A Swedish man, Mats Nilsson, was listening to his grandfather when he was telling stories. His grandfather told him how he was drinking cider at work in a shipyard as a welder. They often spilled a little on their clothes and it dried. When they then started working again, the dried cider protected their clothes from flames or sparks.

Now he has made a 100% biological safe fire protection called Apyrum. Main ingredients are vinegar (CH3COOH) and citric acid (C6H8O7). There are two drawbacks: one is that the material you want to protect has to be porous. Like curtains, fabrics, upholstery, furniture foam and paper. The other drawback is that if you wash your curtains, you have to protect them again as Apyrum dissolve in water. However, consider the dangerous chemicals in other types of fire protection, I would go for it.

I saw a program on Norwegian TV (link below),  last autumn where this was demonstrated, and I got completely fascinated. It was very impressive. However, it took me some time to find back to where I had seen this demonstration and write about it in my blog. You can see a video of this program on the page above. Børge Jomaas, borge,jomaas at nrk.no is the journalist that made that part of the program.

Please use the links below if you would like to get more information. All the information is in Swedish.

Helge Karlsen in Sandnes, Norway has made an antenna that is 15x15mm (0.6inch). The antenna can work in a distance of up to 7-8km (4.3 to 4.9miles).

He used 12 years to develop this antenna and to find the right material to use. They have now tested the antenna in tunnels and under water and it is working well. The Norwegian helicopter rescue service, the Danish rescue service and Royal Navy are all among the users of this antenna.

What I find impressive about this story is his endurance and faith in what he is doing. Most people that have great ideas would have stopped a long time ago. Some of lack of money, interest or time. A person like Helge Karlsen is among those that really bring our future into being.

What is it that makes some people so curious, disciplined and strong that they just do anything to achieve their goal? I don’t think there is one single answer to that question. For some it might be an inner drive to make something beautiful that will make a difference in peoples lives. For others it might be that they have had a hard time growing up, and they really don’t want their children to experience what they were going through.

On the other hand you could say that there is also a lot of reasons people stop themselves. You are born into a poor family, don’t get education, don’t have the money to do research, are stopped by your family situation, your boss, your attitudes, etc. The question is if this should be looked upon as real obstacles or excuses for not living your dream. The next question would then be why not live your dream?

The Apple MacIntosh was supposedly built in a garage in the beginning and is now all over the world. They had a dream to make a simple, but functional computer that everyone could use. They succeeded.

This blog post is based on a TV-program in NRK, Norway.