Our video this week is from Bryan Fields:
Hi Dick & Chad:
Here is a little video I made from a trip to the Parade of Steam at Cass Scenic Railroad in Cass WV. It may not really fit as a gadget video so it’s okay if you don’t use it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQduF8KexSk&t=17s
From The Giz Wiz: Actually, we’re showing Bryan’s video for two reasons. One, I LOVE trains. But two, it’s about Shay locomotives. What’s a Shay locomotive? It’s one of the wildest looking, weirdest operating locomotives ever built! And in his video, Bryan shows one in operation and explains how it works and what it was used for!
See or hear this show: www.gizwiz.tv/episode/1995
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Submit Your Gadget Warehouse Video & Win An Autographed MAD Magazine.
We’d love to include your video in an upcoming Giz Wiz Show!
1. Video can be ANYTHING about a gadget: I bought a piece of crap. I bought a gadget I love. I have an old gadget I can’t part with because it was ‘high tech’ years ago! Even a ‘What The Heck Is It? Gadget.
2. Videos should be just 2 to 3 minutes long in Horizontal Format! Low production value is fine, but we need to hear you and see your gadget clearly! You can be in the video if you like.
3. Post your Video on YouTube and click ‘unlisted’ when you upload it if you want, but not “Private” or we won’t be able to see it. Send us the URL link from YouTube.
4. If we show your video (and we show 99% of them) and live in the US or Canada you’ll also get an autographed current issue of MAD.) But no matter where you live outside of the US & Canada, I’ll autograph an Alfred E. Neuman photo to you, scan it & email you a high res image. Just print it out, frame it, or just hang it up and no one will know it’s a copy. We’ve tested it out and fans say they look terrific!
All show submissions go to mail@gizwiz.tv
—————————————————————————————Email of the week!
Michael Prine tells an amazing story of how he used ‘water activated batteries’ (like the one we’ve shown a couple of times on The Giz Wiz) more than 50 years ago!! Here’s his email:
Hello Chad and Dick, your latest episode where you took another look at water activated batteries for flash lights reminded me of my High School years in the 70s. I had an old 250 Harley Davidson motorcycle that was always breaking down. This model had a 6 volt battery that was recharged with a generator not an alternator like they are now. At one point the generator went bad and was going to be quite expensive to replace. At the time I didn’t have that much money so I looked around for things I could do to get around the problem. If I disabled the headlights I could put the battery on a charger and run around for an hour or so but I didn’t want to risk getting somewhere and have the battery die. Fortunately at the time I lived in Los Alamos and we had a great salvage yard filled with lots of stuff from the labs. One of the things I found was a batch of water activated batteries for weather balloons. I discovered that they would run the bike for several hours before they were exhausted. So I just needed to bring along a water bottle and several spare batteries and I was set. As I recall the batteries were less than a $1 a piece and gas was 25cents a gallon so I was able to ride the back trails for several months before I could save up enough to get the generator fixed. Keep up the good job.
Michael Prine
