Vehicle: Elevator: Power
Bird-Booster Prairie Pleasures   (+5, -2)  [vote for, against]
avian-activated elevator

After a morning run and a shower, I eased myself into the prototype’s cushioned chair. I’d jogged two kilometers out to its narrowed aluminum end to place some seeds on the small platform before jogging back. I bought the flat, prairie ranch a year ago and then spent ten months erecting the fulcrum, beams and superstructure of the massive seesaw.

Sitting comfortably a meter from the balance point, I leaned to the right to see past the suspension tower and cables and view the bird feeder through a telescope. Spying no activity, I relaxed a while with a newspaper and cup of coffee before feeling the thrill of suddenly being lifted into the air. After once being thrown out of my chair by a landing Canada goose, I’d since then always used a seatbelt.

Eagerly checking the eyepiece, I was pleased to see a tiny snow bunting enjoying the seeds at the other end while holding me suspended above the ground. I later spent an hour in the afternoon enjoying the shudders of levered, falling leaves and the bucking jolts of a magnified, distant hail storm.
-- FarmerJohn, Dec 31 2004

beam on a fulcrum http://www.speakerfactory.net/wind.htm
Sure it wasn't this? [mensmaximus, Dec 31 2004]

You'd need the Hubble space telescope to see a snow bunting 2 km away. I'd rather install a web cam or something. Anyway, when the bird takes off, won't you drop to the ground like a rock? Ouch!
-- phundug, Dec 31 2004


You kids stay off the tweeter twatter.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Dec 31 2004


[phund] A spring under my cushioned chair is in order.

[mens] I'm sure, but it reminds me of the hb props-on-power-cables wind generation scheme.

[El D] It’s a teeter-totter with uneven sides. I sit on one end one meter from the fulcrum. A 40 gram bird lands on the other end 2 km away and lifts me.
-- FarmerJohn, Dec 31 2004


While you could be lifted by the 40g bird, it would have to move the its end of the beam through 500m to lift you a mere 25cm (Assuming a 2km beam and my dodgy trigonometry)
-- zen_tom, Dec 31 2004


I know and to think that I started out planning a sparrow 5K out.
-- FarmerJohn, Dec 31 2004



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