Akron company praised for great invention

An Akron company's system for finding trapped coal miners has won one of 10 ''2008 Invention Awards'' by Popular Science magazine.

[Souloski]

Good Idea!

[JulioF]

"... which can track the movement of underground miners and equipment..."

Huh? How will this help during a mining disaster?

Everyone knows that when a mine collapses and the men are trapped, they are trained to be as still as possible to conserve oxygen.

Guess I just don't know enough about this gizmo.

[Ahau Kin]

''This is going to be the best thing we've had ever, as far as I'm concerned. I hope he makes a billion dollars,'' he said of Russell Breeding.

A lot of coal miners are going to have to die for him to earn THAT.

More proactive safety measures on the part of the mines would save more lives.

The article doesn't give up much about how the device works.....'inertial navigation' suggests they are somehow tracking movement. Personal transponders of some kind? And how certainly can they be detected thru cave walls?

And you still have to dig the men out.