A penny for your radio
There's personal technology--the cellphone you can't live without, the PDA that keeps you organized, the digital camera that captures your vacations. And then there's the personal technology that's not so fancy: new techno uses for the stuff of daily life.
For folks who wonder why they keep tossing odds and ends in that junk drawer in the kitchen, Sneaky Uses for Everyday Things ($11) offers evidence that technology doesn't always have to come from Best Buy, Amazon.com, or Microsoft. "The most innocent objects, with a little science or subterfuge, can be used for amazing purposes," says author Cy Tymony, a Torrance, Calif., resident who works as a computer consultant by day and amateur scientist by night. Using instructions that are simple to follow, the book unveils some of these hidden possibilities, briefly explaining the scientific principles at work. For parents of kids whose science fair deadlines are looming, the book even offers a few simple starter projects.
Tymony says Sneaky Uses is the result of a lifelong fascination with the ways scientific knowledge can be used. As a child on the South Side of Chicago, he played with Erector sets and science kits, and read Superman comic books. "After I would build all the things I could from the set's instructions, I would use the comic books for inspiration, especially Lex Luthor," he says. "He could take on Superman just using his brain."
Nothing in Sneaky Uses will make you a superhero (or villain), but the book could come in handy. Unlike the other science project books out there (Neil Downie's new Ink Sandwiches, Electric Worms, and 37 Other Experiments for Saturday Science is a fun example), Sneaky Uses emphasizes putting common household items to alternative uses. For example, the fruit battery--devised from a lemon, nail, and copper wire--is a quick illustration of how electricity works. But don't expect it to power your refrigerator during a blackout: You do have to wire together quite a few lemons (six in our case) to generate enough juice to power a small, flashlight-type light bulb. More challenging to execute is the radio made from a scratched penny, paper clips, telephone wire, and other knickknacks. But with some effort, you can catch an AM station or two, which you listen to through an earphone.
Easier and more likely to be useful are the directions on how to mix rubbing alcohol and water into gel packs for sore muscles. You can also turn a soda bottle, vinegar, tissue, and baking soda into a fire extinguisher. Tymony regularly adds new projects to his sneakyuses.com Web site, such as a way to make simple oxygen tanks out of balloons if you are trapped in a fire. "There are lots of little things sitting around that can be used to save lives," he says.
Those who have graduated from Sneaky Uses' experiments might want to check out Gonzo Gizmos: Projects and Devices to Channel Your Inner Geek ($17) by Simon Field. Its projects are a bit more sophisticated: a generator made from soda cans, for example. Consider it an alternative take on recycling.
Some Sneaky Uses
Pennies: Can be used to make an AM radio.
Key: Insert into a lemon for a low-power battery.
Lemon: Its juice mixes with baking soda to make a fire extinguisher.
Light bulb: Add foil and a battery for an instant flashlight.
This story appears in the February 2, 2004 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.