Patent Pending Blog - Patents and the History of Technology

Pitotubes - Its Rocket Science for Your Packing

 

Alisa Caviness-Driscoll is the founder of AMD Travel Accessories, Inc. and the creator of Pitotubes. Alisa grew up living and sailing in the Caribbean and continued exploring the world with 15 years of discovery in the travel industry. Alisa's experience as a flight attendant fed her passion for travel and put her in direct contact with thousands of business and leisure travelers.

The Challenge

In her years of travel, Alisa has heard one common complaint from all of her globetrotting friends. Whether it's shampoo, lotion, or that pricey perfume, "the top came off and it got all over EVERYTHING!" Men and women on business or leisure travel have all had the experience of personal care products leaking in expensive bags and ruining valuables. It's no way to start, or end, a trip.

The Solution

Alisa's idea was simple...find a travel bottle that is airplane proof and capable of withstanding ALL the rigors of travel. After spending a year at cosmetic and personal care packaging tradeshows and countless hours at market research, Alisa realized that the product she was looking for didn't exist. And so the lifelong traveler's entrepreneurial journey began. With the help of the industry's finest engineers, Alisa created Pitotubes.

The Benefits

Pitotubes are sleek, luxury, airless travel bottles that transport personal care products with elegance and ease. Travelers of the world can now customize their shaving kits and cosmetic bags with our signature bottles. Simply transfer your personal care products into the Pitotubes and forget about searching for travel sizes or cleaning up after the big spill.Alisa says, "My energy and inspiration comes from inventing and enhancing products that all travelers of the world want and need." AMD Travel Accessories, Inc. was launched in 2004 and continues to develop new and exciting products for fellow travelers.

Screw Vehicle

One of the earliest screw vehicles I've found is the Ice Locomotive, which looks like it would be so heavy that it would sink into the snow.  I wonder if any were ever built?

Corkscrewed and the Rodenator

There is a new reality show on the tv these days, called "Corkscrewed: the Wrath of Grapes".  In the show the two producers of the reality show "American Idol," Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick, buy a vinyard near Paso Robles California, and proceed to have everything go wrong with their plan to be vintners. Their grape contracts are cancelled, the heat kills their owls, and gophers start to take over the vinyard.  The rodent disaster is saved when an inventor from Idaho drives in to save the day.  That man is Ed Meyers, President of an Idaho company that sells a rodent control product called the Rodenator.

The producers feel a little sorry for the furry critters for a few minutes, then when they think of the $6 million they have  riding on the harvest, they are all for nuking the gophers, at which time Ed is happy to provide the pyrotechnics.  Ed is shown in three episodes of the show that I have seen, and solves at least one of their many problems.

The Rodenator is a portable device which mixes oxygen and propane, and sends a swirling mixture into the rodent burrows.  A spark from the device ignites the gases, and the borrows for up to 300 feet are blown up, instantly killing the gophers, ground squirrels, or other borrowing pest. The Rodenator website has more information about the device, including videos of the device in action.

Screw Vehicle Technology

Recently British adventurers Steven Brooks and Graham Stratford built a specialized vehicle which could cross the Bering Straights from Alaska to Russia, and could traverse water, ice, snow, and the tangled masses of ice ridges that can occur in that area.  It could also climb out of the water onto the ice shelf.  Their adventure is showcased at the team's Ice Challenger site.  The vehicle was a Bombardier snow grooming vehicle, driven by tracks, to which was added a screw propulsion system.

I had thought the Russians had pioneered screw propulsion vehicles, and wrote a blog post with pictures of their vehicles.  Recently I found out that the original screw propulsion vehicle was designed in 1944, during WWII, by Johannes Raedel, a member of the German Army and veteran of the Eastern Front with Russia. (Note: Raedel was originally spelled R'a'del, with an umlaut).  He had observed that in the deep snows of Russia, tanks would dig out the snow under the tracks, and the tank would become high centered on snow pressed under the belly of the tank. 

According to Siegfried Raedel, son of Johannes..."The idea evolved while looking at a meat mincer, also employing a screw type of compression. He convinced army headquarters in Berlin to allow him to make a prototype of this machine.  At that time, Austria was annexed to Germany already and he was dispatched to the Austrian Alpine vehicle test centre at St. Johann in Tyrol.  Using whatever materials were available he built this prototype during the period of 10th Feb 1944 to 28th April 1944.  It was tested extensively and the first page of this report is attached, together with a few pictures of the original.  It was very slow, but it would pull 1 ton!  It also had good climbing capabilities. It would penetrate about 30cm into the snow, no more."

The photos below are of Johannes testing the vehicle in Tyrol.  The woman and children were at a lodge at the top of a mountain, which the vehicle had climbed during testing. 

Siegfried pointed out that "something in the order of 7 tons of patent papers were taken out of Germany after the war. What amazes me though is the fact that both the US and Russia seem to have had access to these papers - and this during the cold war period!"

The page below is the first page of Johannes' report on the vehicle. 

The Mora Knife of Sweden

The region aroung Mora, Sweden, has been known for centuries as a source of quality steel articles, including knives. About 110 years ago Erik Frost began making knives and developed a style that became popular.  This general style of knife is called a Mora knife  and is still made by two companies in Mora that trace their anscestry from Erik Frost.  The companies are Frost Knivfabric and Eriksson Knives.  Mora knives have become a favorite for all outdoor activities, including Scandinavian construction workers, foresters, and is a real favorite of survival and bushcraft folks.



Mora knives come in several variations, with plastic handles, in a version with a laminated steel blade, and in the traditional wooden handle handle shown above.   I learned about Mora knives from my friend Bryan, who told me and my backpacking class about the reputation of Mora knives being used to cut down trees by pounding the full tang knife into the tree, then pounding it back and forth to cut wood fibers.  It is also reputed to be able to be driven into a tree, then support a man's weight on it.  That seems like a stretch to me, but you'll find reference to people testing that claim. 

On a hike the fall of '06 we found a tree that had a cut off branch wound that had become fat wood, from saturated and dried sap.  We used a rock to pound Bryan's Mora knife into the hard wood to chip out lengths of fat wood.  Not many knives would take that kind of abuse.

The more inportant thing is that the knife comes wicked sharp out of the box, holds an edge, is easy to sharpen, and is tough and durable.  My Mora knife has a snug fitting plastic sheath, and can be worn on the belt or hanging around the user's neck. It has laminated steel, with the center steel being harder, sandwiched between two layers of softer steel.  The combination results in a knife that holds an edge, and is very tough.  The knife has the traditional Scandinavian bevel on the edge, rather than being hollow ground like a lot of knives.  To sharpen it, you put all the metal of the bevel portion on the stone, and remove metal from the entire bevel.  That means removing a little more metal, but it also means that the angle set at the factory remains constant after many sharpenings. 

Being a backpacker, I'm more used to Swiss Army knives and folders than fixed blade knives, but having a razor sharp fixed blade knife makes some camp chores go well, like cleaning fish and fire building.  Its very light, and now I wouldn't think of hiking without it.  The big surprise is.... it sells for less than $20, and often closer to $10.  You'll see Mora knives on ebay, and knife sellers on the web.  Get a Frost or Eriksson Mora knive and let me know how you like it.

The Press Bot Coffee Maker

The best designs are the ones that make you say "I wish I'd thought of that!"  They are also usually dead simple, and probably quite a bit more subtle than they appear.  The  Press-Bot coffee maker is all that, and it makes good coffee too.   Camp coffee is always great, but coffee made from grounds in a French press is wonderful.  Since the Press Bot operates with a standard 1 liter wide mouth Nalgene bottle, that means you can make enough great coffee for three or four people at once, so it is also a very efficient method. This summer I was at Kane Lake in Idaho teaching my son to fly fish, sitting on a rock having a great cup of coffee.  It doesn't get any better than that.  This little gadget weighs only a few ounces, and I carry a Nalgene bottle anyway, so it is very practical even for ultralight hiking. 

The John Muir Trail

The Y's Hikers John Muir Trail hike, 1971

see www.backpackingtechnology.com for the trip report and pictures of the Y's Hikers JMT trip, 1971

The Contrail, Single Wall Tent

Henry Shires at Tarptent, makers of innovative ultralight backpacking tents, was inspired by the design of the 1891 canvas tent below to take that design and improve it quite a bit. 



According to Henry:

    "The key improvements over the 1891 shelter include the integrated rear carbon fiber struts, catenary ridgelines, swept "wings" which better stabilize the tent front, do away with any center stake or guyline and add gear storage, and the copious venting with full bug protection and integrated flooring.  Not to mention the weight, which at 1.5 lbs is superlight."

This tent is called the Contrail.  The pole for this can be a single a hiking pole, a stick found on the trail, or you can take a very light 2-ounce pole.   There is no front guyline to trip over or duck under.   The headrom at entry is excellent, as is the elbow room (66" across front door) and rectangular foot room.  The width of the floor eliminates any chance of the bag contacting the walls, and leaves room for a dog to join the boss in the tent. 

There is excellent ventilation as the back wall can be folded open, and the packed size is tiny at 14" x 4" x 4".

The tent is a stretched pyramid design with end corner 14"  carbon fiber struts, which fit in protective sleeves.  The rear floor edge is inset 10" from the tent dripline.   Setup is extremely quick, and uses only 4-stakes in the sub 2 minutes setup time.

Front beak provides 10 square feet of protected gear space. The high beak vent allows flowthrough ventilation.

The rear storm flap rolls up or down (from inside) as needed.  It also suppports tip side up or handle side up trekking poles (not shown in these photos).   The 7-foot floor cradles a "long" sleeping bag (shown) with ease. At 1.5 pounds, this makes a great weatherproof ultralight tent.

Maps of War

This site, Maps of War, has an animated display that shows a timeline of the various empires that have controlled the lands around the Mediterranean.  Hit "play" and see who has controlled the Holy Land as well as the rest of the region over the years.

The Temple of Artemis, Ephesus in Modern Turkey

The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was counted as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, that list of marvels that ancient world travelers were fortunate to visit in their lifetimes. 

The historian Philon of Byzantium said "I have seen the walls and Hanging Gardens of ancient Babylon, the statue of Olympian Zeus, the Colossus of Rhodes, the mighty work of the high Pyramids  and the tomb of Mausolus. But when I saw the temple at Ephesus rising to the clouds, all these other wonders were put in the shade."

The Temple was built in Ephesus near modern day Selcuk in Turkey.  It was built in about 560 B.C. on the site of much older temples to Artemis and other Greek gods. It was built so that broad steps led up to a rectangular terrace on which the temple was built. It was rectangular in shape, and approximately 260 ft by 430 ft (80 m x 130 m). The building (the 323 bc version) consisted of a roof held up by 127 marble pillars, each 60 ft (20 m) high. The base of the pillars was decorated with extensive carvings and artwork.  The pillars were arranged aound the perimeter of the building, with the center being left open. 

The temple was burned down the same year that Alexander the Great was born, in 356 B.C., and rebuilt by 323 B.C.  It was again destroyed by the Goths and rebuilt in 263 A.D.  The temple was finally torn down permanently in 401 A.D. by St. John Chrysostom. When ancient references were used to find the site of the temple in the late 19th century, the local residents had never heard of it, and it was buried in 20 feet of swamp and overgrowth.  After excavation in the early 20th century, a single column reconstructed from the debris now stands on the site.  The drawing below is from Bill Munn's Seven Wonders of the Ancient World site. 

By comparison, the Lincoln Memorial, built in 1922, is 188 ft x 118 ft, with 36 columns 44 ft tall. 

This photo of the Lincoln Memorial is courtesy of Keith Stanley, www.kestan.com .

The other Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were:

The Colossus of Rhodes
The Pyramids of Egypt
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia
The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
The Lighthouse at Alexandria