Saturday, January 10, 2009

January meeting


Guy Unwin showed us various information he had collected from an inventors show in London, including an interesting electric generator driven by an electric motor which was powered by the output from the generator, thus providing an continuous free supply of electricity. This was presented by an Iranian man, although unfortunately there was no working demonstration.
Mike ( sorry I forget his full name ) told us about progress on his toilet odour extracting invention, for which he has a patent application for. John commented that his back mounted salt grit spreader would have come in handy the last couple of weeks, with all the ice we've been having, but apparently organisations are reluctant to take up the idea, as they consider themselves more liable to injury claim if someone slips on a gritted path, than on an un-gritted path. Marcus asked the group for advice on injection moulding companies regarding his invention of a tiling aid. Guy was able to provide the names of several companies in Malvern. Franics told us of his idea, which he probably said was not to be in the public domain yet. Mike Redman told us about his work on a product, but said that if I put it on the blog, I might be getting a visit from MI5. I told everyone about my recent programming efforts and showed them the mouse trap I have bought, which although is not my invention, is quite clever. Ian chaired the meeting and extracted £10 from most of us, as it's the beginning of the year again.

Friday, December 12, 2008

December meeting


Tonight, we had a new member attend; Mike, a scientist and inventor, who has moved back to Malvern, this year. Guy prompted us to discuss the inquiry for a lifting device from Mrs Watson. There were various ideas. Gordon suggested she could use a vacuum cleaner to transfer her compost to waist height. Mike thought an auger could be more cost effective. Guy suggested some kind of pneumatic device, or a long lever. Someone, maybe Geoff or Ian, suggested a lifting platform, human-powered with a rope and pulleys. I suggested Mrs Watson could buy a pickup truck. But in the end we decided that none of these ideas would be low-cost, like Mrs Watson implied. Hydraulics are generally quite expensive, so we dismissed that idea. Guy has plenty of 16mm thick cardboard boxes, that he is trying to get rid of. There was tea and mince pies. Geoff showed us a drawing of an idea he has for making it easier to drill holes in wood for doors hinges. We discussed the existing Malvern Inventors Club web-site, but no decisions were made about it.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Enquiry for lifting device

Guy received this letter asking for help recently, I have typed it out, so the spelling mistakes might be mine ( Dan ):

Dear Mr Unwin,
I was reading about you and your inventors club in this weeks amateur gardening mag. and I wondered if you or one of your friends could make a hydraulic lift to enable me to lift a 80l. bag of compost up to waist height? I cannot lift one up alone and if I open it up, upright, I have trouble bending down as it empties. It would need to be small enough to fit in my shed. Apparently there is a commercial version, there is not a domestic one. So if you can put your heads and spanners together I would be very pleased
Yours Mrs R. Watson.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Anyone can leave a post

If you are a member of the Malvern Inventors Club, then you can add an entry to this blog. You will have received an email telling you how.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Malvern Inventors Club


Malvern Inventors Club meet on the second Thursday of each month at Malvern Hills Science Park, Geraldine Road, WR14 3SZ. If you want to join, http://www.malvern-inventors.co.uk/contactus.htm. We help each other with advice on patents, engineering, business, etc.