August 28, 2005
Scale buildings in a single bound
David Cohen in New Scientist:
Spiderman does it, so does James Bond. Now a gadget has been developed to allow US marines to zip up the sides of buildings or ships with virtually no effort.
All you do is fire a rope to the top of the structure using a harpoon gun or grappling hook, and then fit the rope into the device, called PowerQuick, which attaches to your climbing harness. Then just sit back and squeeze a lever.
PowerQuick has been developed by Quoin International based in Carson City, Nevada, and can lift a load of 145 kilograms at a rate of 1 metre per second. A battery-powered motor turns a series of wheels and cogs to pull the rope through the device. One battery charge is enough to scale the Statue of Liberty five times, or 250 metres in total. If you let go of the device it automatically stops and holds its position, and it can also be used for a slow controlled descent.
More here.
Posted by S. Abbas Raza at 09:23 PM | Permalink
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Comments
Just to be extra geeky here, Batman is really the classic example of a superhero who uses a device like this, not Spiderman or Superman.
Posted by: Jesse M. | Aug 29, 2005 1:04:04 AM
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