I can't stand batteries.
They are a waste of money, bad for the environment, and totally unnecessary. I know these do exist, I believe they were dropped over France during WW2 - but I can't seem to find one.
Now a days we have lot's of rechargeable devices, thank god. I gave my Palm 3 back to my employer, in 1998 when I realized it needed batteries and it didn't have a recharger. Now all palmtops and mobile phones have decent rechargeable batteries.
But even rechargeables are stupid when you could just pump a lever somewhere on the device and recharge the thing indefinitely. This sure would have come in handy during the blackout a few months ago.
Business OpportunityI also believe this idea has tremendous business potential in the third world where access to power is difficult to obtain. Marketing simple flashlights and radios that can be recharged on their own would seem to be a huge market opportunity for any electronics manufacturer.
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How would this work? Would it be similar to a wind-up crank on a toy?
I did a search and found a link to reatailers of such devices:
http://stacks.msnbc.com
http://www.spacestation42.com
Check out this company: http://www.freeplay.net/. The story behind FreePlay is also worth reading, since the invention can be traced back to efforts in educating South African women about election and birth control.
I have three such radio/flashlight combo units in my house. The unit has three modes of generating power: Solar, Battery and Dynamo (handcranking). I think every car and home should have at least one unit, since the batteries were almost always dead when I needed to use them in an emergency.
Hand cranked flashlights were common in the 1940's and were common in armed services survivor kits during WWII but there was no rechargeable battery involved and your hand got tired after a while. Perhaps small dynamos are more efficient these days.
Cranking or pumping or shaking, you still need the rechargeable battery in the device to draw from after you stop cranking.
Last Christmas I was a seasonal salesman at The Sharper Image and one of the best selling devices was the Hummer flashlight for $25. You just shake it for 30 seconds and you get 5 minutes of very bright light from the clear LEDs. It is rubberized for toughness and floats in water too. The LEDs never have to be replaced and draw much less power than older generation 'light bulbs', so these work really well. You can see the magnet and the coil through the handle and the up and down motion is more natural than cranking a breakable handle around and around.