Replies

1. 
   Mooney | Nov 28, 2005 11:36am | #1

   Pretty weird . 

   Tim

    

2. 
   DavidThomas | Nov 28, 2005 12:45pm | #2

   Er, what exactly were you digging for when you found it?!

   Not a well-written article, IMO. They keep saying "urine-powered battery", but it isn't. It is urine-activated. Or blood, sweat or tears. Or sea water like the light on the life-jacket under your airline seat. The reactants is copper and magnesium. The pee is just an ionic solution. You could do the same by dipping a Doritos chip in water and adding the resulting salty solution to the metal-metal battery.

   David Thomas   Overlooking Cook Inlet in Kenai, Alaska
1. 
   4Lorn1 | Nov 29, 2005 04:16am | #4

   Re :"Er, what exactly were you digging for when you found it?!"Well it went down like this:
   Was on a boat site dealing with wooden boats. Guy writes in saying he has a leak he can't find. Someone suggests it is 'Greebles'.What he hell is a greeble? So I Google 'greeble' and get a National Geographic article dealing with the Seattle seafront being about to fall into the sea because greeebles are eating the wood supporting the sea wall. That also have a nice explanation of what a greeble is an how they eat, and spread nitrogen rich bacteria.Down the page is a link to an article for bacteria producing rocket fuel from sewage. Cool I think and find out there is a new sewage treatment design which eliminates the need for aeration. Come to find there is a bacteria that anaerobically converts ammonia to hydrazine and then uses hydrazine for energy. Cool.And there it was, way down on the page. Something like: 'Urine powered battery'. Given the general altitude of the general public of tradesmen I figured urine powered tools would be in line.The article is unclear what the reaction is. May be a proprietary process. They are claiming 1.5v without a caustic electrolyte. You can slap a copper and a zinc strip into a lemon and get something like .5v. But generally urine is not a strong enough reactant to get such high voltage. Still might be a trivial reaction but there might be more to it.

3. 
   gordsco | Nov 28, 2005 01:12pm | #3

   Gimme six more beers

   I need to jumpstart my car

1. 
   Westcoast | Nov 29, 2005 09:14am | #5

    

   Gimme six more beers

   I need to jumpstart my car

    

   Too funny!

    

   "Honest officer i didn't want to drink and drive, but i had to!"

1. 
   4Lorn1 | Nov 30, 2005 03:52am | #6

   Re: "Honest officer i didn't want to drink and drive, but i had to!"And given an electric vehicle, gives new meaning to having places to 'go'.