Wiltshire inventor perfects egg boiling sans water

Sure, you might have a microwave that automatically analyzes your food and cooks it to perfection without any culinary knowledge whatsoever, but boiling an egg is an art form mastered by few. Simon Rhymes, however, has put his curiosity to work by crafting the Bulbed Egg Maker (BEM), which boils an egg without a single drop of water or hint of kitchen prowess. Apparently our pals across the pond take this egg cooking ordeal quite seriously, as the Bournemouth University student one upped the inked shell solution already available by utilizing excess heat from "high-powered halogen bulbs." His contraption stands 12-inches tall, and four halogen lights surrounding the delectable oval transfer just enough heat to "perfectly boil" an egg in exactly six minutes. Of course, it took 600 trial runs and an awful lot of trash bags to finally ace the challenge, but now Rhymes is scouting investors to push his product to market. So if we've got any famished VCs in attendance, maybe you can give Simon a hand in realizing his ultimate dream of making "BEMs as popular as toasters" (or MacBooks).

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 12th 2006 12:33PM]

It's as big as a coffeepot, draws more current, exposes hungry victims nearby to unhealthy energy quanta and you only get ONE egg????

The coffeepot is as big as a 55 Gallon drum and you don't even want to SEE the toaster!!!!

[derrick @ Oct 12th 2006 12:40PM]

Despite strider's comments its still one of those inventions that you kick yourself for not coming up with. Because you know he's gonna make a ton of money off of this simple idea.

[John Shillabeer @ Oct 12th 2006 12:40PM]

Why not just use a microwave? :)

[Josh @ Oct 12th 2006 12:42PM]

Thats where i live!

That is all.

[James @ Oct 12th 2006 12:44PM]

Eggs like to explode in the microwave. It's fun!

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 12th 2006 1:05PM]

Funny,
I would have thought the absurdity was a tip off that I was joking.

There is a question of efficiency here.

[Chris @ Oct 12th 2006 1:08PM]

Yes, there is a question of efficiency. I assume there is no reason the eggs couldn't be stacked so you can cook 3 or 4 at a time. Some reflective material and insulation surrounding it would probably cut the cooking time even further.

[Chris @ Oct 12th 2006 1:30PM]

Kinda makes you wonder how efficient halogen bulbs are huh? All that wasted light. . . *sigh*

[Chocolate Starfish @ Oct 12th 2006 1:33PM]

Has anyone tried boiling an egg in a coffee pot? Sometimes I'd like something to go along with my ramen.

[DMac @ Oct 12th 2006 1:42PM]

Looks to me like someone modded a Coleman Lantern! I bet there's lots of other things you could cook inside one of those.

[Robert @ Oct 12th 2006 1:50PM]

For you microwaving egg eaters, use a pin to make a hole in the shell. I also recommend the hole when boiling to prevent unsightly colorization of the yolk.

I prefer my eggs dropped into boiling water for six minutes. This would make it a soft-boiled egg but oh so delicious (12 minutes for hard boiled).

[Mikey @ Oct 12th 2006 4:21PM]

Its mostly the overcooking of eggs that results in the discoloration (The heat oxidizes the sulfer). Pricking the shell keeps it from exploding. Starting unpricked eggs in cold water would also help avoid that.

General comment:
To boil an egg is to cook in hot (approximently 100 degrees C or 212 degrees F) bubbeling (vaporizing) water. What is done here is just cooking the egg.

Wow! I actually learned something in all those food science/preperation classes.

[Josh @ Oct 12th 2006 2:12PM]

This isn't as elegant as the egg-boiler-sans-water seen on Dragon's Den here in the UK a few weeks ago, which, although it never worked on air, or on its appearance on BBC Breakfast, seemed much better than this, using some kind of heated plastic element that fitted tightly around the egg and cooked it that way (if that makes sense). This is his website: www.eggxactly.co.uk
The BBC programme is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/series3_episode1.shtml

[Wonderboy @ Oct 12th 2006 2:18PM]

There will eventually be a super-sized version of this... Load up 2 dozen eggs, strip down naked, and in 6 minutes you've got a tan and a whole lotta eggs.

[Dp462090 @ Oct 12th 2006 2:56PM]

I prefer my eggs fried.

[az @ Oct 12th 2006 3:40PM]

So, is it the heat alone that cooks the egg? Or does the light have something to do with it? If the massive amount of visible light has an effect, you could prolly speed it up even more by having the device coat the egg in a dark solution just before "cooking"

Furthermore, if it is just the heat, why not use a matrix of fine coils? (like a toaster only for eggs)

[tekdroid @ Oct 12th 2006 4:34PM]

call me old-fashioned, but I like my eggs boiled in water. So this is really a solution for a non-existent problem for me. Still, the pic is warming (pun!) and the concept and implementation is pretty original (and ingenious).

I just don't see it selling in Target. Some things are far more complex than they need to be, and this is one of them.

Things like:
Initial cost of device
Replacement cost of halogen bulbs
Cleaning
The fact that it's a single-purpose device
Reliability
Health effects?

etc etc all come into play here. No doubt it'll fill some niche, though.

[Just This Guy @ Oct 12th 2006 4:41PM]

Has _anyone_ asked Gromit what _he_ thinks about this thing?

[Blue Sam @ Oct 12th 2006 5:38PM]

Have one for eat lot of watts is waste money on electric bills.

I still want to do 6 eggs at same time, save my time.

[JavaMoose @ Oct 12th 2006 6:27PM]

He may have a tough time with a patent though, since Vulcan has their Halogen "Flashbake" line of products.

http://www.vulcanhart.com/product_detail.cfm?pid=281

Of course, they aren't built just for eggs...

[rob @ Oct 12th 2006 11:02PM]

People and their stupid sans.

[eurohenry @ Oct 13th 2006 2:50AM]

Holy crap Bournemouth University is in the news, I graduated Product Design 98.