Old 45's (records, not guns)>

[DALederle]

With all the power outages we've had in the Chicago area this spring and summer, from some really bad, 70mph+ storms coming through, maybe a hand cranked, wind up record player is a good idea now.
Back to the good old days.
At least after the power goes out I can still listen to music. Put on a record and while you listen read a book. Not a bad way to live.
It's funny, listening to all the people complaining about being without power. The people with health problems (and I am one of them) have my sympathy. But I used to camp out all the time. We had all kind of ways to get along with out electricity. So a wind up record player would be an interesting thing to say the least.
Too bad there's no way to have a hand cranked, wind up internet. Or TV. Can you imagine turning a hand crank to power up your computer or TV?
Could you put the hand cranked generator on a usb port to attach it to you computer?

Thanks for all the suggestions, by the way!
Dennis A. Lederle
Live Long and Grow Old!

[Big and Bashful]

My mother used to have a couple of concertos on 78 rpm shellac disks. You could play them on an auto-changer; something like 4 minutes of music then BANG, the next disk dropped and played. Five or six sides later you flipped them all over to get the second half. I think I prefer newer technology! But that old system was rather amusing!

[Uncle Al]

We have one of those "hand crank" radio/flashlight combos. It comes in handy
when the power is out. You can get them at Wal-Mart or other discount stores.
Just crank them about 30 revolutions and they're good for 2-3 hours.

The 'brand' I have is Excalibur, under $20.00 and the flash-light portion is 6 LED's.
The "hand crank" is a dynamo which stores the power. It even has solar-cells to
charge the battery during the day.

Also have a couple of those 'shaker' flash-lights. Clear plastic so you can see the
magnet moving back and forth. Shake it for 30 seconds, or so, and you've 30-45
minutes of light. They should be available at any discount store, CVS or Walgreens.

Just a few suggestions for you. Beats having to pay $5-$10 on batteries for existing
flash-lights and radios. Batteries not required

Uncle Al

[DALederle]

My final solution is kind of funny.
Turns out my brother-in-law is audiophile. Well, I guess I kinda knew that. But I just wasn't thinking of him as a SOLUTION to a problem. If you know what I mean. Anyway, my sister told me to just send them all the old 45s an he will download them onto a cd for me.
Wow!
Problem solved. If I had a really large collection I might have bought my own turn table/usb port combination. But since he has it already and it's only about 50 record I'll let him do it.
Makes me wish I had saved my old 33 long play albums so I could have put them onto cds too.
But sold them off a few years back. Got very little for them at the time.
Thanks everyone!

Dennis A. Lederle
Live Long and Perspire!
p.s. coming into a really hot spell here. The 90s and above for the next week straight. Is there a hand cranked air conditioner, in case the power goes out again?

[Jack Williams]

A really good way to go is solar cells. With deep cycle batteries and a DC to AC inverter, one can run the ordinary household appliances. Not perhaps an electric stove, or heater, but certainly refrigerator HiFi, lighting. Not, I would say, air conditioning. Interesting concept though, using the heat of the sun to keep you cool.
I do have a flashlight with solar cells on one side, which I just leave near a window which gets much sun, direct sunlight not essential though. Always a light when required, six LEDs. Fully charged is good for over eight hours.

[crfriend]

Is there a hand cranked air conditioner, in case the power goes out again?

Have you thought of an old-style folding handheld fan? Those can work surprisingly well and be quite ornamental in the process.

Interesting concept though, using the heat of the sun to keep you cool.

Any sort of heat engine would work in this instance, coupled to a generator; however, one would need a concentrator to focus enough heat on the input side. An array of steerable mirrors would work for that purpose, but only when the sun is shining. Either a Stirling Engine or a classic steam engine with the solar-focus on the boiler would do nicely. At 746 Watts/HP, however, one would need a reasonably powerful setup to drive an air-conditioner. If my maths are correct, about 6 HP for a 15,000 BTU/hr unit like I have in my computer room (add another for overhead and loss just to be safe).

Concentrated sunlight on photovoltaics also works, but active cooling of the panels is pretty much required, and the additional radiation shortens the lifespan of the cells. Somebody in the Bolton area had a private setup like that about 30 years ago; I have no idea if it's still in place.