TIRUPUR: What is a school without an alarm bell? For some students, it cuts short a mundane lecture, for others it is the sweetest sound in the world reminding them of their favourite class.
So, when the alarm bell of a government higher secondary school in Perumanallur malfunctioned, it was a crisis.
Luckily, a sixth standard student stepped in to settle the uncertainty. Hailing from Thottathupalayam in Tirupur, Iniyan developed a simple alarm bell using materials from everyday life.
Speaking to TNIE, the student said, "I was always inspired to create new things. Science was my favourite subject. I used to see programmes on scientific innovations and experiments and always hoped to recreate something in the future."
"Last week, I found the school alarm in the corridor missing. When I asked, the school teachers said it was not working. I took a look at the system. It was like vessel attached to a striker," he went on to explain.
As soon as I reached home, I decided to create a bell of my own, he added.
"I took a mobile phone charger and a simple DC 15 V motor from a toy car. I connected the motor to the charger, then attached it to a long bamboo stick and joined it using an earbud at the end of which was an iron screw. The entire module was attached to a utensil," Iniyan said.
When the system is powered up, he said, the pins rotate the bamboo stick resulting in the iron screw on the earbud hitting the vessel and ringing the bell. If a small timer is included in the module, the alarm system will ring as per the school schedule, he added.
The school headmaster Mahendran said, "Earlier, when we looked at it, we thought it would never work. When Iniyan switched it on, the alarm started ringing. This is a very simple module. These items like bamboo stick, vessel, toy motor, earbud, screw, mobile phone charger don't cost much. When a large vessel and a bigger iron screw is attached, the ringing will be more louder. We have planned to use it in our school. It will not only motivate Iniyan, but also inspire several students in the school."
Iniyan's father KR Killivalavan is a construction consultant and mother Kanimozhi is a homemaker.