Bans on smoking and tobacco advertising are spreading like wildfire (New 杏吧原创, 25 December 2004, p 22). But that hasn鈥檛 stopped inventors coming up with ways to make smoking easier. The latest is a self-lighting cigarette designed by Gashbam Enterprises of Israel that does away with the need for matches and can be lit on a windy day (WO 2005/018349). The cigarette has a tip anointed with sulphur and phosphorus. Striking the tip against a rough pad on the side of the packet ignites the cigarette, which is reinforced with slivers of bamboo or tobacco leaf to stop it breaking.
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After legendary fast bowler Dennis Lillee created a furore by using an aluminium bat in a Test match in 1979, the International Cricket Council ruled that all bats must be made from wood. Now engineers at Loughborough University in the UK are poised to cause a similar upset by patenting the idea of a hollow wooden bat (WO 2005/018757).
The blade is made by gluing thin sheets of birch into a laminate that is moulded into a hollow bat-shaped cylinder. As birch is twice as dense as willow, it will be just as heavy as a solid bat. The wood grain of each layer of birch is set at right angles to the next, to stop any cracks running the length of the laminate. The bat is also less likely to twist when it is struck by the ball, so it has a sweeter spot, its inventors say. The same technique can be used to build baseball bats and even golf clubs, they add.
High-tech it certainly isn鈥檛, but a new pair of gloves could make DIY that little bit easier. Why carry nuts, bolts and nails in inaccessible pockets or between your teeth while doing a fiddly task, when they will stick to a pair of magnetic mitts, say Thomas O鈥橠ea and Thomas Jellema of Sioux Falls in the US. Their gloves, which they are trying to patent around the world, have a series of small magnets woven into a flexible pad on the back, designed not to compromise dexterity (WO 2005/018357).
