Will 'It' Finally Be Revealed? (The 'Ginger' Project)

Wired News ^ | Nov 29, 2001

[John Jorsett]

Remember "Ginger," the supposedly earth-shattering Mystery Thing that inventor Dean Kamen was rumored to have been working on earlier this year, back in happier times? Well, the enigmatic Ginger -- also called "It" -- will soon be unveiled ... maybe.

[Diddle E. Squat]

I thought South Park revealed it(and if so, I WON'T be buying one!)

[Fixit]

I loved that line about how, "It's still better than how the airlines treat you."

(And the part about how all the "controls" were optional if you just used the buttons on the side. )

[Exeter]

The first model will be called the "Slick Willy". Every time you sit down, you'll be reminded of what the last 8 years have been like...

[Freemyland]

My wife is a big John Travolta fan, so I got a particular kick out of that episode.

[Technocrat]

Who shot J. R.?

[spycatcher]

The South Park version is custom made for someone with the name "Diddle E Squat" ;)

[eno_]

The factory where IT will be built is almost completed (the structure, anyway). I would guess for a project like this, the production line equipment has got to be ready to go pretty much when the roof is watertight. So the timing is right. Once he starts training the factory workers, it will be impossible to maintain secrecy.

I think the scooter is a good guess. Kamen's wheelchair is awesome, and the same technology applied to a moped-like device could be a very big business indeed. Anyplace you have a tropical or mediterranean climate, a fast quiet safe (at least compared to conventinal ones) scooter would sell in the millions of units per year. Which begs the question: how fast could he expand his factories?

The main argument against it being a scooter is that they would have to be road testing it. People have seen more unacknowledged (i.e. "black") military aircraft than they have seen of IT.

[John Jorsett]

Where is the factory located? I hadn't even heard that one was being built.

[all4one]

I have been loosely following the "It" story and I believe that the factory could be in Massachusettes.

I also think that one of the stories included information on "It" being powered by hydrogen.

[eno_]

In Manchester, NH.

[spycatcher]

The timing may be for Christmas 2002 pre-orders. Otherwise it makes no sense to introduce it in the middle of a recession and war

[RightWhale]

Will the scooter be just the ticket for zooming around the streets of Fairbanks at 20 below?

[Brett66]

People know better now; technology is no longer chic, no longer a cash-cow and no longer infallible.

Wow! We learned all that? I guess we're more enlightened now. I'm sure glad we're not using all of that technology stuff in Afghanistan.

[Brett66]

I don't understand all of the hype surrounding "IT". If it's a scooter, that's not Earth-shattering. If it uses a super efficient hydrogen power source, that's significant, but not Earth-shattering. You still couldn't fill it up at the corner gas station. "It" will still require a significant infrastructure to truly change transportation.

[eno_]

I think one of the things people have got wrong about it is the importance of the power source: Kamen's Stirling engine would be very cool, since it would probably be a multi-fuel/flexible-fuel engine. Out of fuel at a party? Get home on a few shots of cheap brandy. The hydrogen hype is just that. It might be an OK way to store eletric power (water to hydrogen and back to water), but it will not be revolutionary to the economy without a coresponding revolution in cheaper nuclear power plants - and that would take a decade or more to build even on a crash program.

Also, a scooter is just a probable evolution of his wheelchair. Who knows what the optimal package will be? A semi-enclosed motorcycle, like the thing BMW has been playing with? A recumbent fully enclosed commuter motorcycle? One that could seat two friendly people? Highway speed capable? The factory is not small, but nor is it anywhere near the same level of investment required by a new car coming on line. The game will be won or lost in the steps following the first product.

[spectre]

Maybe it will be in the Sharper Image catalog next year...Tallheimer, are you listening?

sw

[Brett66]

A multi-fuel/flexible-fuel engine would be revolutionary, especially if it could run on water. Even if it got 1 mpg that would be far cheaper than gasoline and it wouldn't even require a refined product. If you ran out of fuel you wouldn't need anything but a pond to refuel. I still don't understand the hype over the scooter part unless it was a poorly written article by a technically illiterate journalist that didn't understand the implications of the power source.

[eno_]

No, that's the whole thing: No free lunch. It cannot be fueled by water. You need a source of electric power to extract hydrogen from water. But if you could ferment your grass clippings and make fuel, now you have something. External combustion, like a Sterling engine, can use "junk" fuel, like unrefined biomass. That would be cheap and diffuse enough to change energy economics. Imagine China and India with near-first-world mobility for the people, but without increasing demand for oil. If you wanted to use it in an enclosed space, you would have to go for a completely clean fuel like hydrogen. But that is more for the wheelchair than for this scooter.

[B Knotts]

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