Comments on: Apparatus to focus human body heat for the purposes of cooking potatoes, 1930

By: djef

djef — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:21:00 +0000

I actually used one of these once to cook some potatoes. But when I was done I felt too cold and didn’t feel like eating potatoes anymore.

By: eldueno

eldueno — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:39:00 +0000

Why hasn’t this important exception to the law of thermodynamics been applied to more important applications?

By: William

William — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:49:00 +0000

So scientists discovered the meaning of life, the purpose of our existence, back in 1930? No one ever told me it was all about potatoes…but it makes so much sense now.

By: technogeekagain

technogeekagain — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:53:00 +0000

BTW, the standard estimate for figuring HVAC needs is that each human puts out about 100 watts of heat. (Doubled when you have a bright idea and a 100-watt lightbulb appears over your head, I suppose.)

By: yri

yri — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:23:00 +0000

Why, Mr Tulip, of course!

By: Cicada Mania

Cicada Mania — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:46:00 +0000

As long as the potatoes are used to make vodka I approve.

By: Suzanne LaForest

Suzanne LaForest — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:43:00 +0000

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. The “Scientists have learned that our bodies are living machines.” NO! Our bodies are not machines, they are organisms. There is much value in observing our bodies and minds as if they were machines. There is also much value in trying to understand the ways we differ from machines.

By: pjcamp

pjcamp — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:35:00 +0000

It varies considerably depending whether you’re just sitting there (~40) up to doing a strenuous workout (~200). Even so, 100 watts would be equal to an Easy Bake so the potatoes still aren’t going to be done any time soon. Bulb men are additive so, for example, a 100,000 person sports arena is a 10 million watt bulb and is going to need some serious heat redistribution.

By: capl

capl — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:57:00 +0000

I have heard that it is more like a 100 watt bulb. I was in a building in Switzerland that utilized the heat generated in crowded rooms to heat other parts of the building. It had a sophisticated heat transfer system and lots of insulation to use heat generated from diverse sources including human heat output.

By: tsa

tsa — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 09:43:00 +0000

Always have your potato with you and no harm will come to you. I wonder how many people know where I got that from.

By: Peter Kwan

Peter Kwan — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 09:41:00 +0000

I think “properly focussed” heat means that they are using a heat pump to move the thermal energy and increase the temperature to a level suitable for cooking . A heat pump needs energy to drive it but together with the heat from the victim it can be several times more effective that using the energy alone to heat the spuds.

By: sockdoll

sockdoll — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 06:19:00 +0000

That dessert at the end of Pink Flamingos looked like it might have been steaming hot, too.

By: Incipient Madness

Incipient Madness — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 06:14:00 +0000

A wick effect burn of a human body could easily boil several pots of potatoes . I think all supposed cases of SHC have been wick effect burns. There is some speculation that phosphane/phosphine gas may form in the intestines under unusual conditions, and cause true SHC, but it is unknown whether this has ever happened.

BTW, at full exertion a trained athlete can put out a few hundred watts. Probably not enough to boil a sufficient amount of water in the time the athlete could put out that much power. Still have the focusing problem too.

Baking a potato with its own electrical resistance would probably be the most efficient way. Sprint cyclists operating in shifts could bake a potato in about forty minutes.

By: MrEricSir

MrEricSir — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 05:47:00 +0000

I think you’d be better off using a potato to heat a person.

Not in terms of efficiency or how many potatoes you’d need, but at least it could be marginally useful in some scenario where you’re cold and surrounded by potatoes.

By: Vanwall Green

Vanwall Green — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 05:39:00 +0000

This works best under spontaneous human combustion, although that’s for last meals only.

By: rattypilgrim

rattypilgrim — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 03:50:00 +0000

If you hook up more people to the machine would the potatoes cook faster. And what about using horses or cows for even more rapid cooking time. Their manure could be used in the potato fields….

By: C.J. Hayes

C.J. Hayes — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 03:10:00 +0000

No, keep your potatoes peeled.

By: Earl Hollar

Earl Hollar — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 03:08:00 +0000

The machine pictured doesn’t cook potatoes, but rather measures the oxygen consumption of the wearer, for purposes of estimating the total heat production of the human body. The original source explains more fully: http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2011/12/05/your-body-heat-is-sufficient-to-cook-pan-of-potatoes/

By: pjcamp

pjcamp — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 02:32:00 +0000

I guess, if by “cook” you mean “your potatoes will be ready next month.”

The human body produces heat about equivalent to a 40 watt incandescent bulb. That’s wimpier than an Easy Bake oven.

By: Robert Baruch

Robert Baruch — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 02:27:00 +0000

So the moral of the story is, you survive by keeping your eyes peeled?

By: thekamisama

thekamisama — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 02:23:00 +0000

Now we know what the machines in the Matrix were reading?

By: Robert Cruickshank

Robert Cruickshank — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 02:14:00 +0000

I’m imagining a race of “potato vampires” that steal the heat from their victims, leaving an icy corpse behind, and strolling nonchalantly down the street eating a foil-wrapped baked potato.

By: r5d4

r5d4 — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 01:54:00 +0000

“fist-sized wankel”
…Huh huh, huh huh huh…

By: badc0ffee

badc0ffee — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 01:52:00 +0000

“Not counting its peripheral hardware, the E-Tron’s range extender is a 9.4-inch-diameter by 9.8-inch-long cylinder.”

Dude, you have a big fist.

By: theophrastvs

theophrastvs — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 01:51:00 +0000

anytime we see something like: “heat … if properly focussed [sic]” we should stroke our beards, cluck our tongues, and wonder what is to be done with the second law of thermodynamics

By: peteraardvark

peteraardvark — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 01:43:00 +0000

my grandfather was saved by potatoes.

During the 2nd world war, he was sent from Czechoslovakia to work in the post office in Berlin. There was an air raid at one point when he was in the middle of cooking potato dumplings at his dorm. and he was unwilling to leave them – thinking someone might eat them. So while the others went to the bomb shelter he stayed behind. Unfortunately the bomb shelter was hit and a number of people were killed but he was saved because he didn’t leave his potatoes.

By: nixiebunny

nixiebunny — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 01:14:00 +0000

If we could just focus energy like the article suggests, we’d all be rich. It’s hard to get a small quantity of high temperature heat from a larger quantity of lower-temperature heat.

By: cdh1971

cdh1971 — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 01:12:00 +0000

Here is a link to a recent article in which a fist sized Wankel is used as a range extender for an electric car.

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/how-audi-hybrids-could-keep-the-wankel-rotary-alive-feature

By: Just_Ok

Just_Ok — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 01:09:00 +0000

a couch potato cooking “couch potatoes”, and I’m trying NOT to think about an accessory to add some hot-air “steam”

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:56:00 +0000

Hey, isn’t this pretty much the premise of The Matrix? Minus the potatoes.

It’s the premise of Pink Flamingos, when Divine steals a steak by sticking it up her skirt and says later, “I warmed it up when I was downtown today in my own little oven!”