{"id":60428,"date":"2025-06-24T17:15:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T07:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=60428"},"modified":"2025-06-24T17:15:43","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T07:15:43","slug":"hand-powered-flashlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=60428","title":{"rendered":"Hand Powered Flashlight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-60429\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Hand_Powered_Flashlight.jpg\" alt=\"Hand Powered Flashlight\" width=\"830\" height=\"1114\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Hand_Powered_Flashlight.jpg 526w, https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Hand_Powered_Flashlight-224x300.jpg 224w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"xdj266r x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs x126k92a\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">At just 14 years old, Ann Makosinski harnessed the warmth of her own hand to create a flashlight that needs no batteries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><span class=\"html-span xexx8yu xyri2b x18d9i69 x1c1uobl x1hl2dhg x16tdsg8 x1vvkbs x3nfvp2 x1j61x8r x1fcty0u xdj266r xat24cr xm2jcoa x1mpyi22 xxymvpz xlup9mm x1kky2od\"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Her inspiration came from a friend in the Philippines who told her she couldn&#8217;t study at night and was failing in school because her family had no electricity for light.<\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">Ann wanted to find a way to help. She knew she could capture energy from many sources, including the heat from a human body.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">She looked into Peltier tiles, which produce an electric charge when one side of the tile is heated and the other is cooled.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">Ann realized that the heat from a person&#8217;s hand on one side, and the ambient air cooling the other, could generate enough power for an LED light.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">Using this principle, she designed the Hollow Flashlight. The design allows air to flow through the device, keeping the outside cool while the inside is warmed by the user&#8217;s hand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">In 2013, at age 15, her invention won her top prize for her age group at the Google Science Fair.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">Her simple, yet brilliant, device showed a new path for sustainable, off-grid energy solutions.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At just 14 years old, Ann Makosinski harnessed the warmth of her own hand to create a flashlight that needs no batteries. Her inspiration came from a friend in the Philippines who told her she couldn&#8217;t study at night and was failing in school because her family had no electricity for light. Ann wanted to &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=60428\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Hand Powered Flashlight&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60430,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60428\/revisions\/60430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}