My Son's Coolest Birthday Gift

When my son celebrated his birthday several weeks ago, one of the gifts he received was the clock above. It's a science geek's dream! The batteries are wet cells, with zinc and brass electrodes that you assemble yourself.

You can use any liquid in the cells, but we set it up with water, and haven't changed it. Within a few days, the zinc electrodes began to corrode, but they've been running for three weeks or so. I'm impressed as heck with this product.

The current issue of Make magazine, which I'm falling in love with, happens to have a related project, using an ice tray, paper clips, and $1.21 in dimes and pennies to power and LED. And I happened to notice that Joan Nesbit Mabe's husband, David, had written one of the articles in there.

Anyway, if you've become interested, you can find the product here.