Under most circumstances, the combination of trees and fire would be the stuff nightmares are made of — or dreams, for the pyromaniacs among us. But in eight days, the brilliant minds behind BioLite are going to be harnessing the power of fire with a giant, custom-built CampStove a full 200 times larger than its commercial counterpart, all to light up one glorious Christmas tree.
For the uninitiated, BioLite originally sold wood-burning home stoves that doubled as self-powered gadget chargers — for developing countries only. Now, though, the company produces a line of camping units that are far more portable and still manage to charge your gadgets on wood-burning power alone. And it’s this version that’s being blown up to epic proportions in Brooklyn’s DUMBO district, all for the sake of science.
The monster stove, producing 500 times its normal power output, is part of a new “Test Kitchen” initiative that’s encouraging local companies to use the neighbourhood’s public space to try out new ideas, some of which (like this project that turned umbrellas into solar-powered chargers) have even been picked up city-wide. BioLite’s provided us with the awesome pictures of the (built-from-scratch!) construction project below, but the real magic will come on Dec 12 when that sucker (safely and intentionally) goes up in flames.
