Fourth of July evening late, and my family is visiting. Besides drinking copious amounts, and clipping glowsticks into circular shapes and rolling them down the driveway 50 yards to the street below, we are blowing bubbles by holding the wands in front of the fans that are cooling the house.
Enter the Bubble Blowing Turn Signal. Clicking on the lever to the left of the steering wheel pops a soap-fed wand out of the appropriate signal, streaming a plume of soap bubbles into traffic, and making your intentions abundantly clear.-- normzone, Jul 05 2006 Similar, but different Backup Smoke [Worldgineer, Jul 05 2006] Some technical skinny on glowstick formulas. Definitely not going into the bubble resovoir. http://www.juggling...ck_Ingrediants.html [normzone, Jul 07 2006] i like the whimsicallity of this, but it doesn't seem that it would work terribly well at night.-- tcarson, Jul 05 2006 Oh beautiful! Just beautiful. Clicky flashy for night-time, clicky-oooooohhhhhhh! for day-time (wouldn't work well in rain but we shall studiously ignore that fact).
I love it, I love it. You would need a separate container under the bonnet for the soap mix. So you'd have 3. Coolant, windscreen-wash and Ooooooohhhhh!-- squeak, Jul 05 2006 [tcarson] Good point - but there must be some chemical you could add to the soap that would make glow in the dark available surely ???-- monojohnny, Jul 05 2006 + Buns for bubbles! Maybe if the wand is made from a glowstick or painted with a day-glow paint, it could be seen better from a distance or at night.-- xandram, Jul 05 2006 Just place an orange light in front of the wand, focussed backwards on the bubbles.
Haven't seen [bris] for a while - is she still around? I'd love to see her drawing of this. "BRIS? BRIIIIIS? COOOEEEEE! WHERE ARE YOU?"-- wagster, Jul 05 2006 [monojohnny], good point. While I'm reluctant to dump large volumes of chemicals into my slipstream, the stuff that glowsticks are filled with is reputed by the manufacturer to be nontoxic.
Perhaps the bubble mix could derive from three resovoirs - one for soap, and two for the components that make glowsticks glow.
[edit] From glow-sticks.org: "Contact with eyes or ingesting of the fluid should be avoided because irritation will result. There is also the possibility of an allergic reaction".
OK, so much for that idea. Maybe if GMO was Halfbakery-safe, I could advocate squid-based bioluminescense or something, but I can see the headlines now:
"GLOWING HIGHWAY BLINDS MOTORISTS IN FREEWAY TRAGEDY"-- normzone, Jul 05 2006 how about at night it poofs out little clouds of methane and ignites them?-- Galbinus_Caeli, Jul 05 2006 Arghhh - arghh I've got soap in my eyes <crash>-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Jul 05 2006 glow sticks burn on contact with skin and smell like an organic solvent. of course, they're nontoxic. i can't recommend using this stuff in a form that travels through the air.-- tcarson, Jul 05 2006 I was rubbing one that was leaking on my skin last night and felt or smelled nothing from it. Of course, these were cute little ones designed for play, the industrial ones may be much stronger.-- normzone, Jul 05 2006 [norm], i've found that it depends on the area that you buy the glow sticks in. the ones that i've found that burn were all purchased on the east coast of the U.S. the industrial ones seem fairly harmless though, it's those that are marketed to small children in toystores that you have to look out for.-- tcarson, Jul 05 2006 Wonderful idea, [normzone].-- methinksnot, Jul 05 2006 2 words: Lava Lamps.-- RayfordSteele, Jul 05 2006 Too passive for turn signals, but they'd make lovely tail lights. Oh, the Halfbakery limo would be such a sight. Imagine an auto designed and built by us.-- normzone, Jul 05 2006 OMFG!-- MoreCowbell, Jul 05 2006 Light them up using targeted lasers.-- Worldgineer, Jul 05 2006 [normzone] It would be three blocks long. have dozens of antennas and sattelite dishes all over the top (between the solar panels). A stirling engine to back up the cold fusion and hybrid drives, but usually operate under sail power.-- Galbinus_Caeli, Jul 06 2006 //how about at night it poofs out little clouds of methane and ignites them?// All you need is a cow and a lighter for this trick.-- MoreCowbell, Jul 06 2006 Well bubbles or not, that push to walk button is still a placebo.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 06 2006 You just don't push it with enough faith.-- methinksnot, Jul 06 2006 There was a now-deleted anno referencing using fans to compel the bubbles when the vehicle speed dropped below a certain level.
The author of that anno probably is off to post The New Improved Bubbling Turn Signals. My compliments for the design improvement.-- normzone, Jul 06 2006 [2fries], it's only a placebo in places like the U.S. in NZ and CAN the little guy lights up on the signal. in CAN the walking guy is even jaunty.-- tcarson, Jul 06 2006 [2fries]: The Push-To-Walk button is most decidedly /not/ a placebo. Your experience with them may be colored by the fact that newer computer- controlled versions incorporate a system that punishes those who push them over and over again. The more times you push, the longer you wait.
Anyway, they /should/ work that way.
([land] toddles off to create a new half- bakery entry...)-- land, Jul 06 2006 Just a thought. If everyone had these, wouldn't the roads get a bit slippery with all the soap?-- squeak, Jul 06 2006 Yes, but they'd be very clean roads.-- normzone, Jul 06 2006 If this becomes popular, someday, there will be huge crowds of people (angry mobs) protesting against glow in the dark pollution! Imagine someone going for a walk and slipping in a puddle of glowing bubbles. Or glowing tap water.-- lurgic2, Jul 07 2006 In fact, If too many bubbles were floating around, people might not be able to see! "Help! I can't see past the turn signals!"
Officer: Tell me how it happened.
Driver: His turn signal was on, and bubbles shot towards my convertible, hitting me in my eyes! Then I crashed!
Officer: Well, sounds like no laws were broken. I'm afraid we'll have to charge you with irresponsible driving, though.
Obviously, this Idea needs improvement (particularly in the traffic laws department).-- lurgic2, Jul 07 2006 Yet another reason for old fuddy-duddies to intentionally forget to signal...
"Earl, you forgot to signal again!"
"Aww marge, I didn't forget, we're just all out of turn signal fluid again...."-- ye_river_xiv, Jul 07 2006 Cats are fascinated by floating bubbles of soap. So much so, in fact, that they may be distracted from the oncoming traffic. So, this could prove to be an effective way of controlling the cat population.
Cats and bubbles eh? When will they learn?
Where's my drink?-- 7ennyn, Jul 08 2006 "Our top story tonight on News 5 at 10... a series of accidents have injured over a dozen people today. More than 35 cars made unexpected left turns from the southbound lane on highway 3.
Later, Bob will have the weather, and it looks like that freak easterly wind will continue to blow for yet another evening."-- zigness, Jul 08 2006 Hey Bud! You're blinker fluid's a bit low!-- zigness, Jul 08 2006 I hear bubbles in the toilet bowl mean that you are losing valuable proteins through your kidneys.-- daseva, Jul 08 2006 I'm curious as to who boned this? I'm often curious about that - the dreaded auto- boner. I'd like to drown that auto boner in a tank of snails (for the idea a + of course and to cancel out one of the anonymous morons who boned it) - come out and fight like the dirty mouse you are !!! (best spoken in a suitably squeaky voice)-- xenzag, Jul 10 2006 random, halfbakery