The Gravity-Powerd Lamp

It may sound like an impossible dream, but two designers in London Martin Riddiford and Jim Reeves have built functioning prototypes of GravityLight. They have spent 4 years developing GravityLight as an off-line project.

The prototype of GravityLight with ballast bag and bits. (Picture from: http://www.indiegogo.com/)

The purpose of the gravitational light development is based on their desire to provide people in third world countries with an alternative to kerosene lamps which cause burns and lung ailments to millions of people too poor to afford any other source of light.

Lift the weight and let gravity do the rest. (Picture from: http://www.indiegogo.com/)

As reported by VentureBeat, that GravityLight working principle is to use gravity to generate a sufficient amount of power to turn on an LED light within about half an hour. The two expect the GravityLight to originally sell for just $10 (or approx Rp. 96,000). After ramping up, they expect that cost to drop to just $5 (or approx Rp. 48,000).

LED bulbs do not attract mosquitos like conventional bulbs. (Picture from: http://www.indiegogo.com/)

The use of these lights is quite easy, it just needs to LED lights hung. Then the accompanying pouch is filled with heavy objects like rocks. By itself, gravity will generate a mini generator mounted on the body of the lamp, which eventually will provide power to LED lights for a period of about half an hour. After half an hour of use, the bag containing a heavy object will be increasingly drawn down.

To keep the LED light remains on, users simply need to pull back to the bag containing the heavy object. The lofty goal was met enthusiastically by fund raising through indiegogo.com site.

To realize her dream, Riddiford and Reeves will distribute for free 1,000 units of GravityLight to villagers in Africa and India. Based on the results, they will tweak the product and then seek NGO and non-profit organizations help in distributing it even more widely. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | VENTUREBEAT | PHYSORG | INDIEGOGO | RIF | PIKIRAN RAKYAT 17012013]

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