Hi All:

Can any of you think of how a good-sized window industrial fan could be crafted that would be capable of having its blades stiff so that they would slice and dice something thrown into it and still be able to have them hinged so that you could quickly change between the two settings and allowing the performer to fall into the fan and plunge out of the window with it?

The solution may be obvious to a lot of you, but I grew up in an apartment not a house so the only tool I learned to use was a hammer to bang on the radiator when we needed the super to fix something! (I also didn't go to kindergarten which my wife says explains a lot of things.)

Appreciate any and all assistance here or by PM.

Gary

Yeah, if you'd gone to kindergarten you would know to use the hammer to bang on the super. Radiators cost money.

Good point.

Falling (or being thrown out) of a window is known as defenestration. Maybe that could be the name for your effect.

... or "DeFANestration"...

There you go.

Defanestration it is then! If I can work it out to my satifaction that's the name that will appear in the novel!

Now, anybody want to helo make it so with some suggestions?

If this is for a novel you don't need to work it out to the nuts and bolts. Just enough detail that the readers will understand the idea.

Agreed, George.

The important thing is that it be plausible. In this case that means the blades can be used either stiff or hinged and can be switched between the two modes quickly. Best suggestion I've had so far would be pins in the blade cap that would keep the blades stiff when in place and allow the hinges to operate when drawn back--a cap within a larger cap if you will.

Thoughts?

That sounds fine. It may not work in real life, but it sounds like something a magician would use. Hinges and pins and secret levers all work well in fiction.

Thanks, George--it's what I'll probably go for. My criterion is: COULD it work in real life, even if it hasn't been done (yet). And it seems this could work, so . . . .