We’ve all heard stories of people using their initiative and creating something useful out of something else. Why, just the other day I created a grandiose series of cable ties to substitute out my broken microphone mount in my little home studio; It’s not pretty, but it gets the job done. But there are some people in the world who have taken this to the next level (well, many levels); creating marvellous things out of sheer ingenuity – something out of nothing to better their lives.
Sun Jifa – The Mechanical Man
Sun Jifa from China’s Jilin province lost both of his hands when a homemade bomb prematurely exploded as he was dynamite fishing – a sad but all-too-common (in certain parts of the world) way of fishing that stuns the fish to be easily collected in nets, but also destroys their habitat. But instead of wallowing in his sadness due to the loss of his hands, Jifa decided to step up to the plate.
As a farmer, Sun Jifa needed to provide for his family but couldn’t afford the sky-high procedure of having prosthetic limbs purchased and attached – so he made his own. The tinkerer acquired the aid of his nephews and guided them on how to construct prosthesis using scrap metal, rubber, and plastic.
Operated by a series of wires and pulleys inside the casing by using his elbows, Sun Jifa can mimic almost any hand movement he wants with his latest prototype. Of course, the use of steel has it’s drawbacks, especially if fashioned as a new set of hands and forearms. He says that the weight can be fatiguing and that it mirrors the temperature, either being too hot in summer or too cold in the winter months – but that’s a small price to pay for having your hands back.
His nephews and Sun have done such a good job, that they’ve upped their output and have been constructing prosthetic limbs for others in his area with a similar situation.
– Ingenuity really can be the outcome of impending struggle. –
Orismar de Souza
Jobless and homeless Brazilian man Orismar de Souza vowed one morning to turn his life completely upside-down by getting a job and getting a home – but without the means of transport, he soon found that he couldn’t move forward with his plan. Orismar went about this hurdle by starving himself for months before he had enough money to buy a load of scrap metal – and with that scrap metal, and with no training what-so-ever – built himself a car.
Using borrow tools, de Souza set about making what he affectionally calls ‘the shrimpmobile’ with a 125cc motorbike engine which he scavenged from a junk-yard and yet somehow the finished product is road legal with mirrors, lights, and it’s ‘watch out, here I come’ paint job. Modifying the engine by adding a car’s ignition in place of the kickstart, a gearbox with reverse, and also a dashboard radio, his handmade motor has given de Souza the life he deserves. He now has a job in the sugarcane fields which has led him to get his home.
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