Subj:	Report: 'Ginger' Is a Hydrogen Powered Scooter
Date:	3/7/01 6:32:12 AM Pacific Standard Time
From:    To:

Mar 7, 2001 - 05:25 AM

Report: 'Ginger' Is a Hydrogen Powered Scooter

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) - Inventor Dean Kamen's mystery invention, dubbed
"IT" or "Ginger," is a two-wheeled, hydrogen-powered scooter that is
emission-free, according to Inside magazine.

"Ginger represents the first generation of a new mode of transportation
that will compete with and possibly replace automobiles," the magazine
said. "The ramifications of a 'hydrogen economy' would be profound on
everything from the environment to the energy business to global
politics."

The magazine, the biweekly sibling publication of Inside.com, said
Tuesday it used corporate surveillance experts to uncover details on the
invention. The issue hits newsstands this week.

Kamen has refused to discuss the project, saying he will not reveal what
IT is until next year.

Some of the financial world's biggest names, like Steve Jobs of Apple
Computer Inc. and Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, have offered financial
support and say the invention will change transportation.

Kamen created a company called ACROS to specially build the "motorized,
self-propelled, wheeled personal mobility aides, namely wheelchairs,
scooters, carts and chariots," the magazine said.

Such devices presumably would draw on the development of the I-bot, a
mechanical wheelchair that can drive through sand and climb stairs,
created by Kamen and his medical-research firm, DEKA Research and
Development.

Last week at an appearance before the New Hampshire Society of
Professional Engineers, Kamen would only say he was amazed at the amount
of attention IT has received.

Kamen is a prolific inventor who has come up with innovative wheelchairs
and an insulin pump. He was the recipient of the 2000 National Medal of
Technology.