[span id="article"][span id="intelliTXT"] [font color="#000000" face="Verdana,Sans-serif" size="2"]Duke Grad Builds Beer Tossing Fridge[/font][font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font size="1"]
[/font][font size="1"][span class="L8"][span class="oldL8"]Mar 7, 8:55 PM (ET)
[/span][/span][/font]By ESTES THOMPSON[/font][/span][table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="210"][tbody][tr][td align="center"][table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" height="199" width="210"][tbody][tr align="center" bgcolor="#e2e2e2"][td][table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" height="100%" width="100%"][tbody][tr][td][div id="gca_sidebar1"][table align="middle" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="166" width="100%"][tbody][tr][td][font face="Verdana,Sans-Serif,Arial" size="2"][font style="lineh-eight: 6px;"]
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[/font][/td][/tr][/tbody][/table][font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"][span id="article"][div class="KonaBody"][span id="intelliTXT"] RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - When John Cornwell graduated from Duke University last year, he landed a job as software engineer in Atlanta but soon found himself longing for his college lifestyle. So the engineering graduate built himself a reminder of life on campus: a refrigerator that can toss a can of beer to his couch with the click of a remote control.[/p] "I conceived it right after I got out," said Cornwell, a May 2006 graduate from Huntington, N.Y. "I missed the college scene. It embodies the college spirit that I didn't want to let go of."[/p] It took the 22-year-old Cornwell about 150 hours and $400 in parts to modify a mini-fridge common to many college dorm rooms into the beer-tossing contraption, which can launch 10 cans of beer from its magazine before needing a reload.[/p] With a click of the remote, fashioned from a car's keyless entry device, a small elevator inside the refrigerator lifts a beer can through a hole and loads it into the fridge's catapult arm. A second click fires the device, tossing the beer up to 20 feet - "far enough to get to the couch," he said.[/p] Is there a foam explosion when the can is opened? Not if the recipient uses "soft hands" to cradle the can when caught, Cornwell said.[/p] In developing his beer catapult, Cornwell said he dented a few walls and came close to accidentally throwing a can through his television. He's since fine-tuned the machine to land a beer where he usually sits at home, on what he called "a right-angle couch system."[/p] For now, the machine throws only cans, although Cornwell has thought about making a version that can throw a bottle. The most beer he has run through the machine was at a party, when he launched a couple of 24-can cases.[/p] "I did launch a lot watching the Super Bowl," he said. "My friends are the reason I built it. I told them about the idea and hyped it so much and I had to go through with it."[/p] A video featuring the device is a hit on the Internet, where more than 600,000 people have watched it at metacafe.com, earning Cornwell more than $3,000 from the Web site.[/p] Cornwell said he has talked to a brewing company about the machine, but right now only one exists. Asked if he might start building some for sale, he said: "I'm keeping that option open, depending on interest."[/p] When Cornwell was a student at Duke - an elite, private university in Durham - he participated in the engineering school's robotic basketball contests, said mechanical engineering Professor Bob Kielb. He said students tried to build a robot that could retrieve a pingpong ball and toss it into a small hoop.[/p] "He always did well in it," Kielb said. "He came up with completely unique ideas."[/p][/span][/div][/span][/font][/font][/span]
