Homestead mailing list

["WILLIAM JONES" <billj AT harborside.com>]

Don Bowen wrote:
>Have you built a proof of concept?
Yes, I did, with six rainbow-colored balloons.  I left it in southern 
California, so I don't have a pic.  It worked poorly, if you held it just 
right, but all of its failings are easily accounted for.  It was indeed a 
six-shooter, with very uneven torque.  The balloons were all at one end, 
mounted on a promo frisbee.  Since it was asymmetric, all it did was lurch 
off to the side unless you held it just right.  They were in fact balloons, 
which means that a huge pressure would be required to inflate them to the 
full half-pint.  Finally, the frisbee wasn't wide enough to provide more than 
5" of separation from the central axis.  The last part is really ridiculous, 
since I had to force the frisbee under water to make anything happen at all.  
That made it impossible for the bottles to cool, since they could not really 
touch the water.  I'd make another now, but as you see I'm somewhat 
indisposed, having recently become a paraplegic.  But thank God for arms, eh?
Bill