Inventor’s Hot New Idea To Keep A Cool Head
About eight years ago, an idea came to Tommie Nellon as he was installing solar panels in Fresno, Calif.’s, 110-degree heat. “It was so hot we had to use gloves to pick up metal tools,” he said.
The entrepreneur, who runs a multimillion-dollar company, decided then and there to put solar panels on a wide-brimmed straw hat to power a fan that could cool him off.
It took four years to find the right fan for the job and about the same amount of time to work through the patent system.
In November, he got a patent for a “combined solar-powered fan and hat for maximizing airflow through the hat.” Nellon said he expects to start making the hats soon and to sell them for $29.95 each.
He said potential customers could range from farmworkers to amusement park visitors. Nellon has made dozens of the hats already, and his workers use them on the job with his company, Unlimited Energy Inc., in Fresno.
“There was a guy who offered me $100 for a hat,” Nellon said, displaying the slightly tattered one he has worn the past three years.
Photo by Craig Kohlruss
bibombio on January 29th, 2008 11:34 am
that was fantastic, i think this is a must for people stay in tropical areas like me!
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