People-Powered Hair Salon in Paris, 1945

The electricity supply in Paris was pretty intermittent in the spring of '45, so an "ingenious beautician hires unemployed 6-day bicycle racers to peddle away on a bike, the back wheel of which is attached to a small generator! The current runs 6 driers." Charlie at Modern Mechanix doesn't buy it- "Hair dryers use a LOT of electricity." Having tried to keep a lightbulb going at the Ontario Science Centre as a kid was a lot of work; the Eco-Geek says that "the maximum output for a toned adult would be about 500 watts, but a sustainable level for someone like me (who's eaten his share of Whataburgers) is more like 150 watts"- six hair dryers? at minimum we are talking 6,000 watts. Not a chance.. ::Modern MechanixNow perhaps if we had an entire gym generating power:Hong Kong Gym Harvests People- PowerAsk the EcoGeek: Muscle PowerNotions of Expenditure