Are You Ready for a Walk on Water?

This post was first published on 13th January, 2011.

We generally use the phrase “Walking on water”,  to refer to a miracle or accomplishing something nearly impossible. But if we consider the literal meaning of it, is it really possible to walk on water? A lot of people dream of walking on water and infact some have walked on water either in reality or as an illusion or miracle. After Lord Ram performed the feat, Leonardo da Vinci in 15th Century sketched how a man can walk on water. Since then, numerous inventions have come up to turn this dream into reality by enabling man to walk on water. According to Christianity, St. Peter actually walked on water but he started to drown as soon as he lost his concentration.

I was impressed seeing so many magicians perform that incredible feat, but later I found out that it was either an illusion or a camera work. In pursue of turning my dream of walking on water into a reality, I needed to find an enabling method. Some of the patents that I found useful to take my dream forward are as follows:

A patent (US4801284) titled “Water walking shoes” invented and patented by Tam Lieu in Jan 1989 discloses a water walking shoe which has outer bell and inner bell. Outer bell which is made of rigid plastic material has a cavity embedded at the periphery. Inner bell is made of a thin plastic sheet material and is received within the outer bell. Outer bell consisting of adjustable mounting is attached to a user foot. Air is trapped and released in the cavities to overcome the suction effect and allow the wearer to walk easily. Further, a flexible skirt attached to the outer bell provides improved seal and distribution of weight over a larger surface area, resulting into better stability.

A utility model (CN201296370Y) titled “Shoes for walking on water” invented and patented by Jiang Tao in Aug 2009 discloses shoes for walking on water in which shoe upper is adhered to shoe sole. Shoe sole’s lower surface is wide and large and its upper surface is processed into a sole shape inner concave surface. Rear end of the shoe sole is mounted with an electric motor and a machine shaft extending from sole is connected with a turbine. User wearing the shoe is provided with buoyancy while standing on both his/her feet on the water surface, closing the switch, the machine shaft rotate in order to rotate turbine resulting into forward force and driving the wearer to move.

Another patent (CN101481007A) titled “Sport shoes for freely walking on water” invented and patented by Liu Zhuyin in Jul 2009.  Each shoe comprises a shoe cover, a main floating plate, a balance auxiliary floating propeller.  The main floating plate and the balance auxiliary floating propeller support a human body to float on the water surface and freely walk on the water surface.

Aforementioned inventions provide high safety and reliability, can operate flexibly and conveniently. Thus, people can use them to freely walk, frolic and play on the water surface and can carry out various elegant aquatic performances.

It is time to get your water shoes and take a evening walk on the Ocean. By the way, I give no warranty and accept any liability if the WATER HORSE attacks you!!!.

Authored by Sanjiv Sharan

Image from Wikimedia Commons