h a l f b a k e r y
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I have a lot of hats... maybe 15 caps, 3 or 4 Panama hats for golf as well as a beret from the 1953 Irish Open, a couple of broad-brimmed hats, etc. I also have about 8 umbrellas, ranging in size from large to very large.
They each have a use, in certain circumstances. What I'm proposing here is
a device that combines a number of those functions into an all-purpose headwear application.
A fan, powered by a hydrogen cell in a backpack, mounted on top of the head in a fan shroud.
Select fan / down / low speed and the blades keep the sun off you, with about 80% coverage while bathing you in a cooling column of moving air. However, it begins raining:
Select fan / up / high speed and the fan reverses, pushing a fast column of air upwards, deflecting rain that might otherwise fall upon you while the spinning blades are likely to catch and flick away any stray drops that get through.
A counterrotating flywheel prevents the inevitable torque from twisting your head off with sudden direction changes.
Similar technology
Rain_20Blaster
....but car-mounted, not in a backpack. Arguably, 5th Earth's comment pre-bakes this one. [DrCurry, Feb 05 2008]
For [wagster]
http://www.jamd.com...tner=Google&epmid=1
"Be seeing you!" [Amos Kito, Mar 14 2008]
[link]
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You'd look like a fucking idiot, though. Is there some way you could hide the whole thing in a sort of Philip Treacy carbon fibre weave, allowing you both the comfort of the device and the sartorial security of knowing that you look good? |
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"You'd look like a fucking idiot, though." - that pretty much sums up most of the ideas here, doesn't it? |
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UB, I am somewhat disappointed you didn't invoke the spirit of your "Home, Sweat Home" idea and power the fan by harnessing some form of kinetic energy produced by the wearer. |
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I would think one large head-sized fan might be a tad noisy, and you have already mentioned the torque issue, so how about encircling the head with a ring of smaller fans. This would accrue multiple benefits, not the least of which would be quieter operation, but also provide the wearer the ability to customize individual fans speeds, as well as being much easier to camouflage as fashionable headwear. |
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Why would I want to control fans individually? Let me give an example: I am walking down the street, my Fan Hat gently wafting a cooling breeze downwards, tickling the hairs on my neck. Suddenly, I am face-to-face with an obsequious former classmate turned insurance salesman. Just as his spiel reaches fever pitch, I detect the first drops of rain. Surreptitiously, I reach into my pocket and adjust the Fan Hat control pad to reverse the fan array's direction, but in doing so I also tweak the toggle, which increases the velocity of the rearmost fans to a greater degree than those at the front. I watch gleefully as the invisible column of air deflects the raindrops away from their original target, me, dropping them instead on my assailant. He deposits a business card in my hand and runs off to find his umbrella. |
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"kinetic energy produced by the wearer" - actually, that would make a lot of sense - have the wearer turn a hand-crank. |
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//Select fan / up / high speed and the fan reverses//, decapitating //an obsequious former classmate turned insurance salesman// |
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Why not have the fan simply mounted on top with the axis over the centre of the head? Then you can avoid a flywheel by simply changing the rotation of the fan. |
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Then you can coat the blades with razor-sharp steel! When your enemy comes, you lower your head at them and charge, screaming your favourite special move name! Like "TEN THOUSAND SPINNING BLADES OF DEATH SUPER FAN ATTACK!" |
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<Hands [qtetc] the oar he dropped, so he can resume rowing with both oars in the water.> |
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The more I find out about you, [UB], the weirder you become in my mind - sitting in your massive shiny house in the middle of nowhere surrounded by hats, umbrellas and servers. |
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[UnaBubba], are you making some kind of statement about me? I don't need two oars, because I am rowing in a kayak. |
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Thanks [Amos] - now we finally know who he is... |
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You're getting close, [wagster]. <Absently strokes large, white, Persian cat.> |
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