As a substitute of accepting the issue, Remya determined to construct her personal washer. She designed a machine that changed electrical energy with pedal energy and value about Rs 2,000. The National Innovation Foundation (NIF) later documented the invention because the Washing Cum Exercise Machine.
How a 14-year-old designed a machine
Remya got here from Kizhattoor in Kerala’s Malappuram district. Throughout her Class X examinations, her mom fell sick whereas her father was receiving most cancers therapy. The family chores then fell largely on Remya and her twin sister, Soumya. Remya additionally confronted a four-hour day by day bus journey to and from faculty.
The dearth of a washer meant the sisters needed to wash garments by hand. Remya needed to discover a solution to scale back the effort and time the chore consumed.
She had already watched how an electrical washer labored. After her Class X board exams, on the age of 14, she used that primary concept to design a machine that would work with out electrical energy. NIF information that she drew the design herself and her father took it to a close-by vehicle workshop, the place mechanics constructed the machine.
The design used a pedal-and-chain mechanism much like a bicycle. As a substitute of an electrical motor turning the washing drum, the consumer generated the mechanical energy by pedalling.
The selection additionally addressed a sensible drawback in her village. The ability provide in her village was erratic, so Remya intentionally prevented {an electrical} design. The machine value about Rs 2,000, based on NIF.
A pedal-powered washer
The machine mixed washing with train. The consumer might load garments into the drum, add water and detergent, and pedal to rotate the mechanism.
NIF’s report says the garments might soak for at the very least 10 minutes earlier than the consumer pedalled for about three to 4 minutes. After draining and rinsing the garments, continued pedalling helped take away water by centrifugal power, leaving the garments about 80% dry.
The design due to this fact tackled two issues without delay: it diminished dependence on electrical energy and turned the bodily effort required for laundry into the ability supply for the machine.
Financial Occasions reported the invention in Could 2005, describing Remya as a 14-year-old who designed the washing-cum-exercising machine whereas coping with her Class X examinations, a protracted commute and family laundry. The report additionally famous that the machine would value lower than Rs 2,000.
From a college drawback to nationwide recognition
Remya’s invention ultimately reached the Nationwide Innovation Basis, which helps grassroots technological improvements in India. NIF listed the machine among the many improvements recognised by its nationwide competitors.
NIF’s present report additionally exhibits that the invention acquired a patent, with patent No. 207634 listed as granted. The organisation’s report identifies Remya because the innovator and notes that she made the machine after her board exams when she was 14.
The invention additionally earned Remya nationwide recognition. NIF information the washing-cum-exercise machine among the many winners of its grassroots innovation awards, whereas modern and later experiences have highlighted her nationwide award for the invention.
What started as a young person’s try and reclaim time from a family chore ultimately grew to become an instance of grassroots engineering: a bicycle-style mechanism, a neighborhood vehicle workshop and an invention costing about Rs 2,000 turned an on a regular basis drawback right into a machine that wanted no electrical energy.
