benhocking's Journal: Jet-fuel powered lightbulb changer

I just finished listening to a podcast from Quirks & Quarks about a new prosthetic limb. It seems this limb will actually use jet fuel as a primary power source. This is meant to give it the power it needs to function as a regular limb without too much extra weight. During an interesting discussion on using jet fuel for tasks requiring dexterity the inventor (or one of them, anyway) mentioned a couple times about using it to change light bulbs. In case you're wondering about exhaust and waste heat, they also covered that. In the center of the arm it gets as hot as 450 degrees C, but that heat mostly dissipates by the time it gets to the exterior. The exhaust is warm steam (not too hot, however) that comes out of the elbow.

Steam Engine, actually

[Marxist Hacker 42]

The "jet" or "rocket" fuel in question isn't Kerosene, it's Hydrogen Peroxide (same fuel used in the world's only working jet pack design) mixed with aluminum oxide, yielding steam. Which is then used to run miniature pneumatic pistons, which produces the motion in the bionic arm. The motion itself cools off the steam, which is then spit out the arm.

Pretty fancy method of making a steam engine....I've got to remember that if I ever create a live steam engine for my local 6" gauge Live Steamer's Club [pnls.org].

Re:

[Billosaur]

This seems like the ultimate steampunk dream... and pretty inventive to boot!

Re:

[WillAffleckUW]

Very steam punk.

But, from your description, it would burn clean, so you just have to make sure no one "grabs" your "arm".

Why not bio-diesel instead?

[WillAffleckUW]

As I recall, we as a nation have made fuel from coal, from switchgrass, from MJ, from algae (ok, maybe only here in the West) - why not a bio-fueled lightbulb changer?