# Inventions you've come up with. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 6, 2012, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943 "2012-03-06T17:49:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/41 "2012-03-07T15:14:24Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > I didn’t have the tinkering/engineering skills to actually develop this, but in college I mentally invented the microfreeze. Same concept as a microwave only it works in reverse. I wanted cold beer without waiting a couple hours for it to cool down in the fridge. Also needed ice fast. 😃 I was thinking that all you’d really need is a “Cool” button on your microwave, but an engineer friend talked me off the ledge because he said it’s so much easier to heat things than to cool things that it would require too much energy to freeze stuff in seconds instead of heating it in seconds. I was bummed out. Mr. Freeze didn’t let his Engineer Friends talk _him_ out of building an instant-freeze gun, and now he’s the talk of Gotham City! ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/42 "2012-03-07T15:25:37Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Mr. Freeze didn’t let his Engineer Friends talk _him_ out of building an instant-freeze gun, and now he’s the talk of Gotham City! :smack: Idea-stealing bastard! ---
**Author:** ![SunSandSuffering](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@SunSandSuffering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunSandSuffering)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/43 "2012-03-07T16:01:09Z")
How about a perpetual motion machine whereby a pipe syphons water from a tank and allows it to pour over a water wheel. The wheel powers a pump which moves the water back into the tank. Or wait, maybe leave the wheel out and allow capillary action to transfer water back into the tank. It’s gotta work! ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/44 "2012-03-07T20:29:34Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Um… When you store stuff in “the Cloud” . . . That STILL ends up on one (or several) hard disk drives somewhere, doesn’t it? As far as I know, SSDs are used mainly for things like OS (not storage) drives due to their size and cost (although I could use a SSD in my computer and have no issues with storage since my personal files, around 700 mb of mostly user-generated data, don’t include videos and music; as it is, I have a 200 GB hard drive of which around 90% is free). For some comparison, a quick Google search suggests a price around $300 for a 256 GB SSD, while a 3 TB hard drive costs around $150 - about 24 times cheaper per unit of storage (these are minimum prices as suggested by Google under shopping results, may be able to find better deals elsewhere, and hard drive prices are up recently due to production issues). ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/45 "2012-03-07T20:50:20Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Hook it, place it about an inch over a desk, and let go. With luck and skill it should bounce up about 2 feet. _Two feet_? Hell, I’ve been doing this since grade school, and a clip that doesn’t hit the ceiling is considered a failure! ---
**Author:** ![SeldomSeen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@SeldomSeen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeldomSeen)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/46 "2012-03-07T21:19:08Z")
I invented a perpetual motion machine when I was about 10 years old. A flywheel attached to a spring. Set the flywheel in motion, it winds the spring, which releases and boosts the flywheel, which spins and rewinds the spring which releases and kicks the flywheel again… I was going to be rich & famous at a very young age…a veritable child prodigy. Feeling the need for some advice about how best to begin collecting my millions, I showed the secret plans to my smart uncle, who proceeded to explain the concept of energy loss through friction:( I never forgave him for messing with my big idea. Many years later, I did concieve a handy little gizmo that actually worked well although not of the earth-shattering kind. You know how lots of homeowners use an ordinary squirt bottle to spot-spray weeds in their lawn? I got tired of bending over constantly to squirt the weeds; built a long extension handle with a bracket on one end to clamp the spray bottle and a trigger extension on the other end so the bottle was held close to the ground while being operated from a standing position. Simple little thing, but serviceable and I used it for years. I also had a hand in designing [this thing](http://forum.bulk-online.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=9170&d=1218463742)…a storage system for bulk granular material actually patented by a good friend of mine. Originally designed for grain elevators but adaptable to other materials, a system of interlocking hexagonal cells meant to replace the free-standing round silos that are commenly used. With the modular construction and common cell walls these are both cheaper to build and more space-efficient than round silos. Working on the original plans, a problem arose which stumped both the inventor and the engineer he’d hired to help with the patent application. A silo typically discharges from the bottem where it narrows down to a “funnel” shape with a simple sliding gate over the “spout” to regulate the rate of discharge. My friend was unable to figure out how to transition from a round “funnel-shaped” discharge chute to the hexagonal walls of the cell - had been wrestling with the problem for hours. I looked at the plans for a minute, then suggested “why make the bottom round? Just narrow the cell walls down into a six-sided funnel, mount a gate at the bottom and be done with it”. A simple, straightforward solution, and a “ **Doh** ” moment for the inventor and engineer. Both of them were smarter than me, but they’d been overthinking the problem. SS ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/47 "2012-03-07T21:32:28Z")
How about instead of a car alarm that makes enough noise to wake up everyone in the neighborhood, instead just sends a text message to the car owner’s cell phone? That way, only he or she is bothered by the noise and not the rest of us. And to those who claim that the noise is meant to discourage car thieves, I think that’s not even a good reason for them; the car thieves either already know how to silence the alarms, or at least would remove the car from the neighborhood, thus eliminating the noise pollution. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/48 "2012-03-07T22:57:23Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > My thought-invention is ass-wipes… > > It would be available in small purse-packs for the ladies, but I guess for blokes would have to be in a dispenser in the cubicle. Wallet-sized single-serving packs. Don’t confuse them with your condoms. > [@Senegoid](#): > > Um… When you store stuff in “the Cloud” . . . That STILL ends up on one (or several) hard disk drives somewhere, doesn’t it? At present, yes. But a large-enough cloud could store data in transit, so to speak, between different places. Imagine a transceiver on Earth and one on Mars. On Earth, you send a stream of data towards the Mars transceiver. It takes some time for the first data to reach Mars, and while it’s traveling, you’re continuing to pump in data behind. When the first data reaches Mars, the Earth-based transmitter stops sending, and the Mars-based receiver sends the data it just received back to you. Now you have a loop in space with data circulating around it. No need for hard drives! 🙂 > [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > My wife works in a biochemistry lab… > > I was very surprised to find that the vial manufacturer didn’t offer any sort of tool for doing this, so I made one… This sounds like just the thing to make plans for in CAD and upload them to [Shapeways](http://www.shapeways.com/) or some other fabbing service. Hopefully one with a fab-to-order service. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/49 "2012-03-12T20:17:31Z")
I don’t know if this has been invented, but there might be a market for it: A plastic cap that you can put on top of aluminum soda and beer cans, in case you don’t want to finish the whole thing in one sitting. It would seal the air bubbles inside so it won’t get flat, and prevent spilling so you can put the can in your pocket or upside down or something ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/50 "2012-03-12T20:31:22Z")
Beers infused with herbal “medicines.” You know, like a holistic health food thing. The flagship brand would be called “Gingko Beeroba.” ---
**Author:** ![gommsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bcef8e/32.png) [@gommsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gommsn)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/51 "2012-03-13T11:06:12Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > I don’t know if this has been invented, but there might be a market for it: > > A plastic cap that you can put on top of aluminum soda and beer cans, in case you don’t want to finish the whole thing in one sitting. It would seal the air bubbles inside so it won’t get flat, and prevent spilling so you can put the can in your pocket or upside down or something They’re out there. Bought four of them at the local Dollar Store. $.69 each and the amazing thing is, they work great. I’m not pouring near as much Pepsi down the sink as I used to. Cool! ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/52 "2012-03-13T21:44:39Z")
The other day I decided that tablet pens need to be/will be interactive, much like mice are. You could have several buttons, and each could have the end do various things when touched to the tablet. (Like underlining, shading, erasing, whatever) My brain is trying to tell me it can go much more useful than that, but with the rise of tablet PCs, I really think it’s time the pens/pointers/whatever you call them became a lot more interactive then they currently seem to be. I’m also pretty sure someone’s already working on this, if it’s not out there already. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/53 "2012-03-13T21:59:15Z")
I invented dish fresheners. It’s like a stick-up air freshener you put in your dish cupboard to keep your dishes from going stale. What’s that? You never thought about stale dishes? With enough money for marketing, I bet I can convince millions they are living with stale dishes. Certainly no more ridiculous that some other useless products on the market. Does your toilet paper leave pieces behind? How would you know? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/54 "2012-03-13T22:05:22Z")
> [@Mr.Accident](#): > > You know those shoes with the skates in it? I came up with those back in 95, years before they ever hit the market. Even made a prototype that I wore for a few days. (I was 14 then.) Unfortunately I never thought about patenting them, so I lost out big. Pop Wheels (shoes with skates built into them) were around in [1979](http://www.cora.org/SFChron3-15-79.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/55 "2012-03-13T22:08:03Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > The other day I decided that tablet pens need to be/will be interactive, much like mice are. You could have several buttons, and each could have the end do various things when touched to the tablet. (Like underlining, shading, erasing, whatever) > > My brain is trying to tell me it can go much more useful than that, but with the rise of tablet PCs, I really think it’s time the pens/pointers/whatever you call them became a lot more interactive then they currently seem to be. The pen on my Wacom tablet has several buttons. I’m sure that Wacom has come up with something like a pen for the iPad; I’m sure I’ve seen it advertised even. But checking their site, though, I don’t see it. There _is_ the Inkling, but that’s a product that is sort of the opposite (pen, draw on paper, it captures the lines for uploading into a computer). Here’s a [review](http://www.macworld.com/article/1156560/touchscreen_stylus_roundup.html) of 12 touchscreen styluses, but none of them seem to have many buttons… and yes, one of them is by Wacom. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/56 "2012-03-13T22:13:46Z")
Forgot why I came into the thread to begin with: If I ever have a yard again, I intend to do this: take a recumbent bicycle, remove its front and rear wheels, and replace them with the workings from two push-reel lawn mowers. Sort of like [this](http://www.recumbentjournal.com/news/gear/item/101-recumbent-lawn-mower-a-cut-above-the-rest.html), but with front-and-rear cutters, rather than the centrally-placed single cutter. No, I don’t know how I’ll make it operate, but that’s the basic idea. ---
**Author:** ![Why\_Child](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b782af/32.png) [@Why\_Child](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_Child)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/57 "2012-03-13T22:31:48Z")
About 25 years ago, I told my friends that I just couldn’t relate to soap operas with the characters all wearing diamonds and furs, hopping in their jet to go to Paris for lunch… why can’t they show me real people, doing real things, with real problems that I can understand?! All my friends said, “Reality TV? It’ll never catch on.” (Odd, we have reality TV, and most of those people, I still can’t understand.) Since this is armchair inventing, what about a combination washer/dryer? Put your clothes in, program it to wash AND dry the way you want it to, and Presto! Don’t have to stop doing whatever to put clothes from washer to dryer! Saves time, saves space. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/58 "2012-03-14T02:57:03Z")
Not so much an nvention as a packaging change Back when I had three teenage boys with acne, I wished for individually wrapped Stridex pads because no teenage boy would keep a jar of cleaning pads in their locker, but might keep a individualay wrapped pad in their pocket and use it discreetly. about 6 months later, [Stridex complied](http://www.makeupalley.com/product/showreview.asp/ItemId=64087/Benzoyl_Peroxide_-_Power_Pads/Stridex/Treatments) all without any effort on my part. I came up with the concept ( but NOT the nitty gritty mechanics) of laser tag about a year before I heard of the commercial debut. I like to think of that as concomitant explotation of available technology. I smugly count that one in my “it coulda been” column. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/59 "2012-03-14T05:50:05Z")
> [@Cub\_Mistress](#): > > I came up with the concept ( but NOT the nitty gritty mechanics) of laser tag about a year before I heard of the commercial debut. I like to think of that as concomitant explotation of available technology. I smugly count that one in my “it coulda been” column. I actually built some laser tag-like rigs out of scrap about a year before I heard of the game. I was just looking for a way to actually track “hits” when playing with my friends. (We were all Star Wars fans, so “blasters” were a big thing.) It never worked very well; the range was pretty short and hit detection was touchy…but then, it was cobbled together out of bits of broken TVs and toy guns by a 10 year old kid. I gave up on it when the commercial version came out. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/60 "2012-03-14T12:27:26Z")
Science Fiction author Malcolm Jameson wrote the short story _Bullard Reflects_ that describes a game played with opposing teams shooting directed light beams, only the object was to get the beams to a goal, not to hit each other. He’d undoubtedly have called them “lasers” if he could have, but the story was published in Astounding in December of 1941, and the laser was still 20 years in the future. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943.md?page=4)