Mar272008
Dean Kamen’s amazing (allegedly) water purifier
Filed under Uncategorized by david brooks at 9:46 am
There have been rumblings for ages about a water-purifying system that Kamen’s firm is developing (e.g., this post 15 months ago), but Wired.com has distilled (ha - get it?) information about it from a variety of sources, including Kamen’s appearance on the Colbert Report of all places.
The Slingshot, as it’s called, appears to be a vaporization system (boil polluted water, keep the moisture and discard the rest, use the steam to provide part of the energy) but it claims low cost and small size based on incredible energy efficiency, using a sterling engine that can be fed by any fuel, including burning dung.
If true, this’ll make the Segway look like the pet rock.
March 27th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
The skeptic here thinks this might be another Segway…The “revolutionary” human transporter which has become a complete novelty item. Perhaps ahead of its time, but certainly not ready for prime time…boiling water requires alot of energy (dung, vegetables, cooking oil, whatever). After Mr. Kamen’s Segway oversell, I’ll remain skeptical.
March 28th, 2008 at 8:44 am
Kamen has been talking about the Stirling engine for years and years; the hope has always been that he’ll figure out the tweaks to make it feasible. If he does/did then maybe this has a shot.