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Teenager scales walls with vacuum cleaner gadget |
 A schoolboy in the UK has made his dreams of climbing walls like Spider-Man come true by building a contraption made from two vacuum cleaners.
Hibiki Kono, who is 13 years old, designed a backpack-mounted gadget that uses the power of two cut-price vacuum cleaners to pin him to the walls using wooden suction pads attached to the nozzles. He then impressed classmates by demonstrating his invention’s power by climbing the school wall during morning assembly.
Kono explained: “I used to dress up as Spiderman when I was younger and I love all the films so it's great to be able to climb walls like him. I wanted to make something a bit different and I designed most of it myself.
“My mum thinks it's brilliant but she won't let me us it in my bedroom as she is worried I may pull down the ceiling. I've climbed up the school wall but I'm not allowed too high. It's not scary and I completely trust the machine.”
The budding scientist spent five months working on his device at King’s College School in Cambridge. He used two 1,400-watt Tesco Value vacuum cleaners - a nozzle from each machine is then attached to each pad, creating a powerful suction effect when the vacuum is switched on and the pad is pressed tightly to the wall.
The wooden pads have a rubber seal to give increased grip and the suction is strong enough for one pad to support Kono’s weight. To move higher, Hibiki switches the vacuum supplying his 'free' hand pad off, allowing it to be released from the wall on its own, without affecting the other pad's suction. Each pad is attached to a stirrup, to allow him to move each leg in tandem with the corresponding arm.
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