(by Elisa Buson).
A wide number of innovations
conceived by inventors ranging from a scuba diver who wants to
help preserve Venice to a former bank manager who wants to fight
bicycle thefts were on display in Venice's Pala Expo over the
weekend as part of the D-Nest International Inventors
Exhibition.
Inventors who showcased their groundbreaking discoveries
at the October 13-16 event also included an entrepreneur who
tries to help his friends in their daily working lives and a man
who went out of his way to win a bet made with family while
picking chestnuts.
Roberto Padoan, a 57-year-old Venetian who has worked for
years as a scuba diver in the lagoon city, said his office is in
his head - "when I see a problem I immediately try to find a way
to solve it".
While working as a scuba diver, he has discovered a
passion for innovation, developing ideas with his son.
He has obtained a patent for a system to clean lagoon
water from silt in order to make it transparent and help
maintenance work, then ecological resins to consolidate
foundations and make them more water resistant.
The system also works for buildings, monuments, roads,
rail lines, dams and galleries, Padoan said.
Another inventor, Marco Pracca, is a former director at
Deutsche Bank in Milan who has now retired and decided to
develop the idea of a friend, Dino Monteleone, a mechanic.
"Together, we have developed an anti-theft system for
bicycles, a small universal mechanical device that blocks pedals
and opens and closes with a simple key", he said.
"I was fascinated with the idea. I immediately took action
to find collaborators and test the system first-hand".
Another invention showcased in Venice - a machine that
whips cream, mayonnaise and other delicacies - was also invented
thanks to a friendship.
Stefano Lunazzi, an entrepreneur who deals in street
signs, used a kind of pistol similar to the one used to paint
road stripes for food.
"I had initially built a similar device to help a friend
who is a hair stylist with peroxide, then the air that got into
a broken tube set me off: I understood that I could use the same
mechanism to whip emulsions in the kitchen", he said.
And designer kitchens could also include in the future the
so-called 'Roncoletta del Doge', a device that cuts chestnuts
before they are cooked.
An entrepreneur in the metal-mechanic sector from the
northern city of Vicenza, Sergio Luccietto, invented it almost
as a joke, to win a bet he made with family while chestnut
picking.
He is now thinking of producing personalized pieces built
on demand with deluxe materials.
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