Gizmodo Australia » pumps

World’s Biggest Water Pump Under Construction In New Orleans

John Herrman — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 22:20:00 +0000

The Army Corps of Engineers has broken ground on a serious construction project: a 570,000-litre-per-second, $US500 million pumping station charged with keeping the city of New Orleans a little, uh, dryer than it has been in the last few years.

The pump is just a small part of a larger $US14 billion plan to seal up New Orleans’ levees and bolster the city’s disaster preparedness, but it’s without a doubt the most visually impressive. PopSci’s thrown together a couple of diagrams to give us a sense of scale, and trust me, they’re necessary — see that little white thing next to the diesel engine? That’s a full-sized human being. There aren’t a whole lot of companies that make combustion engines that cartoonishly huge, so my money’s on something from a company like Wartsila-Sulzer, which makes engines like this to spin the props on ultramassive cargo ships, and conceivably, pumps:
At any rate, the pump is expected to be operational — and NOLA slightly safer — by 2011. More at [PopSci]

Playpumps Trick Kids Into Doing Manual Labour for Fun

Adam Frucci — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:40:00 +0000

The Playpump looks like a piece of playground equipment, but it’s really a disguised pump for getting water out of the ground. As kids play on it, water is pumped to a nearby tank.

While it’s being used, the Playpump brings up 1,400 litres of water per hour, which isn’t too shabby. There’s a tank between the pump and the faucet, allowing water to be stored if no one is using it. The only trick is convincing kids that running around and spinning this wheel is fun playtime, not work.

[Playpumps via Technabob]

Gas Gripper Rests Your Forearm Muscles At the Pump

Jason Chen — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 22:45:00 +0000

It’s rare to find a pump that doesn’t have a latch to lock into the “on” position, but if you find one, the Gas Gripper will keep you from overexerting your forearms while filling up.

Although we spend most of our day atrophying our already pathetic muscles, we can still manage to keep that lever in place while filling up. But seniors and people with disabilities may find this simple gadget incredibly useful, and $US4.98 (for two) is a cheap price to pay for convenience.

It’s static resistant and the site says it won’t interfere with the automatic safety shutoff when your tank is full. Which means no gas hose fights. Darn. [Taylor Gifts via Nerd Approved]

Beer Chilling Exercise Bike Puts You On the Drunk Diet

Gizmodo US Edition — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:30:00 +0000

Don’t be fooled. Pedalling around on a bike that chills your beers probably won’t result in much weight loss. In fact, you may actually pack on a few as you enjoy the beechwood aged fruits of your labour. The bike has a heat pump attached to the pedals so the more you pedal the cooler the beer set inside the copper coil will get. It is just the incentive the lazy couch potato needs to get up and start moving. Next up, tackling the fresh air of the great outdoors. [PEGE via Treehugger via DVICE]

Pump-Up Laptop Cushion Keeps Burning Metal Away From Tender Flesh

Jason Chen — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:50:00 +0000

The laptop stands we’ve used are great for keeping your supple thighs away from your burning laptop, but are usually fairly heavy and hard on your legs. This Airboard, however, has an inflatable base to gently sit on your lap, while at the same time providing ample distance so your leg hairs don’t char. It’s only a design, but is neat enough that if someone made a laptop stand like this, we’d have a hard time passing it up in stores. [Yanko Design]

Max Water Cranks Moisture Out of the Air, Seems Miraculous

Seamus Byrne — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 22:30:00 +0000

There’s a lot of water floating around in the air everywhere, and inventor Max Whisson has figured out a way to extract it using Max Water, a wind-powered contraption he named after himself. Max Water uses the concept of condensation, where lower temperature allows less water to hang around in the air, and Whisson says that will amount to 10,000 liters per day dripping from this single rooftop device. Man, that’s a lot of water.

Those interested in this device better be mighty thirsty, though, because they’ll have to shell out $43,000 for one of these babies. But if you’ve ever been in a region where there’s no water, spending $43K is a whole lot better than dying of thirst. If this idea really works as well as its inventor says it does, economies of scale will make that high price a temporary hurdle. [UberReview]