New Invention May Be Scooter with Fuel-Efficient Engine

An invention known only as "Ginger" and hyped as more revolutionary than the Internet appears to be a scooter-like vehicle fueled by a Stirling engine, an new energy system that has the potential to change the way people use power, Inside Magazine reported Tuesday.

Harvard Business School Publishing (HBSP) paid $250,000 for exclusive rights to chronicle the story of Ginger but has no knowledge of the invention itself, and refused to comment on the latest speculations.

Razor Kickback Scooter company--whose products strongly resemble patents issued to Ginger inventor Dean Kamen--instructed its employees not to talk to the press regarding recent developments.

Kamen, winner of the 2000 National Technology Medal and creator of a wearable insulin pump and a wheelchair that climbs stairs, has formed a company called ACROS that will craft "motorized, self-propelled, wheeled personal mobility aids, namely wheelchairs, scooters, carts, and chariots," Inside Magazine reported.

The magazine also stated that Kamen has registered domain names like "stirling scooter.com," "stirlingscooter.net," "stirlingscooter.org," and "mystirlingscooter.com."

The buzz surrounding Ginger began in December, after Kamen's firm, DEKA Research and Development of Manchester, N.H., filed a patent request with the World Intellectual Property Organization. The secret invention generated tremendous speculation.

In January, Kamen said the new invention could be assembled in five to 10 minutes from parts that could fit into a few duffle bags and would cost less than $2,000.

HBPS bought the publishing rights for the story, which will be ghost-written by Steve Kemper, after a proposal backed by technology gurus promised the device would dramatically alter urban planning and the daily lives of city dwellers.

Apple's co-founder Steve Jobs and Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos were among a select few allowed to see the designs for Kamen's plan.

Jobs said Ginger had the potential to restructure cities and Amazon.com is already offering to sell the invention when it is ready.

The Stirling engine is powered by heat generated by any fuel. Hydrogen, a potential fuel source, would be a tremendous advantage to alleviating environmental concerns since it has very few emissions.

The engine operates differently from an internal combustion engine and promises to be more fuel-efficient.

Stirling engines could potentially eliminate the need for electric grids, responsible for much of the waste associated with the burning of natural gas. With the new engine, homes would ideally be able to generate inexpensive power from a machine smaller than an air conditioner, experts reported.