Finally a lamp that would let a village child read Harry Potter late into the night …

Imagine not being able to study past sunset because that is your only source of illumination. Or if your village does have electricity it comes and goes sporadically — so inconsistently that it is borderline useless. Now imagine that all you needed to fix this problem was the simple force of gravity …

From Slashdot:

“A lamp powered by gravity has won the second prize at the Greener Gadgets Conference in NYC. From the article, “The light output will be 600-800 lumens — roughly equal to a 40-watt incandescent bulb over a period of four hours. To “turn on” the lamp, the user moves weights from the bottom to the top of the lamp. An hour glass-like mechanism is turned over and the weights are placed in the mass sled near the top of the lamp. The sled begins its gentle glide back down and, within a few seconds, the LEDs come on and light the lamp … Moulton estimates that Gravia’s mechanisms will last more than 200 years, if used eight hours a day, 365 days a year.”

This type of innovation could fundamentally change the way rural India operates, assuming it is affordable. Hopefully more updates will come about regarding the pricing strategy of the gravity lamp.