Maxblaster – The Handheld Sunbeam
Ralf Ottow, a Dutch optics engineer, has designed the Maxblaster – a flashlight powered by 54 batteries, capable of producing a beam of light four miles long.
Ottow stripped out the innards of a powerful commercial flashlight and switched in a mercury arc bulb, which generates light by creating an ultra-hot plasma between two closely spaced electrodes inside the gas-filled central chamber of the lamp.
That results in a brighter, more focused beam but also kicks out more ultraviolet light (hence the sunburn, a product of early testing). So he added a specially coated reflector and designed, ground, and coated a new glass window that would trap UV rays while still pumping out light.
More info at Popular Science, where you’ll also find a Maxblaster gallery.
Via a bunch of great blogs:
Tags: dutch, flashlight, sun
Published by Robert Birming on the 3rd of February 2008 in Gadgets.
7 comments for “Maxblaster – The Handheld Sunbeam” »
4 February 2008 at 4:00 am
[...] Ralf Ottow aus den Niederlanden hat´nen langen Strahl (aus Licht, bis zu 4 Meilen lang) – wegen der [...]
11 February 2008 at 11:46 pm
Really good stuff.High engineering man.
29 February 2008 at 5:55 am
Woah- are the light rays always that visible?
12 June 2008 at 6:44 pm
i want to buy it!!
17 December 2008 at 2:08 pm
How many it cost?
19 December 2008 at 5:41 am
The was no price available for the “handheld sunbeam” Maxblaster when this article was published. Does anyone know if a price has been announced now?
25 June 2009 at 9:31 am
I wan’t one.
Wonder how much it cost to build?
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