An incongruity of technologies

One of our consultants has an interesting device for camping or possibly a disaster situation.  On closer examination it appeared to us that it hadn’t been quite thought through.  Then we examined it more closely still.

One of our consultants is an old Boy Scout, and he still cherishes the few opportunities he gets to vanish into the wilderness.  Lately he’s been doing some maintenance on his hiking boots and other gear.  He brought out a recent purchase to show us: a wood-burning camp stove.  As such it wouldn’t be of any particular interest, since his white gas stove (paraffin to British readers) is more compact, cleaner and doesn’t depend on finding dry wood.  But this has a built-in electric fan to provide a forced draft of air, making the combustion more efficient and hotter; and to power the fan there is a thermoelectric generator, taking some of the heat from the fire and converting it to electricity.  This not only powers the fan; there’s a USB port one can use to charge, say, one’s smartphone.

It’s a neat idea, but it struck us that it hadn’t been completely thought through.  In the true wilderness, away from any source of electric power (including one’s car), one is also away from the smartphone towers and thus any means of communication.  Maybe you could play your favorite games or music, but (to our minds) that raises the question of why you’re out there in the first place.  If you only do what you always do in the city, why head out on the trail at all?

As an alternative, consider a disaster situation.  Suppose a hurricane or earthquake shut down all sources of electric power for an extended period.  Then we could keep in communication, vital in an emergency. . . except the cellphone towers wouldn’t have power either.  We’re still out of luck.

Our navigator, however, was struck with the idea.  Using a fan for forced draft, powered in turn by the fire, seemed quite like the steam power plants he was used to at sea.  And our consultant who does High School tutoring loved the illustration of energy conversion through several forms: chemical from the fuel, to heat in the fire, to electrical in the generator, to mechanical in the stream of air.  (With difficulty we restrained them from working out a detailed energy-balance diagram.)

And, somewhat reluctantly, we finally concluded that there are practical benefits.  Devices other than smartphones can be charged through a USB port, no doubt including useful things like radios.  And the GPS and compass in the Five Colors smartphone could be very helpful in navigating in the woods, or maybe in getting away from a disaster area.

But we’re still struck by the incongruity of charging a smartphone by burning wood.