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Mangesh Hattikudur
A Village Genius and his Electricity-less Fridge
by Mangesh Hattikudur - July 22, 2008 - 7:30 AM

Picture 261.pngPicture 251.pngI just saw this amazing invention on Neatorama, and was totally awed by the simplicity of it. A Nigerian school teacher named Mohammed Bah Abba has invented a cheap and convenient clay pot method of keeping foods chilled, aimed to help poor villagers who don’t have access to electricity. Mohammed Bah Abba’s pot-within-a-pot idea was so clever that he nabbed a ROLEX Award, netting him $100,000 for his ingenuity. Here’s how it works, according to Chris Gupta:

“You take a smaller pot and put it inside a larger pot. Fill the space in between them with wet sand, and cover the top with a wet cloth. When the water evaporates, it pulls the heat out with it, making the inside cold.”

So smart and easy. (Does no one else do this?) And apparently, more girls are able to go to school because they don’t have to go to market to sell off the unrefrigerated perishable food products every day. Pretty stunning. Of course, if I was Muhammad Ali’s agent right now, I’d jump at a licensing opportunity. After all, if Foreman Grills did so well for Ali’s “Rumble in the Jungle” opponent, I don’t see why Cassius Clay’s Clay Refrigerators wouldn’t take off as well. Link via the always reliable Neatorama.

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Comments (8)

  1. West Africans have been using these methods for years… As a peace corps volunteer in Mali, my villagers showed me the same thing… if I only knew there was a rolex prize I would have submitted it for my village. Such is life

    posted by peterm on 7-22-2008 at 7:49 am

  2. There’s a similar idea practiced in Australia — “the bush fridge”. You put the stuff you want to keep cold in a box, drape the box with wet fabric (like a towel), and put it in the shade.

    posted by Jamie on 7-22-2008 at 8:31 am

  3. Well, aside from the fact that Cassius Clay hasn’t been Cassius Clay for over forty years now, I’m sure it’ll work great.

    I think the same principle works for canteen covers. The insides of canteen covers are lined with felt, wet the felt, and the evaporation keeps the canteen cool.

    posted by Jim on 7-22-2008 at 8:45 am

  4. Funny, the ancient Romans used a similar method to make ice.

    posted by Mary Sue on 7-22-2008 at 10:20 am

  5. I was thinking that the ancient Egyptians employed a similar system for refrigeration, but I can’t for the life of me remember where I saw that.

    posted by Roger on 7-22-2008 at 11:47 am

  6. Evaporative cooling works stunningly well in desert climates. In really humid areas – not so much. Dampness there just encourages mold.

    posted by larriann on 7-22-2008 at 12:46 pm

  7. Same principle as the “blanket canteen” which cools water by evaporating water from blankets attached to the aluminum body.

    posted by PartiallyDeflected on 7-22-2008 at 8:20 pm

  8. In “King Solomon’s Mines”, which was published in 1885, Alan Quatermain cuts a melon in half and then places the pieces in direct sunlight–with the intention that the evaporation will cause the melon to cool down.

    posted by Chad Cloman on 7-22-2008 at 9:54 pm

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