Inventors compete to win dream machine prize
Self-heating crockery, a flying saucer camera and an underwater bike were just three of the wacky British inventions being revealed at a show today.
Inventors from across Britain are competing at the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum in Bristol for a chance to see their dream machines turned into commercial reality.
Among the contestants is a 25-year-old student from the Royal College of Art who has a solution for slow eaters who don’t want to be stuck with a plate of cold food - self-heating crockery.
Mark Champkins, who came up with the idea while doing an industrial design and engineering course, hopes his special plates, cups and bowls will not only be the answer for long dinner parties and people who do not want to warm plates in the oven.
‘‘It is likely that it will be particularly useful for those who eat slowly due to a disability or impairment, perhaps undergoing treatment in hospital,’’ he said.
‘‘The NHS has a real problem with food getting cold, what with patients having problems eating it and having to wait. That wastes a lot of food. The self-heating crockery should be something that could help a lot with that.’’
His design, inspired by warmers sold in camping shops, features a bag containing food-safe sodium acetate trihydrate sandwiched between a glass top and a plastic base.
When a button on the bottom of the crockery is pressed, a chemical reaction is started which generates heat of up to 50 degrees which is then conducted upwards through the glass. The plastic base stops the heat travelling into the bottom of the plate.
Mark, from Clapham, south London, said that placing the crockery in hot water would reset the chemicals, allowing the reaction to be repeated.
‘‘You can have your meal, eat the hot food and recharge the plates by putting them in the dishwasher so they will be ready to go again. It’s something a little bit different.’’
His crockery, still under development, will feature alongside a flying saucer camera whose inventor claims people and goods could one day be flown around in the UFO lookalike vehicles.
Charles Cochrane, from Chipping Sodbury, near Bristol, has designed the STAL - static annular lift aircraft, and said smaller versions would be able to carry cameras and operate as remote piloted vehicles.
Although currently without a flying model, Mr Cochrane said he believed that the craft would have a lot of uses once in manufacture.
‘‘I think the smaller ones would be able to be used for fun a bit like radio controlled model aircraft. The largest ones I think could eventually take passengers and freight and would be safer and more efficient than helicopters.’’
He explained that the craft, shaped like flying saucers, had no moving parts on the outside of its casing and was able to take off and land vertically.
Nearer to being available in the shops is an underwater bicycle, whose designer said it could prove to be the latest craze in marine sports.
Douglas Buchanan, from Ludlow, Shropshire, has been working on the bike for about 18 months and said he expected a lot of interest from scuba diving companies and holiday resorts as well as individuals.
He explained that the rider lies down on the bike, which uses floatation devices and is made of special aeronautical plastic. Pedals and a propeller at the back of the bike, which looks a little like a broomstick, are used to move and steer the device through the water.
‘‘Its main attribute is that it is just great fun and also that you do not get tired. It’s not like swimming you could stay out for a lot longer.
‘‘At the moment it goes at walking pace and is just for snorkelling but super-fast models will follow and we could get scuba diving models.’’
A panel of judges will choose a winner whose design will be produced commercially.
The event, which is open to the public, is also being filmed for a new series called What’s the Big Idea on the Discovery Channel this autumn.
