‘Garage inventors’ is a term used to describe individuals or groups of inventors that create independently. They are not on a salary or salary/incentive basis, paid by their companies to invent; they work alone, on their own or in small groups, generally in someone’s garage or other part of the home.
Popular Science recognizes the accomplishments of these independent inventors yearly in the June issue of its magazine. Today, we take a look at the ECO-Auger.
Windmill turbines that convert tidal energy into electricity are costly and involve permanent installations that may harm marine life.
W. Scott Anderson, an industrial engineer, invented a simpler, less invasive tidal energy converter that’s less costly and more marine-friendly. It uses an auger, a spiral-shaped device that has tapered ends, so as not to harm fish. When the current spins the auger, it induces a hydraulic pump in the nose cone of the device to pump high pressure oil that turns a generator outside of the water.
Though Anderson had made several small prototypes of the ECO-auger to test function and safety around fish, he has hand-crafted his first large prototype that has a two-foot diameter and a polyurethane/ fiberglass auger.
In a test, Anderson said it captured 14 percent of the water’s energy, which is not as much as the windmill turbines, but Anderson says the percentage will go up as the diameter of the augers increase. He is sure that ultimately the ECO-Auger will be more cost effective and just as productive as the windmill turbine.
Photo by Popular Science.