Playing around and around ... This merry-go-round works while kids play.[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sometimes it's hard to tell if kids are working or playing. Just look at the kids using new merry-go--rounds in South Africa South Africa, Afrikaans Suid-Afrika, officially Republic of South Africa, republic (2005 est. pop. 44,344,000), 471,442 sq mi (1,221,037 sq km), S Africa. . Kids go round and round for fun--and they are pumping clean water for their communities at the same time. Why make a playground Playground - A visual language for children, developed for Apple's Vivarium Project. OOPSLA 89 or 90? pump? Many people in Africa don't have clean water to drink. Every day, morns and kids go to local wells and pumps, then carry water back home. It is hot, boring work. Many kids can't go to school. They must walk miles with their moms to get water instead. One trip may take three hours--that's half of an American school day. Unhealthy Water Worse, the water isn't always good to drink. Most wells aren't very deep. Shallow wells become polluted pol·lute tr.v. pol·lut·ed, pol·lut·ing, pol·lutes 1. To make unfit for or harmful to living things, especially by the addition of waste matter. See Synonyms at contaminate. 2. easily and are likely to go dry. But there's no reason to drill deeper wells when hand pumps can't pull up clean water from deep underground. A man named Trevor Field wants people throughout Africa to have clean water from deep wells. First he needed to find a stronger pump. He and an inventor INVENTOR. One who invents or finds out something. 2. The patent laws of the United States authorize a patent to be issued to the original inventor; if the invention is suggested by another, he is not the inventor within the meaning of those laws; but in that created a machine called a PlayPump. It looks like a merry-go-round. It spins like a merry-go-round. And it's also a pump. Some PlayPumps are next to schools and some are in villages. Now moms are happier. They no longer have to spend so much time carrying water. "The kids are happy, too," says Patricia Mahlori Vuma. She and her kids live near a PlayPump in Winterveldt, South Africa. "When they just come back from school, they come and play." More Kid Power Other inventors have also created playground equipment that puts kids' energy to work. Dr. Raj raj also Raj n. Dominion or rule, especially the British rule over India (1757-1947). [Hindi r Pandian invented a swing, a seesaw (language) SEESAW - An early system on the IBM 701. [Listed in CACM 2(5):16 (May 1959)]. , and a merry-go-round that generate electricity. As kids play on the equipment, the machinery squeezes air into a container. The compressed air compressed air, air whose volume has been decreased by the application of pressure. Air is compressed by various devices, including the simple hand pump and the reciprocating, rotary, centrifugal, and axial-flow compressors. then flows through an electric generator. One of Dr. Pandian's swings can power a computer one minute for every minute that someone swings. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Mr. Field and Dr. Pandian hope their kid-powered water pumps and generators will be used wherever they're needed. Then kids will be doing important work and having fun at the same time. Photos by PlayPumps Intenational |
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