There's no way the "FlashPoint ES Mini-Microwave" is real

According the Book of Joe, this little blip ran in the Financial Times "How to Spend It" magazine. (I don't read the FT on a regular basis, so I don't know if that's a regular addition or what.) It describes the "FlashPoint ES", a portable, unshielded "mini-microwave".

It has to be a hoax. Even if you could get a little magnetron in a battery-powered device, who in their right minds would sell a directional microwave wand?

The only references I can find online stem from Joe's scan of the article, so I'm going to just presume the FT got duped by a clever jerk and go see if that block of chocolate I left on my tabletop uranium slab has turned into hot cocoa yet.

FlashPoint ES Pocket Mini-Microwave [BookOfJoe.com via Oh Gizmo!]

[#1 posted by Anonymous , October 17, 2008 8:44 AM]

It's not real. It's a regular small feature at the back of How to Spend it which has hypothetical impossible gadgets.

[#2 posted by Clif Marsiglio , October 17, 2008 10:50 AM]

Joe screwed up...he was looking at his subscription of Fortean Times and mistook it for the Financial Times. C'mon, give the man a break! He is only 97 years old! He has to power his laptop with a flintstone-esque treadmill because they didn't have electricity when he was growing up!

[#3 posted by superforestnyc , October 17, 2008 11:05 AM]

It's totally real. The modding of a flashlight into a high powered directional heating device has been done.

Now, in the demo I've seen, the flashlight is always used to light paper or tinder, but why not just point it at a cup of coffee?

It's not technically a "microwave", but it's most certainly a hand-held heating wand.

Here's a video of the "wand" in action:

If you like more things that make sense, check out superforest.org

Yay!!

[#4 posted by superforestnyc , October 17, 2008 11:26 AM]

balls, the video didn't embed.

Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY4LMXfo2yM

laser flashlights! Now good for heating coffee.

[#5 posted by Anonymous , October 17, 2008 11:52 AM]

Yeah superforestnyc, but (as you mentioned) that's still not at all a "microwave".

Plus, the green/red/black buttons really look photoshopped in. More material that leans me in the direction of "this crap is fake".

[#6 posted by Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator , October 17, 2008 2:02 PM]

Superforest, lasers are coherent visible light. Microwaves are clear over on the other side of infrared, just before you get to FM radio.

[#7 posted by Takuan , October 17, 2008 3:31 PM]

ach mein klein flammhetzer, purt near any electromagentic radiation can be made to lase.

[#8 posted by tobergill , October 17, 2008 3:49 PM]

Crap! Now TSA is going to want our flashlights.....

[#9 posted by TheDude06 , October 17, 2008 4:50 PM]

i dunno... ever seen an EZ bake oven?

[#10 posted by ptruchon , October 17, 2008 5:35 PM]

I really don't know about the heating side (microwave, laser, etc...) but look at it from the battery side:

It takes 4.186J of energy to heat up 1g of water by 1C. So to boil a cup of water (say 300mL) initially at 20C, it would take about 100kJ.

The ad says that it can do this job "in seconds". So imagine you could get all of that energy into the water in one minute, you'd need batteries able to output 1700W for a full minute! A house microwave can do that. But a hand held device?

For some perspective: my electric scooter needs four 12V batteries weighing a tone (or so it feels) to output 1500W of power (link). I just don't think that a hand-held device can produce that much power yet. It doesn't matter what's on the other side really. From the battery side, you just can't boil a cup of water in under a minute with anything less than 1700W. Period.

[#11 posted by Takuan , October 17, 2008 5:48 PM]

ja, der flashlight vill blow up in yer fershuluggin hand!

[#12 posted by noen , October 17, 2008 9:17 PM]

Can you bake a yellow cake on your tabletop uranium slab?

[#13 posted by Gilbert Wham , October 18, 2008 6:19 AM]

But I want one.

[#14 posted by Nawel , October 18, 2008 7:36 PM]

Who said lightsaber? :)

[#15 posted by OM , October 18, 2008 9:17 PM]

...Considering how focused it is, wouldn't "Maser" be a closer description of what this is? Either way, it's not what I really want: the hand-held laser pointer that will burn through a car tire in about 1 second. Perfect for dissuading college punks from tailgating you in the slow lanes :-)

[#16 posted by Anonymous , October 19, 2008 11:30 PM]

And FYI, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Microwave Lasers are called "Masers", and have existed since the 60's (if not earlier). Same idea, different wavelength.

Cheers,

Dave

[#17 posted by Anonymous , October 20, 2008 10:17 AM]

If you have every microwaved a cold cup of coffee and attempted to drink it, you should realize that this is a hoax.

[#18 posted by Itsumishi , October 20, 2008 7:14 PM]

@17

Haha so true, yet somehow my house mate does this nearly every day.

Mind you I've also seen her purchase a longneck of beer. Open it drink half. Put it back in the fridge then finish it 4 days later.

Eeeewww..