Year: 2011

Refrigophone

Ranjit Bhatnagar writes: For all four years of the instrument-a-day project, my noisy refrigerator has plagued me: I have to unplug it whenever I record a new instrument at home. Well, today I exploited it. Materials: refrigerator noise, filtered by resonant tin cans.

Solar concentrator from old satellite dish

Solar concentrator from old satellite dish

Made from an ordinary fiberglass satellite dish, it is covered in about 5800 3/8″ (~1cm) mirror tiles. When properly aligned, it can generate a spot the size of a dime with an intensity of 5000 times normal daylight. This intensity of light is more than enough to melt steel, vaporize aluminum, boil concrete, turn dirt into lava, and obliterate any organic material in an instant. It stands at 5’9″ and is 42″ across.