Who knew that anything good could come out of Texas (besides B-B-Q)? Well, clever designer Efrain E. Velez — who hails from Texas, as well as Puerto Rico, the Americas, and Europe (he’s busy and fast apparently, everywhere at once) — has conceived an ingenious lamp based on a rather archaic tool, the crank. Kicked up a notch, the old-fashioned crank becomes Velez’s Krank LED, a lamp with a built-in hand drill that produces light when you crank it. [via Yanko Design]

Krank LED. Designed by Efrain E. Valez.

The process is based on magnetic induction, wherein your hand-powered energy reacts with a copper-surrounded magnet that will produce sufficient voltage to light the Krank LED for 40 to 60 minutes. The simple act of using your hand to turn the crank lends the Krank LED a tactility that incites nostalgia for times long past–almost as exciting as the Jacob’s Ladder wooden toy that clicked and clacked its way into our childhood hearts. On top of the fun here based on using your own hands to power something, the Krank LED’s crank shape is pleasing to the eye: its odd, incomplete rectangle a detour in the otherwise straight, vertical column (sort of brings to mind Pacman).

The Krank LED is a luminary puzzle of recycled aluminum pieces. Consequently, the green lamp is also green (clever wordplay on my part, but incorrect as Krank LED also comes with a red shade). Probably ready for the market in Spring of 2009, Krank LED may be the most fun you ever had trying to stay awake through dull reading. You can thank Velez’s elan for this sprightly light; the designer states that he moves in “deliberate pursuit of Life in stereo.” Imagine the music that will emanate from your Krank LED as its magnets conduct the music of the spheres!