STATIC ELECTRICITY TURNS BLINDS INTO MAINTENANCE-FREE WONDERS.Byline: Frances Ingraham Albany Times Union Larry Silverberg, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University History
Blinds have been around since the turn of the century and evolved from the use of wooden interior shutters. The idea came to Silverberg after often seeing dusty blinds that hang crooked in commercial buildings and homes and from having to open, close and clean all the blinds in his house. His design for keeping blinds hanging straight and clean is to seal them between airtight air·tight adj. 1. Impermeable by air. 2. Having no weak points; sound: an airtight excuse. airtight Adjective 1. panes of insulated in·su·late tr.v. in·su·lat·ed, in·su·lat·ing, in·su·lates 1. To cause to be in a detached or isolated position. See Synonyms at isolate. 2. glass. You may have seen enclosed en·close also in·close tr.v. en·closed, en·clos·ing, en·clos·es 1. To surround on all sides; close in. 2. To fence in so as to prevent common use: enclosed the pasture. blinds in hospitals, but they contain pulleys, strings and gears that can break, malfunction mal·func·tion v. 1. To fail to function. 2. To function improperly. n. 1. Failure to function. 2. Faulty or abnormal functioning. or wear out if they are powered by hand. Silverberg's blinds are operated by an on/off wall switch that's plugged into a regular electrical outlet to draw just enough power to generate static electricity. The window has an aluminum frame, which contains twin vertical aluminum rods that hold the aluminum slats. Like the poles of a magnet, the positive-charged slats open in the direction of the negative energy of the glass panes. When the switch is turned off, the slats fall closed from the force of gravity. ``It will take less electricity to operate blinds in an entire building than to operate a 20-watt light bulb,'' said Silverberg, who has been studying static electricity since the late 1980s. ``The amount of static electricity used is less than one third the amount generated when you touch a doorknob.'' His recently formed company, Blind Rage Inc., has licensed the blinds design to a manufacturer that will sell them for use in commercial buildings. Silverberg said that the patent-pending blinds, with a 10-year warranty on all parts, should be available by Christmas. AAA AAA: see American Automobile Association. (Triple A) A common single-cell battery used in a myriad of electronic devices of all variety. Like its double A (AA) cousin, it provides 1.5 volts of DC power. When used in series, the voltage is multiplied. Blinds Manufacturing Co. of Cary, N.C., and American Electronic Assemblers This is a list of assemblers. Hundreds of assemblers have been written; some notable examples are:
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