All the Whos in Whoville could be wrapped around your finger in a tiny speck of dust. Fortunately, this ring doesn’t smell like a big city, with all the trash piled up for collection, and all the smokey cars. No, it’s just like the city in your imagination – clean, fun, vibrant, inspiring and you love all of your neighbors.
51/365
I wanted to make a ring that didn’t need batteries, so I looked around the house for lemons, onions, etc, but they weren’t charging the capacitor at ring scale. Our smoke detectors have Americium-241 in them, and I had one to be recycled, so I did the recycling myself. I originally tried a Polonium 210 refill for a Staticmaster Alpha Ionizing Brush (old photographic equipment I had laying around) but it was past date (halflife).
How it works: Alpha particles are released onto the shank of the ring from the alpha source (Americium) charging it with both positive and negative ions. The wearer’s finger acts as a dielectric between the charged plates (ring shank) creating the necessary polarity to charge the electrolytic capacitor and then light the LED.
NOTE: I don’t recommend trying this experiment because my hands broke out into a rash after handling the Americium–but it works!
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UPDATE
O.K., now that April is over, many folks have contacted me regarding the safety or the veracity of this Ring-A-Day. This was my April Fools Day Ring based on the true-life story of the Radioactive Boy Scout.
http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/radscout.html
50/365
Tried a new brass solder and flux. The flux sux. So does the brass solder. I’m going back to silver-based solder and my old trusty Handy-Flux.
Wifie’s favorite instruments are Theremin and Accordion. To her delight, she was listening to a Pandora station and couldn’t figure what the thread was until she read under Why this song?: “Strange Accordion Music.”
If you have Pandora, make a Pink Martini station and you will get everything under the sun because Pink Martini has a huge range of sounds, instruments, and styles.
49/365
Mmmmm. Cheesy goodness. Put some tomato sauce on your finger and a meat ball. Top it with some Parmesan and black pepper.
48/365
