Schoolboy's hamster-powered charger

A 16-year-old boy who invented a hamster-powered phone charger is celebrating after the gadget helped him pass his GSCE electronics.
Peter Ash, from Lawford in Somerset, came up with the idea after his sister Sarah complained that Elvis was keeping her awake at night by playing for hours on his exercise wheel.

The quick-thinking teenager quickly realised that the restless hamster's energy could be used to generate electricity and spent the next 13 months inventing the 15cm device for his GSCE electronics coursework project.


I would have just givin the stur-crazy furball to the cat........
http://tech.virgin.net/story/TEC/A18607841124965880A0

I read about this today! Its a great idea, brainny little kid!

cool invention

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wow that is a neat idea.
l know it wouldn't work for me because my hamster is actually more like a couchpotato he wouldn't use his wheel if his life depended on it .

Amazing. Smart kid.

Hehehe you beat me to it. I also wanted to post the same story

The four-legged cell phone charger

Peter Ash is the brains behind his new hamster-powered cell phone charging device. His fluffy little pet, "Simon," however, did all the legwork.

The 16-year-old student from Somerset, England just knew the three to four hours Simon spent each night in his exercise wheel had to be good for something other than keeping his sister awake, he told the BBC. So as part of his coursework for his General Certificate of Secondary Education, the budding engineer attached a generator to the wheel and now gets 30 minutes of talk time for every two minutes Elvis takes a spin.

Just think of the energy produced by the countless treadmill and stationary bicycle users across the world each day?

Source
http://news.com.com/2061-10786_3-5843386.html
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I had heard of people using their stationary bicycle to power things or recharge batteries but I can`t recall from where...

edit to add: so is the hamster`s name Elvis or "simon" ??? Maybe he has two hamsters??

its not that amazing of an idea

i wonder if it could be modified so i could use my dog to charge my phone she has waaaaay to much energy

lol thats sucha neat idea!

Awesome!! I'd love to have that. *glances over at cage on dresser* My hamster Rose loves to run at night, but now her npise is my white noise. It helps me sleep.