bah-abba's no-electricity fridge

mohammed bah-abba's invention of a juiceless fridge - which is certainly brilliant despite being a re-invention - is fabulous. bOING-bOING says,

Mohammed Bah-Abba of Nigeria won a Rolex Award for his pot-in-pot refrigerator. It consists of a smaller clay pot inside a larger clay pot. The gap is filled with damp sand. As the sand water evaporates, the inner pot cools.

Food that used to spoil in a few days now stays fresh for weeks. Second-order effects are already being noticed - for one thing, girls who had to skip school to sell food at markets can now attend classes.

Alex Steffen sez: I love the pot-within-a-pot concept. Really excellent design, exactly what the world needs more of. And a guy commented this on our worldchanging post about it a couple weeks ago:

The town I live in was settled by Quakers, the museum has an example of a refrigerator that uses a similar technique but with a wood box. It claims to be the first such device in America although that could be local folklore. Certainly the Pot-in-Pot can't be the first such invention of that type, in fact the Amish currently use this one, in production since 1900.

What makes Pot-in-Pot special is the use of local materials and skills so that it can be accepted by the local culture. [snip] Pottery will save the world! um, or something like that...

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