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Giant Drinking Bird Power

Giant Bobbing Drinking Bird
  (+4, -1)
(+4, -1)
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against]

You know those little Bobbing toy birds that once you start them, they just keep Bobbing for a drink of water for a long long time? Remember those?

Why not build them on a huge scale with an electric generator in the side to harness the power generated by the bobbing motion?

Imagine a entire Bobbing Bird Farm out in the desert somewhere, maybe where they use to explode nukes northwest of Las Vegas. What a sight it would be ... 400 foot tall contraptions bobbing away producing power at nearly no cost, day or night and with or without wind.

See the Link below for an example of a Drinking Bird Toy.

Zorcon, May 17 2003

Bobber http://yque.com/a197.html
Bobber Bird [Zorcon, Oct 21 2004]

A conversion to Solar Power for the Bobber http://www.scitoys....olar_bird/bird.html
A simple solar powered heat engine [Zorcon, Oct 21 2004]

Place in US to order one (or Two) Birds http://scientificso....asp_Q_pn_E_3053617
I bought two [Zorcon, Oct 21 2004]

(?) A development project http://www.geocitie...ri3/projreport.html
A guy who made a larger one and wants to develop it. [Zorcon, Oct 21 2004]

Another Good Description http://www.gi.alask...Forum/ASF8/854.html
How it works explained pretty well. [Zorcon, Oct 21 2004]

(?) Buy one here and be PART OF HISTORY !!!!!! http://www.butlerla...om/drinkingbird.htm
They plan to build a really big one ... why not? [Zorcon, Oct 21 2004]

The Orginal Patent on the Toy http://l2.espacenet...D=US+++2402463A1+I+
See the Original Drawing [Zorcon, Oct 21 2004]

Drinking Bird is a Movie Star http://www.slipups.com/items/11797.html
His big debut on the big screen [Zorcon, Oct 21 2004]

(??) Mini Drinking Bird to Purchase http://www.biffleys...inidrinkingbird.htm
Smaller Version [Zorcon, Oct 21 2004]

(?) Another Cool Device ... The Levitron http://www.innovato...&Category_Code=Levi
I wonder if you could combine this with the Drinking Bird to create an even more amazing Perpetual Motion Gizmo! [Zorcon, Oct 21 2004]

(??) Giant drinking birds http://www.drinkingbirds.com/
Worlds largest working drinking birds, 6'8"tall, 3 years in the making! [drinkingbirdman, Oct 21 2004]

6½ foot drinking bird http://www.youtube....watch?v=gZ-zeRCUicw
[FlyingToaster, Jun 17 2013]

7 foot bird to pump water from Nile, 1967 http://www.google.c...tents/US20030218852
Background notes 0002 and 0003 [4and20, Jun 18 2013]


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Annotation:







       Dang - beaten to the punch by minutes - I swear I was gonna do this idea today, too. ++ Good
Link checked: Hey, I used to fun-gift shop at yque! It was a 2 or 3 minute walk from where I lived prior to this shack. They still refuse to part with the vintage T'seed Electric Service Calendar behind the register. (The T'seed of unwanted notoriety was the man who James Dean plowed into- incidentally, Mr. T'seed passed away in July of 1995 - a very nice man who hated the notoriety to his dying day)
thumbwax, May 17 2003
  

       'Y que' is spanish for... 'and what', most commonly used in the form of a question. In the Guajira Peninsula of northern South America, near the city of Riohacha, Colombia, there is a tribe of Indians that the Spainards thought might not be worth the trouble on conquering, the Guajiro Indians. "Yo soy Guaijro, y que?" Colombian folklore has it that this is their typical greeting for stangers. (I am Guajiro, and what?)
ty6, May 17 2003
  

       I'm am sure the Bobbing Bird has stired a lot of imaginations through the years. I bet a lot of great ideas have been generated by this thing.
Zorcon, May 17 2003
  

       Wouldn't the friction involved in drawing energy from this bring it to a stop?
oatcake, May 18 2003
  

       Looks like that guy Vik Rantsuri baked it.
galukalock, May 18 2003
  

       I can't help but think of the Simpsons episode where Homer used one of these to control the Nuclear Reactor.
Zimmy, May 18 2003
  

       Without stretching your visual imagination too hard, it's not difficult to compare [Zorcon]'s Giant Drinking Birds producing kinetic electrical power to the Giant Drinking Birds which have been pumping oil to produce power in the US since 1910 from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Los Angeles, California.(link) If you wanted to convert those existing structures from oil production to some form of solar energy production, that might be a new idea, especially since most examples of that particular kind of derrick seem to be sited on treeless sun-baked grounds. In the meantime, it just seems like an inefficient means of exploiting a children's toy.
jurist, May 18 2003
  

       It seems not enough people bought the butterlabs dream... The link is dead.   

       And so is the link for drinkingbirds (currently has a girl as a decoy for the drinking bird...)   

       And so are most of them. It seems drinking birds don't continue moving forever :-(
pashute, Jun 17 2013
  

       The power generated by the drinking bird should be used to run a water pump that refills the cup from which the bird is drinking.
swimswim, Jun 17 2013
  

       The Holy Writ of Physics is clear: Perpetual Motion shalt not be Possible.   

       [swimswim], I brand thee: Blasphemer!
Alterother, Jun 17 2013
  

       The image alone is worth a [+]. Who care if it works?
sqeaketh the wheel, Jun 17 2013
  

       What do you mean perpetual motion? It's just a heat engine that uses evaporating water to keep the cold side of the engine cool. As long as the well isn't too deep, there could be enough energy produced for pumping. Now if you tried to use the energy produced to run a device to extract water from the air, that would be perpetual motion.
scad mientist, Jun 17 2013
  

       [+] and currently working youtube link.
FlyingToaster, Jun 17 2013
  

       // The power generated by the drinking bird should be used to run a water pump that refills the cup from which the bird is drinking. //   

       Assuming that the author's intent was that the recycling pump be the only source of water for refilling the cup (heavily implied through omission of alternative sources), this is a description of a perpetual motion machine and therefore eet eez ztreektly verboten!!!
Alterother, Jun 18 2013
  

       'snot perpetual motion: it's driven by evaporation of the water off the beak, or something like that.
FlyingToaster, Jun 18 2013
  

       I agree. Using the bird to run a condenser to fill the cup would be naughty.
pocmloc, Jun 18 2013
  

       It only sounds like perpetual motion because it omits the trifling details about the attached series of interconnected flywheels, billiard balls and mildly slanting ramps that keeps the thing moving.
swimswim, Jun 18 2013
  

       Ah. Well, I suppose that's acceptable. Welcome to your stay of execution, heretic.
Alterother, Jun 18 2013
  

       Methyl chloride is the fluid used in the drinking bird. It may be used in a type of Stirling engine or Rankin Cycle engine. Where the fluid boils, expanded and does work. It may not necessary be in the form of a drinking bird and may be well suited for energy conversion in solar ponds and OCTC.
travbm, Nov 01 2015
  


 

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