Keskustelujen arkisto

(I couldn't come up with a better title :\ )

Anyone familiar with Romano Scarpa's "Zio Paperone e l'indagine Foxan" (which I know from Mickey Parade # 90) will be interested in reading this article from New Scientist ("Green machine: Power from the people").

Here are some excerpts...

"Technologies that harvest energy from movement could see your every move charge a mobile device, or even a building. Such people power could provide an alternative to mains charging of electronic gadgets, reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions."
"[Zhong Lin Wang at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta] hopes to produce devices such as shoe pads that harvest energy from the pressure of their wearer's feet within the next five years, using piezoelectric nanowire generators that produce an alternating current when squeezed".

In Scarpa's story (thiry years ago, in 1980), Scrooge has Gyro develop exactly that kind of devices: everyday items that can charge a battery through the user's movements.
Brigitte & Jubal run a survey agency; when Jubal finds out bout Scrooge's idea, he convinces him to run a survey to check the potential market.

I have Uncle Scrooge #250 and there is no story called Free Energy. Maybe you're thinking of the story called Power Failure.

"Free Energy" was the story's original English title when it was first produced by Egmont. It was retitled "Power Failure" for its American printing.