The economy may be tanking, but for Walton McCarthy business couldn't be better.
Earlier this month, McCarthy received a patent for his "life cell," an air-purifying apparatus and communications system that he contends could transform an ordinary living room into safe, self-sufficient oasis in the midst of a bioterrorist attack.
McCarthy said his company, Radius Engineering, located near Concord, New Hampshire, was two months behind in production on the life cells, which go for US$4,500, and six months behind on its underground shelters, which sell for US$16,000 to nearly US$60,000.
"We've got double shifts working six days a weeks," said McCarthy, noting that Radius is planning to expand production twelvefold in the coming year.
The life cell device, which is 1.21m in diameter, is basically a battery-powered filtering system that draws in air through a hose from the outside, purifies it, and then pumps it into a room that has been sealed off from the rest of the house -- and the world. The device is equipped with CB radio and scanner, a 12-volt lamp, and a "chemical agent detector kit," designed to help the citizen under siege determine exactly which toxic agent has been unleashed. (Add-on options include a chemical toilet and water supplies.)
"The life cell goes right in the living room -- it replaces your coffee table," McCarthy said. Although a buyer may opt to leave it in the basement while awaiting Armageddon -- it can assembled in 30 minutes -- the 226.7kg battery system might be hard to lug upstairs in a hurry.
Child of the `50s
McCarthy, who is 49 and old enough to remember the "duck and cover" drills that ostensibly prepared school children for a nuclear attack during the Cold War, said he did not recall having been preoccupied with the thought of nuclear war while growing up. And his family did not have a backyard bomb shelter.
But since his graduation from Montana State University in 1974, he has become an authority on underground shelters. He is the author of two books, The Nuclear Shelterist and Principles of Protection: The US Handbook of NBC Weapon Fundamentals and Shelter Engineering Standards.
McCarthy received US patent 6,296,693 for his life cell. But he was selling underground disaster shelters long before it occurred to him to turn a living room into a chemically and biologically secure fortress. The standard Radius underground shelter, has a fiberglass, egg-shaped shell. Meant to accommodate six people, it comes with a toilet, a shower, food storage, an air filtration system, and three weeks' worth of battery power.
"That's our Ford Escort model," McCarthy said. The most expensive version listed on Radius' Web site (www.radius-defense.com) is a military model, which costs US$57,000. It provides life support for up to two years, is designed to avoid detection by radar or thermal or magnetic sensors, and is meant to withstand "gunfire and hand grenades."
McCarthy said some potential customers expected the shelter to be like a posh condominium. But the top-of-the-line model is only as big as a single-car garage. "People come into this wondering where the color TV set is," he said, sighing.
Who are the typical buyers? Rather than the stereotypical "militia-type people, shoot 'em types of guys," McCarthy said, his customers are more likely to be safety-conscious people -- like mothers who buy organic produce and make their kids wear bike helmets. "We sell it to the type of people who wear seatbelts and don't smoke," he said.
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