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CHITTENANGO - What do a solar-powered bird feeder, a poster of frozen apple orchards, and a local Web site have in common?
They're all products of a small company called Pratique, Inc. The company is one of many using space-aged technology from Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program (SATOP) to innovate new products, says Christopher Gates, Pratique's president.
"I am the idea man here," he says. "I look for quality-of-life products."
The company, some of whose products date back to when Gates was a private inventor in 1986, operates from a garage, kitchen, and barn space at 1325 Route 173 in Chittenango. Two of the company's most successful products are stretchyrubber funnel pieces that silence drippy faucets, and freefloating solar-powered fountains.
For the latter, SATOP calculated the theoretical limit of what the plume height of the solar-powered fountain should be, given its power supply and motor. SATOP also recommended a change in design to include more impeller blades.
"And they were right," Gates says. "The plume rose 20 percent on the first modification."
Design challenges
Gates' company is one of many that have benefited from the NASA-fanded SATOP, says Beth Bornick, director of SATOP's Syracuse office on East Fayette Street.
Gates founded Pratique intending to secure patents and profit from the resulting products. Pratique's most recent project was the freestanding fountain.
"Conventional fountains require wiring and plumbing," Gates says. "A self-contained solar-powered unit was ideal, but none existed."
What resulted was a rotating solar-powered fountain, complete with lily pad and frog. Gates says his is the most compact of the free-floating solar...