Electricity Generating Table
A Fast Way To Generate Electricity and Provide Light
Courtesy of Ashutosh Vashishtha
In many places such as India and Africa, a simple daily necessity, electricity, is lacked of. Ashutosh Vashishta, who studied at the National Institute of Design, Haryana, has created a table that can quickly generate electricity to solve this extreme issue. Vashishta says that, “The idea for designing this table came to me after regular visits to my maternal grandparents’ village in Uttar Pradesh. These areas had no electricity connection and people would struggle to finish their household chores or study after sunset.” With this table, he wants to help his grandparents’ village, the 23 million homes in India without access to electricity, and the rest of the world that lacks of this bare minimum, be able to have the electricity to study and finish their work into the night instead of using a candle or lamp or not being able to do the work at all.
In January 2020, Vashishta designed the initial 3D model for Ujala (light in Hindi), going viral on social media. Because of this instant popularity, one of his professors asked him to design a proof of concept. However, after the COVID-19 lockdown was announced, he could not get the required materials. Though there was this roadblock, it did not stop him. In June 2020, he along with a close friend that is a mechanical engineering, designed a prototype costing 1,500 Indian Rupees.
The system for Ujala works using the power of electromagnetism. There is a seesaw like wood pedal under the table which is then connected to a battery, connected to a LED light on a bamboo stick. Vashishta states the reason for having a bamboo stick connected to the LED light being, “I chose a bamboo stick to support the light, because it is a good conductor of electricity. Moreover,
I wanted to use locally available resources and
support rural artisans.” The person sitting at the table presses the pedal in a constant, rhythmic movement, like pressing the brakes in a car, causing an electromagnetic field that produces electricity. The person at the desk is able to use a hand crank mechanism to adjust the intensity of the light. A minute of this peddling produces enough electricity for the lamp to glow for up to fifteen minutes! While creating the electricity necessary to providing for light, peddling in this rhythmic motion allows for an increased focus on study.
An idea Ashutosh Vashishta has to improve this invention and allow for more people in the tightly knit rural communities and their schools areas to have access to these tables is to create a circular table made by placing each regular table at an 18-degree angle from the next with the teacher being able to stand in the center. Each section would contain its own LED light and pedal. This way of organizing the tables would allow for the teachers to move around a classroom-like environment while each student has their own lit up work environment. Students would then be motivated to learn together because they were provided the resources.
With this successful self-sufficient table in the books, Ashutosh Vashishta continues to create other innovations that aim to make a positive change to society. A big interest of his is to design and create user-friendly solutions to society’s problems, and many are in the works.
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