Creative Ideas From Principles
By Steve Gillman(Stories From The Cabin - Part Three)
One way to have more creative ideas is to understand the principles involved in things and apply them in new ways.
The water was gushing out of the eight-foot-high culvert by the little cabin I lived in, because it was the height of the spring snowmelt. I was nineteen and always looking for a bit of adventure. Although there were a few snowflakes in the air, it seemed like there must be some way to have fun in that torrent of water…
“Why not water ski off the end of it?” my friend Bruce said. I agreed that it was a reasonable idea, but I was not a strong water skier, and Bruce was not volunteering. Instead, he took two old water skis and made a “water sled” by nailing or screwing them together. I could handle that more easily he figured. meanwhile I looked for the appropriate clothing.
A wetsuit would be nice, given that the water was within a degree of freezing and there were snowflakes in the air. Bruce explained that the principle of a wet suit was not that it kept the water off you - that’s what a dry suit does. A wet suit simply holds the water in place against you so you can warm it with your body. If water isn’t moving around your skin, it can’t carry away your heat as much.
With that in mind I designed my wet suit. It consisted of old pants and several sweaters, with a worn old rain suit as the outer layer. I put big rubber bands at the wrists and ankles, so water could not slosh in and out, and I belted the top and bottom tightly together at my hips. Wool socks with baggies over them went on my feet - also rubber banded - and I was ready to go.
Bruce tied the rope to a small tree next to the culvert and handed the handle to me. I set the water sled in the stream and stepped on while quickly pushing it out into the fastest part of the current. The way the water gushed from the culvert it tended to push me off to one side. I managed a short ride or two before giving up. The snow started to fall more heavily.
Looking through the bit of air space at the top of the large culvert, to the other side of the road, I realized that the best way to have fun with this was to ride the water through and get spit out the other end. It was like a eight-foot-wide high pressure water hose, and I rode through twice. Bruce did not want to try.
At this point, probably twenty minutes since I first entered the water, I noticed that my hands were getting cold. That made me notice that the rest of me was doing okay. The wet suit had worked. Of course, I couldn’t take it off inside and dump gallons of water all over the cabin, so I had to remove all my clothes outside. Fortunately I had loaded the wood stove (I had neat this second year at the cabin) with logs before getting wet, so the cabin would be hot when I was done.
Understanding the principle of a wet suit was important. Had I tried to make the suit waterproof I probably would have failed. What’s worse is that a suit that failed might let water in but not let it out well enough, making it hard for me to move in the water, which could be very dangerous. As it was carrying a lot of water weight when I came out of the stream.
That brings up a second important principle of a wet suit. It has to be tight enough not to allow big pockets of water to gather inside and weigh you down (as well as steal your heat). With these two principles in mind, could we make a cheaper wet suit? How about an thin elastic suit that holds cheaper insulating material close to your body. You can replace the insulating layer or add to it for colder water.
Creative ideas and innovations are more likely when you look at the principles involved, so you can apply them in novel ways.
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Tags: cabin, creative ideas, principles, wet suit