The Vortex Veneer

Word Count - 300 words

The Vortex Veneer

"Hey Ed!" Jim Brown called out across the fence. "What ya' got there buddy?"

Eddy Currents was renowned in the hamlet of Brookvale for his quirky inventions. Some of his creations included the Balsa Wood Barbecue Plate, Solar Powered Night Vision Goggles and the environmentally-friendly Indisposable Nappies.

"Vortex generator." Ed turned around to smile and nearly lost his grip. He grimaced and let it slide to the ground.

Jim was through the thin wire fence and beside his neighbor in a second.

"Want a hand?"

"Thanks, I must be getting old in my old age."

Jim lifted the towel but all he could see was a black metal box with circular ends. The two men took hold of the generator and carried it into a large steel shed and set it down beside a circular hole cut into the cement floor.

"So what's it for?" Jim asked as Eddy began to attach a pair of ropes around the generator.

"Hydropower. Cheapest way to get the extra electricity I need for .... a project."

"Hydropower?? Some sort of underground river down there?"

Eddy lowered the generator down into the dark opening.

"No. Nothing like that. I just diverted the creek into my top dam. The water at the bottom of the dam is under pressure so it should come down through a pipe with enough force to turn the blades in the vortex generator. When I connect it to that axle down there which has a disk with a magnet or two attached they spin past a coiled circuit which creates an electrical current."

"Wow!" Jim exclaimed. "You're a real wizard! What's the big project?"

“Shoe shiner.”

“Uh-huh. You need all that power to shine shoes.”

Ed turned red-faced and shuffled his oversize clown boots. “I have big feet.”