Topic: The Gnomish Invention Contest

(Lost To Time)

Date: 2012-03-17 23:52 EST
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The Stars End Bar Gnomish invention contest is an Almost Anything goes create till you drop contest.

Submit all your wacky, wild, useful, useless and just plain strange inventions here.

There are only 3 rules.

1) Sumissions must be posted by 12 pm MST Saturday March 24th, 2012 2) limit three submisions per character 3) Inventions causing fatalities will automatically be disqualified.

A. Dagger Sasc

Date: 2012-03-18 12:37 EST
Famously referred to around the school grounds as "The Dehumidifier," this 12 horsepower water cannon is equipped with a beam nozzle, and a revolutionary grip-squeeze trigger mechanism for easy firing and maximum control. It is safe and fun to use and built to last, and is capable of shooting 20' ft. streams even at lower water pressures. Intended to be rigged/affixed to a municipal water supply, its design quickly saw direction changes toward becoming a child-friendly recreational device. Mounted to a permanent swivel mount fixture, the cannon promises many fun hours keeping cool in the hot sun this summer.

"It started out as an idea for a simple engine for a simple challenge," Aurast Dagger Sasc, Adennian swords expert and current student enrolled in a Rhydin business course says, "I'm renowned for being lazy, but I actually hunker down for science projects, and that's how this Gnomish Invention Contest appealed to me."

Aurast, 26, and two other students from two other RhyDin schools, grouped together to work on a project for the invention contest being held out of Star's End this year. Kaylee Delvac, who is only 17, and Peter Lyndon, a Rhydin University third-year, are both receiving attention for the development of the fully-operational water turret.

"Kaylee is a math whiz," says Lyndon, 19, "Aurast was very keen on building the engine, and I helped with the cutting of all the necessary parts in our school's shop. But we couldn't have done any of that without Kaylee's printouts in computational geometry and photo-realistic rendering. But we were lucky to get all of us together at all with our schedules." He laughs.

First intended simply to enter the contest with, the three students quickly realized the fate of their project would be grander than they ever imagined. "Very soon after people found out that the turret worked, we began receiving interested buyers," Aurast recalls, "But I don't think we want to just part with it, you know. One of them was interested in making it out to a charity, and that's the sort of thing that greatly appealed to all three of us I think."

"I've never done anything like this before," Kaylee says, "It's very exciting." Kaylee is working on graduating with honors and attending university for engineering, and expresses a great interest in pursuing a career in locomotive and railroad design. "I think it is the future of RhyDin transportation, and I've always loved trains anyway." She laughs. She plans to put the water turret project on her transcript when she applies for college next year.

"I don't think any of us foresaw it getting this sort of attention," Aurast begins, taking time away from his garage band to sit down and leave a few words with us, "We're talking with the Rhydin Governor's Office about them buying the turret, because Kaylee and Peter feel the same as I do that they could best put the money to a good cause, and we'd like to get it put in the marketplace for the kids to play with this summer and keep cool." Aurast smiles brightly, seemingly already imagining the water wars. "It's easy to overlook, but all the engine mechanisms and parts were Gnomish design or Gnomish inspired " I insisted upon it. The look of the turret itself is very Gnomish as well....I mean you can see the inspiration. I think it turned out very steampunk as well, I guess. I don't know. Everybody worked really hard on this. It's really cool." The Adennian partner in the project says with a certain peculiarity. It seems he has had an interesting relationship with this project.

"Who knows what the future holds in store," Lyndon says in closure, "A lot of things and a lot of people contributed to this project getting finished. A couple late nights and wounded test scores were definitely sacrificed. I think Aurast is not so far from getting his degree, so he was caught-up enough on things to spend a little extra time on it; the finishing touches and things. I think this thing is going to be really cool wherever it winds up." Peter is graduating next year with a degree in mechanics, but we don't think he'll ever forget working on this project.

"The Dehumidifier" water cannon is currently in negotiations to become permanently installed in the RhyDin Market, but will still be submitted and on display in the Gnomish Invention Contest in Star's End March 18-25th.

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Specs: Engine trademark / Engine type / Gnomish Osmosis Model (Build Variant) TLE 20 Granulometry (mm) 8 Automatic priming Yes Outflow maximum (m3/h) 7 Range (ft.) 35 PSI 80 Lifting height (m) 30 Suction diameter (mm) 25 Lenght (cm) x Width (cm) x Height (cm) 31 x 27 x 35 Dry Weight (kgs) 5 Type Clear water with junior sediment pump

Special Thanks: Rhydin Welcome Center, Rhydin Preservation of Records Center, Ravensheart Academy, Keith's Metalworks, Kesey Apartment Complex.

Kruger

Date: 2012-03-21 21:16 EST
The clock itself was not spectacular; Kruger had purchased it from a reputable dealer. For his experiment though, he didn't need the most fancy of time keepers. It was a faux cuckoo clock, carved to resemble one but the bird itself never left the tiny doorway. It was the small water wheel that was important, and the flywheel attached to it. Beyond that it was the tiny gear mechanism that was attached to the inner workings of the clock that deserved attention. Then again it could be the small pump that was attached to tubing which ran from it to a holding tank high above the entire contraption.

The idea behind this was to make a clock that never needed winding; a device that would make batteries obsolete. In the holding tank was water, which flowed over the water wheel causing it to spin. The motion of the wheel turned the gears that ran the clock. From the flywheel a belt ran to the pump which, when running, would pump the water out of the reservoir beneath the water wheel back up to the holding tank. It seemed so like a good theory to Kruger, but in practice it just wasn't working. He couldn't get the flow needed to run the wheel while it was attached to the clock and the pump. The flywheel was supposed to aid that, but the pump put too much lag on it. He had tried increasing the flow of water to the wheel and this had worked to a point, but the pump was unable to keep up with the flow needed to run itself and the clock. He had increased the size of the tank, and raised it higher, but nothing seemed to be working for him.

Time was running short for the smith, the contest coming to a close. He gave a defeated sigh and rewrote the placard describing his invention.

Perpetual Motion Clock Failed Invention

Rachael Blackthorne

Date: 2012-03-24 07:40 EST
When the Keeper of Air heard about the Gnomish Invention Contest, a problem that had been plaguing her for some time came to mind. Namely, the difficulty she had to find different sorts of amusement for one of the Tower residents, Mallow, the Tower Kitten. Rachael Wynter thus set about to create a solution, much like she did for any other problem that she faced: head on and with full force.

Most great inventions were not built from the ground up, she reasoned, but were adaptations of works that had come before, in order to solve a problem that the original invention could not or did not deal with. Therefore, after a productive shopping excursion in the Marketplace during her appointed duty rounds, Rachael procured the necessary items to, in the vernacular of some of the most innovative inventors out there, kit bash her entry together.

The body of the invention was provided by a Nerf dart gun. Rachael had intended to use standard catnip mice as the "dart". Instead, in a fortunate streak of chance, she found catnip darts that fit into the barrel of the gun perfectly. When the dart gun's trigger was depressed, the catnip dart was propelled from the gun at a distance. To solve the problem of dart retrieval, she attached lengths of yarn to each dart, and fastened the other ends to a modified fishing reel system. At the touch of a button, the darts retracted back into the barrel for quick retrieval and reloading. Or, to taunt the cat in question, the reel could also be manipulated manually to draw the catnip toy back in slowly.

After hours of "target practice" with Mallow to test out the invention, the Watchwoman proclaimed the new item, the Cat Amusement Toy Nip Gun, or for potential retail sales the CAT Nip Shooter 2012, a success. Now all that remained to be done was to pack up the prototype and deliver it to the Stars End Bar and Grill before the contest deadline.



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