instead of the wiring system because of a shortage of copper at the time.
You know how the British had control over India for, like, ninety years? Well, along with exporting cricket and inflicting unquantifiable cultural damage, they showed the subcontinent how to plug stuff in, the British way! Problem is, they left in 1947. The BS 1363 plug—the new one—wasn’t introduced until 1946, and didn’t see widespread adoption until a few years later. So India still uses the old British plug, as does Sri Lanka, Nepal and Namibia. Basically, the best way to guess who’s got which socket is to brush up on your WW1/WW2 history, and to have a deep passion for postcolonial literature. No, really.
Despite widespread global travel, the expense of rewiring electrical grids all over the world means there won’t be any standardization of plugs anytime soon. Read the whole story at Gizmodo. Link -via Geeks Are Sexy
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Electricity-Generating Backpack
Image: Lightning Packs
Lightning Packs is a company that is developing backpacks that generate electricity with the motion of their users. As the user walks, the spring-mounted backback bounces slightly, turning a gear on a generator. It is the brainchild of Lawrence C. Rome of the University of Pennsylvania, who hopes to market his idea to the U.S. military:
“Soldiers now carry GPS receivers, night vision goggles, headlamps, communication devices, and more. And with this technology, means of powering them becomes critical. Soldiers carry eighty pound backpacks, up to twenty pounds of which are spare batteries. Now, with the Suspended Load Backpack, electricity can be generated to power the equipment directly or to charge a lightweight rechargeable battery,” Dr. Rome said.
When walking, the Suspended Load Backpack can generate up to 7.4 watts, more than enough power to simultaneously power an MP3 player, night vision goggles (or 3 LED headlamp), a PDA, a CMOS image decoder, a handheld GPS, Bluetooth, and a GSM terminal in talk mode.
Link via Gizmodo (where there’s a video)
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Hiroshi Sugimoto's Photographs of Electricity
Photo: Hiroshi Sugimoto
Hiroshi Sugimoto is a Japanese photograher who takes pictures of electrical charges. His exhibit “Lightning Fields” is currently on display at the Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco. Sugimoto uses a 400,000-volt Van De Graaff generator to directly apply electricity to film. The above image is entitled “Lightning Fields 128, 2008.”
Previously on Neatorama: Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Henry VIII Photos
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Birds on the Wires
This picture of birds on wires by photographer Paulo Pinto looks like music notation. So Jarbas Agnelli naturally wanted to find out what that music sounded like.
Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes (no Photoshop edit). I knew it wasn’t the most original idea in the universe. I was just curious to hear what melody the birds were creating.
-via Bits and Pieces
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VideoSift Clips of the Week
(Links open in a new browser window/tab)
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Juggling with Bowling Ball I kid: that's not a bowling ball, but it sure does look like one! Link |
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Dog Hates the Happy Birthday Song! |
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Physics Fun: Jell-O + Electricity = FIRE! Link (Includes the phrase "electrically active Jell-O mound" that is PURE WIN) |
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Cell Phone Reunion From the geniuses over at CollegeHumor: Link (NSFW language - the ending makes it all worth the wait) |
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The Crazy PS3 Kid Banned From Playing PS3 His range of emotion is amazing! Christian Bale, watch out! Link |
For more the web's most interesting videos, check out: VideoSift.
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Electricity vs. Cat
Photoshoppery by: Dr. Monster [Flickr]
Inspired by the legendary "A Day at the Science Fair" (not a polite link, but very funny) thread at SomethingAweful, Travis Pitts of Zom-Bot made this quick and dirty (and very funny) image: Link – via The Zeray Gazette
And yes, I think that’s probably Disaster Girl or her twin sister.
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The Uncanny Future of Electricity
Everyone talks about alternative energy these days but mostly in terms of water, wind and solar. What about cars, cows and tornados?
To meet our future energy requirements, we need to rely on a huge range of alternative sources. Let’s not forget the whimsical beginnings of our efforts to harness electricity (I’m referring to the kite of Benjamin Franklin). It’s only fitting that electricity generation technologies come from left field.
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High Voltage Cable Inspection
"There’s only three things I’ve ever been afraid of: electricity, heights, and women." – Thanks özi!
Update 1/15/09 by Alex: Let’s do this instead – a thumbnail with a link to the video clip. It’s a fascinating excerpt from the IMAX movie Straight Up: Helicopters in Action
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Electricity-Generating Roadways
Israeli energy company Innowattech has created a new type of road that generates electricity as cars drive on it:
The supercharged surface is embedded with piezoelectric crystals, which transform kinetic energy from passing vehicles into an electrical current. With widespread adoption, the technology could feed energy back into the nation’s burgeoning electric vehicle grid, transforming congested roadways into a clean green source of energy.
The amount of electricity produced isn’t that much (400 kilowatts per kilometer or 645/mi), and there’s no mention on how cost effective it would be. But given the sheer amount of roadways we have (the US has over 4 million miles of roads and streets in its highway system alone), it’s an interesting albeit niche approach to generate electricity.
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Aluminum Can No Match for World's Electricity
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Build a machine to crush aluminum can using four times the world’s electricity: $48 million. Crush a can: $1 million. Newfound ability of geeky scientists to crush aluminum cans: Priceless. Link |
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