August 7, 2008 at 5:08 pm | Innovation
- Posted by vivekchats |
Building materials have always been in demand.
The principal building material all over the world is cement and steel. Cement factories churn out cement with disastrous effects on environment. Steel also consumes tremendous power before it is converted into usable form.
Scientists have always been on the look out for alternate material for Iron and Cement as building material. Modern Marvels Invent Now Challenge was conducted by History Channel with the assistance of TIME. Thousands of entries were submitted. The winner of this competition was a 53 year old person David R. Ward, from Ashland, Ore.
He has invented a farm implement called Strawjet which processes straw into mats. These mats can be joined together by using clay and paper pulp. After having joined together, these straw mats can be used as construction material. The process of joining the straw mats is done without the use of any chemicals.
Tons of straw is just burned every year. The Strawjet can effectively use this and convert it to building material. David hopes to produce this material on mass scale very soon. There after his dream is to provide cheap housing to poor countries using this new technology.