District Collector K. Vijayakarthikeyan on Tuesday appreciated K. Iniyan, a Class VI student from the Government Higher Secondary School, Perumanallur, Tiruppur district, who designed an alarm bell out of household items for his school in Tiruppur.
The boy decided to make the alarm bell after seeing that the school bell stopped working, said M. Mahendran, Assistant Headmaster of the school. Iniyan made his own bell using the lid of a ‘hot box’ vessel, a stick used as a handle in bags, a motor from a toy car and cotton ear buds. The alarm also has rechargeable batteries, he said. “Usually, school bells run in AC power supply and the bells will not ring when there is no power supply,” Mr. Mahendran said. The bell could be even used when there is no power supply.
Iniyan’s father, K. Killivalavan, an auto rickshaw driver at Thotattupalayam, Uthukuli, was running a sound equipment rental service business in his hometown in Sivagangai. “At the age of six, Iniyan used to fix all the speakers and tube lights, from where he must have got the interest,” Mr. Killivalavan said.
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Taking about his design, Iniyan said that he made the alarm bell on December 2. “I started at 8 p.m. and finished it by 9 p.m.,” he said, adding that the school fixed his alarm bell on December 5. “I am working on a camera next,” Iniyan said, similar to those used in cars during reversing. “I will finish [the camera] in one day,” he said.