Bucky F. once noticed how not much sticks to you when standing in sea spray on a ship, not even oil -- perhaps due to the abrasive action of small droplets of water. A shower based on this is supposed to clean a family of four with astonishingly small amounts of water.

So why not apply this fantastic technology to the field of dishwashing? After you've loaded your dishwasher to optimal capacity, it fills with a tornado of hot, disinfecting fog. The fog is created by a high-pressure pump that forces the wash water trough fog nozzles. A fan circulates this fog at high speed, and your dishes get clean with a minimal expenditure of water.

As a bonus the machine is also great for parties -- just omit the detergent, set it to "cold", and your kitchen is filled with hip billowing white fog. The washer's targetable laser that normally shows you the optimal loading position (OLP) for each dish does double duty projecting party patterns on your kitchen dance floor.
-- joeforker, Jul 04 2005

Fog Guns http://www.nous.org.uk/fog.html
Bucky not Dyson [5th Earth, Jul 05 2005]

James, not Freeman http://www.ogormans.co.uk/dyson5.htm
Hmm, looks like they don't make the washing machine anymore. [AbsintheWithoutLeave, Jul 05 2005]

Enthusiast discusses fog http://www.designco...iscussion/8439.html
But where are the plans? [joeforker, Jul 06 2005]

Dymaxion Bathroom http://www.wnet.org/bucky/bathroom.html
Describes the bathroom of the Dymaxion house with a brief description of the fog gun shower. It is like sandblasting humans with vapor instead of sand. [joeforker, Jul 06 2005]

Also known as steam.
-- waugsqueke, Jul 04 2005


I guess it would be kind of cool to combine a sauna/shower.
-- StorDuff, Jul 04 2005


No, it's not quite the same as steam. I imagine vaporization independent of heat and including some very small non-vapor droplets. This gets blown around the inside of the washer by a powerful fan, knocking the dirt off your dishes.
-- joeforker, Jul 05 2005


IIRC it was Buckminster Fuller, not Freeman Dyson. See link for corroboration.

That said it's a good idea. I thought it had already been done, actually, but a quick Google doesn't think so.

[Waugs], as mentioned fog is not the same as steam. Steam is water that is dispersed on the molecular level, while fog is (comparitively) macroscopic droplets of water that are simply suspened in the atmosphere.

Contrary to popular conception, steam is totally invisible--what you see is always condensation out of the air, not the actual steam itself. Look very close at the cloud from the spout of a boiling kettle--it doesn't actually appear until a short distance out of the spout. The "empty" space in between is where the real steam is.
-- 5th Earth, Jul 05 2005


//IIRC it was Buckminster Fuller, not Freeman Dyson// Aren't we talking James, not Freeman here?
-- coprocephalous, Jul 05 2005


It removes it, but where does it put it. Pressure washers are great for lifting out stains but are not good at moving debris over large areas. Sure the fog shower will free dirt and grime but you still have to use a towel or a large volume of water to remove the dirt from the area. It lifts it off but it does not place it anywhere.
-- 10clock, Jul 05 2005


10clock, that was your least-incoherent writing ever--keep trying to improve, please. But, as usual, you could have thought about it.

I'm guessing the un-stuck gunk, since it doesn't stick, runs down and drips off. Except in any upright corners and cups--the stuff won't get blasted out. Should that prove to be a major problem, a quick blast of rinse water may take care of it. That would still be less water than is used in a regular dishwasher.
-- baconbrain, Jul 05 2005


10clock does raise an interesting question. My washer depends on gravity, but perhaps with a few extra fans it could work without it. Alternating blasts of fog and air in different directions?

Except there is another minor detail -- most dishes, glasses, containers are also designed with gravity in mind.
-- joeforker, Jul 05 2005


Not space crockery.
-- wagster, Jul 05 2005


//I imagine vaporization independent of heat and including some very small non-vapor droplets.// You wouldn't need fans, just make the system work on Sonic vaporization of the water... or you could drastically lower the atmospheric pressure of the washer.
-- Kozi4361, Jul 06 2005


The fans aren't for creating the vapor. They accelerate it so that it has greater effect bombarding your grimy dishes. If the machine used vacuum to try to create fog it would be no good doing second duty at parties.
-- joeforker, Jul 06 2005


It wouldn't create fog, it would boil water and thus create steam.
-- Kozi4361, Jul 06 2005



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