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swaying tree power

Treetops linked by cables to a driveshaft
  (+7, -2)
(+7, -2)
  [vote for,
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A driveshaft is mounted horizontally and is allowed to rotate in one direction only, by means of a ratchet. One or more bicycle or motorcycle type rear sprockets, complete with ratchet, are fitted at intervals along the driveshaft. Each has a chain draped over it. One end of each chain has a weight or tension spring, the other end is joined via a long cable to the top of a tree (one tree per chain/sprocket). As the trees sway, the chains are drawn back and forth in a sawing motion over the sprockets, which turns the driveshaft (in a somewhat jerky way). Use the rotation for anything that doesn't need smooth movement - eg saw wood, turn an Archimedes screw, charge batteries...
spidermother, Jan 26 2006

Halfbaked. Tree_20power
[daseva, Jan 26 2006]

[link]






       We've covered this (linky), though your mechanism is a little different.
daseva, Jan 26 2006
  

       Fair enough GumBob. Should I remove it? I'm still new here.
spidermother, Jan 26 2006
  

       Doesn't really matter. Some people would say, avoid cluttering the 'bakery with duplicate ideas, but personally I don't delete any of my ideas, even the bad ones. More "honest" that way.
5th Earth, Jan 26 2006
  

       Checked the link, my ideas are pretty much all there. I expected to find it under other: energy: wind if I'd been beaten to it. Wish I knew about this site earlier, I thought of this in about 2002. I was helping a friend to look over a farm he was thinking of buying, and thinking about potential sites for wind energy, looked at how much the trees were waving in different areas as a rough guide to windiness, thought 'hey, wait a minute...'
spidermother, Jan 26 2006
  

       I've deleted about 2 or 3 of my ideas so far, but only ones that someone proved was already here or rants about highly controversial issues, which I realize now should probably be avoided here. I say it's a good idea, and you should keep it, if only as a record of the ideas you've posted on here.
21 Quest, Jan 26 2006
  

       Have you been watching E.T. again?   

       Seriously, though...I don't see huge potential here, but something is better than nothing, and I don't see any reason that this wouldn't work. [+]   

       Oh, and use of a suitable flywheel could help with the jerkiness.
Freefall, Jan 26 2006
  

       The flywheel is already mentioned in an annotation on Ra's posting. Actually, my first thought was to use an oldschool double handled saw and power it with a tree and spring (or stand at one end and do the resetting manually, but that involves actually doing some work) to saw wood. Or to cut down other trees - oh, the irony.
spidermother, Jan 27 2006
  
      
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