Dirt-Powered Clock Hooks Up to Your Houseplants
July 7, 2009 · Print This Article
From the very same innovative designer that brought us the soil-powered LED lamp comes a clock that also runs on dirt. Marieke Staps’ soil clock has copper and zinc electrodes that plug into the soil. Inhabitat explains that “The soil functions as an electrolyte, or conductive medium through which an electrical charge can flow. The natural metabolism of biological life produces enough electricity to keep the clock working.”
But if your plant dies from lack of watering, so will the clock – you’ve got to keep the soil moist.
Sure, this is no miracle invention – it’s a simple electrochemical cell – but it’s still cool, and the promise of harvesting energy from soil certainly doesn’t stop here. It could be a valuable asset in third world countries, where anodes and cathodes could be made from scrap metal. It’s certainly an idea worth investigating further.
Link [Inhabitat]
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