inventions

Make: Inventions “Etch A Sketch”

Make: Inventions “Etch A Sketch”

In his first episode of Make: Inventions, Steve Hoefer takes a look at the Etch A Sketch, the enduring kids toy invented by Andre Cassagnes

Continue Reading
More Plumbers? Or Reinvented Toilets?

More Plumbers? Or Reinvented Toilets?

“I believe that we need a national PR campaign for skilled labor – like, a big one.” – Mike Rowe Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs fame) recently went in front of Congress and told them we need to train a whole new generation of plumbers. I like Mike’s train of thought. However, I think he’s missing […]

Continue Reading
Projector Disguised as Camera Flashes Images Into Others’ Photos

Projector Disguised as Camera Flashes Images Into Others’ Photos

German inventor Julius von Bismarck refers to his potentially very disruptive brainchild as an “image fulgarator.” The verb, “fulgurate,” means, “to flash or dart like lightening.” According to Herr von Bismarck, himself, it works like this…

Continue Reading
Foot-operated elevator button

Foot-operated elevator button

I’ve wanted a door “knob” that worked like this for years. Would’ve been especially nice in some of the large chemistry and biochemistry labs I’ve worked in, where the “gloves on or off” protocols for opening doors between rooms were not always clearly established and/or followed. [via Gizmodo]

Continue Reading

Agralift from L-MIT’s InvenTeams

The next Make: television video highlights an InvenTeam from the Garfield-Palouse High School in Palouse, Washington. They found a need to adapt large-scale agriculture equipment for different ability levels. With the help of some skilled engineering mentors and a lot of hard work on their part, they created a simple, effective, and useful invention call […]

Continue Reading

Climbing a building with “vacuum gloves”

MAKE subscriber Matthew Sylvester sent us this video of BBC TV presenter Jem Stansfield seeming to climb the side of one of the broadcaster’s buildings using a very funky homemade contraption based on a vacuum cleaner. The “stunt” was done as a promo for the upcoming BBC show Bang Goes the Theory [cough… Mythbusters]. And […]

Continue Reading