Ogden Nash had once written, “God in his wisdom made the fly and then forgot to tell us why.” Mankind has probably found out one use of the fly now. Sounds good for us humans but spells doomsday for the flying creature.
UK based designers James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau have come up with a carnivorous version of a clock that ‘consumes flies’ to keep the clock running. We have all heard of green energy but this is probably one of the very rare forms of ‘eco friendly’ sources of energy. The carnivorous clock has a sticky honey-coated belt that keeps moving. When a fly sticks to the belt its fate leads it to a blade that brings its journey of life to a stop. The organic matter is further converted in to electrical energy and the LCD clock gets increased energy. The clock is, however, not a very greedy one. It can survive for 12 days after having consumed eight dead flies.
Flies are menace wherever they exist. We all know that they are a store house of diseases and one of the most unwanted and irritating creatures around. To get rid of them many measures have been devised and are quite successful as well. The flypaper is one of the most popular means to tackle the problem. The fly sticks on to the paper and it left to die there. The carnivorous clock has taken this idea of the flypaper a step further and gone on to kill the flies as well. The concept of killing flies for extracting energy sounds pretty gross but if you take it as a means of eliminating a disease source it takes away the feeling of disgust to a great extent.
The clock is non-vegetarian and survives on green energy. There is, however, a flip side to this concept. It can be noted here that the sticky belt too needs energy to stay in motion. And this energy is, in fact, obtained from a motor. This aspect does come in contradiction with the eco-friendly energy of the clock. If the designers come up with a means to run the belt on natural energy sources the eco-friendly tag can be given to the entire product making it yet another nature friendly product.
The carnivorous clock is still in the prototype stage. With the stage having been set for a concept and a prototype ready a step in the right direction has already been taken. What remains is to pursue on with it and bring it into the main stream.
May be it is a bit weird. But then can there be any set norms for innovation? I don’t think so. If you too agree with what I have said, you will appreciate Shattered Clock and Watch without a Face.
