Gravity Light - lamp that shines
Gravity Light – lamp that shines without electricity or batteries
Using electricity for most of us is taken for granted like something that is normal to have and is part of the civilized world. However, in many countries, electricity is a luxury that people can only dream of.
Jim Reeves and Martin Radford is a team of two designers / innovators who are working on innovation that should be an alternative to fuel lamps that illuminate homes in third world countries although it is certain that this innovation will be welcomed in many other homes. Gravity Light or gravitational lamp is the name of their innovation that has to make free and cheap light wherever she’s gone.
Gravity Light is cheap mainly because it is a simple design. In fact it is an LED lamp that is connected to a small dynamo which is driven by a small movable mechanism. The mechanism is powered by a simple plastic bag that is filled with stones or earth. Gravity is the one that performs all the work and that moves bag slowly down. Bag sets in motion the mechanism that is limited to a small constant speed which is sufficient to drive the dynamo that powers the lamp. So with a lifting of a full bag to some specified high until she reaches the ground light can shine for about 30 minutes. To start the lamp to illuminate again all you need is to attach the bag at the top and cycles will again begin to repeat. To put it again in a position to start to generate light it takes about 3 seconds.
On this way it avoids the use of batteries or need of any source of electricity. The lamp can work as long as it does not break or exceed the planned working hours for such a lamp.
Although at the moment Gravity Light is selling the lamp for $ 10, the designers expect over time the price to be reduced to $ 5. In order to raise funds for the development of this project, its creators raise funds through what is known as crowd funding. So far they through indiegogo.com have collected much more than they had initially. However, they are hoping to rise even more as Gravity Light would fall into series production and would be available to more people in the third world.