It's not obvious how their playful distraction is actually saving lives in the wake of the January earthquake that ravaged the country.
But the movement of the pendulum is actually powering a pump that filters 1,000 gallons of water an hour.
The moment is captured on a video on the Web site of Gravitational Energy Corp., a Cuyahoga Falls company that spent six years and $1.3 million inventing the technology.
Riding the success of the equipment donated to One Life Missions in Haiti, the company is taking orders for the Feltenberger Pendulum Pump, named for its inventor and company president, Bruce Feltenberger.
On Wednesday, the company will give a public demonstration of the hand-operated, gravity-assisted pump from 1 to 5 p.m. in the Shady Bend Pavilion at Water Works Park, 2025 Munroe Falls Ave., Cuyahoga Falls.
Feltenberger said he wanted to demonstrate his unit on the Cuyahoga River because of its reputation for having been so dirty that it once caught fire.
''It's still pretty heavily contaminated,'' Feltenberger said.
The pump is being marketed for disaster areas and Third World countries. Gravitational Energy made its first sale last month, when a man from the Netherlands raised money to buy a unit for a community in Pakistan.
''Our idea about helping people is: It's a lot quicker to start pumping and filtering the water you have access to than it is to try to figure out where you can drill a hole'' for a water well, Vice President Art Drentlau said.
The company also recently demonstrated the pump to the military for potential use in combat zones or inhospitable geography.
But turning dirty rivers, lakes and flooded streets into drinkable water is only the first application, Feltenberger said.
Gravitational Energy has been experimenting with backpack-size pumps for mobile situations, hand-cranked pumps that would power electrical generators and room-size pumps that can generate commercial-grade electricity and power a desalination plant.
Powered by gravity
Feltenberger said the seed for his idea was planted in 1965 as he watched a huge pendulum swinging at a planetarium in Pittsburgh.
''I thought, 'You know, if that pen
dulum could be modified just a little, I'll bet it could do quite a bit of work,' '' he said.
He tinkered with the concept throughout his career as an engineer and journeyman machinist, but it wasn't until six years ago that he decided to devote his full attention to developing the idea.
The timing was right, he said.
''All of the changes that have occurred over the last many years, as far as demand for green energy, a growing desire to be kinder to the environment, wanting to reduce the carbon footprint — put them all together and it just made me feel this was more and more important,'' he said.
The project has been financed through private investments and help from people like Hans Leitner, who gave Feltenberger space to build his prototypes at his J&J Precision Machine shop in Cuyahoga Falls.
Units cost about $34,000 and take three to four weeks to make.
Made in the U.S.A.
Feltenberger and Drentlau explained why their pendulum is much easier and more efficient than other nonelectric methods for generating power.
A typical hand-operated machine might involve a lever that must be pushed and pulled constantly, or a hand crank that needs to be wound in a circular motion.
The rigid arm pendulum that Feltenberger designed can swing back and forth, taking far less human energy to keep it in motion.
The more aggressive the operator, the more water the machine can pump, but it still works if someone simply bats it back and forth in an arc — the way the Haitian girls did. The operator also can pause from time to time without stopping progress. Drentlau demonstrated by pushing the pendulum, then lifting his hand to show how momentum kept the arm going.
In addition to cleaning drinking water, the system can be used without a filter for irrigation, sanitation, firefighting, or removing water from flooded areas or contaminated cisterns.
Feltenberger said the entire unit will be made in the United States, including special valves that had to be designed and fabricated in Akron.
''Everything here is made in the United States: the tires, the axles, the filtration system,'' Feltenberger said.
''If we make a lot of these, we want to put people back to work here.''
To learn more about Gravitational Energy and its pendulum system, visit http://www.gravityassistedpower.com.
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/paulaschleis.
