London - A new umbrella has been designed that can withstand gale-force winds without turning inside out.
Tapered at the back, rather like a cyclist’s racing helmet, it is said to be able to withstand winds of up to 70mph, the Daily Mail reported.
Normal umbrellas are turned inside out by gusts of only 13mph, tests show.
Tests in a wind tunnel found that some women were unable to hold a normal umbrella in gale-force winds, but they did not struggle with the Senz design.
Meanwhile, the arm muscles of both men and women in the wind tunnel did a third less work when carrying the storm-proof brolly.
The Senz umbrella, which is thought to be the only type of its kind, was dreamt up by a Dutch industrial engineering student, Gerwin Hoogendoorn, after storms broke three of his brollies in a week.
After running up the prototype on his grandmother’s sewing machine, he formed a company with two university friends and now sells the umbrellas globally, with prices starting at 20 pounds.
The secret to their success is said to lie in the aerodynamic design which directs wind over and around the umbrellas, holding them in position.
The Dutch study was published in the journal Applied Ergonomics.
| Other Articles: |
 |
Google Launches A New Tablet-Optimized User Interface For Flight Search (3rd Oct, 2012) |
|
Ancient Egyptian artificial toes likely to be world’s oldest prosthetics (3rd Oct, 2012) |
|
Formerly used drug chloroquine makes comeback to combat malaria (3rd Oct, 2012) |
|
Acoustic cell-sorting technique brings `lab on a chip` devices closer to reality (3rd Oct, 2012) |
|
Statins can slash risk of eye disease (3rd Oct, 2012) |
|
Gene behind many spontaneous breast cancers identified (3rd Oct, 2012) |
|
Tablets, smartphones 'not killing', rather 'complementing' traditional news sources: Study (3rd Oct, 2012) |
|
Turning air into liquid to store energy (2nd Oct, 2012) |
|
Apple calls 'hated' 'purple haze' in iPhone 5 photos 'normal' phenomenon (2nd Oct, 2012) |
|
Small pox virus shows potential for treating deadly form of breast cancer (2nd Oct, 2012) |
|
Boeing 727 crash test reveals how to survive plane crashes (2nd Oct, 2012) |
|
Patients’ own skin cells could restore vision in elderly with macular degeneration (2nd Oct, 2012) |
|
Memory load can leave us `blind` to new visual information (2nd Oct, 2012) |
|
Low birth weight `may up increase heart and kidney disease risk` (2nd Oct, 2012) |
|
Aspirin may be used to prevent cancer (2nd Oct, 2012) |
|
Fish oil supplements `may slow biological effect of aging` (2nd Oct, 2012) |
|
Now, eyeglasses that allow you to adjust prescription yourself (2nd Oct, 2012) |
|
Robot draws your sleep patterns as you toss and turn (2nd Oct, 2012) |
|
Now, genetically modified cow that makes `low allergy` milk (2nd Oct, 2012) |
|
Apple website no longer hails Maps app as 'most beautiful, powerful' service (2nd Oct, 2012) |
|
Android security flaw that can ‘wipe all smartphones data’ discovered (2nd Oct, 2012) |
|
The Great Barrier Reef lost over half of coral in 27 years (2nd Oct, 2012) |
|
Marine animals `may hold key to looking young` (2nd Oct, 2012) |
|
Tiny Martian rock set to fetch £160K at auction (2nd Oct, 2012) |
|
Newly-discovered comet `may outshine moon` (2nd Oct, 2012) |
|
Jobs |
Blog |
Yellow Pages |
Games |
Jokes |
Chat |
e-Cards |
Astrology |
Articles |
Recipes |
Send Gifts
Today : Monday - May 20, 2013, 01:29am (GMT+5.5)
