Umbrellas
An umbrella doesn’t really help most of the time. […]
Susan Orlean writes:
There are so many people with ideas about umbrellas that the Patent Office has four full-time examiners assessing their claims. […] And still umbrellas are seriously flawed.
I am waiting, waiting, waiting for the release of sculptor-inventor Steve Hollinger’s Hollinger Improved Umbrella (patent application 60/642,542):
[The design is] teardrop-shaped: it has a rounded nose and a short tail, so it has a distinct front and back. The rounded nose and the shape of the dome optimize wind deflection around the canopy. Because it is elongated, it shields the user’s legs from rain while he or she is walking. It is large, but the shape makes it narrow enough to allow umbrella-carrying pedestrians to walk side by side. A fabric gutter around the front rim captures and diverts rain so the flow off the dome doesn’t land on the carrier’s feet. One version of the design has a foot-long wind sock on top of the dome to release air pressure under the canopy, which makes it easier to walk into a wind. (Another version has a dozen wind socks, giving it the spikiness of a sea anemone.) The handle and the shank are wedge-shaped, so they are aerodynamic; the ribs, which are thin fibreglass, are enclosed within the canopy, so there are no eye-poking points along the edge.
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The Great American Cooking Project
Notes from others: