Blower:

A block that when powered can push drops without uprooting plants etc. For use when flowing water would make a mess.

The blower's wind-field is 3-wide and 3-high, centered on the axis of the blower. It extends up to 7 tiles from the blower, depending on fan-speed (high, medium or low), which depends on the sum of redstone power going into it. Full power is required for high; 6-14 is medium, and 1-5 is low. Max reach is 1+(2 * s), where s (speed) is 1..3. The wind field will be cut short if all nine of its "lanes" are obstructed by impermeable blocks (it will then be the length of the longest open lane). Foliage, plants and non-full block-sides do not count as impermeable, so the wind quite literally blows through leaves, between half-slabs etc.

When a drop is pushed by the "wind", it gets both a forward and an upward kick. The degree of kick depends on fan-speed, so a high-speed blower will kick drops both higher and farther, which can jump them over tracks, low walls, plants etc. Thus the blower is ideal for sweeping up drops in an automatic grower (tall flowers anyone?) where you don't want to destroy/uproot everything growing there, or where water flow just won't do what you want. It can also replace a whole chain of hoppers for a fraction of the iron-cost.

Recipe: Similar to a note-block, the recipe is a box of 8 iron ingots with a redstone dust in the center:

i i i

i r i

i i i

New as of mc 1.10.2: Right-clicking on the blower will rotate its horizontal facing.

Goat (new since inventions v00.04.01):

A new animal that aggressively seeks out and eats leaves and plants (such as tall grass, flowers and crops). Goats follow and can be bred by apples. Use goats to "mow the grass" in large fields, but be careful -- You should either tether each goat or fence your wheat fields. Note: When goats eat tall flowers, the flowers drop.

Shadow-Torch (new since inventions v01.01.01):

A torch that casts shadows when placed (replaces air blocks with modded air having slight opacity). Could be useful for traps and monster grinders. Let me know if it fails to clean up its shade blocks when removed.

Recipe is as torch, but with soul-sand in place of coal.

Lava-Sponge (new since inventions v01.02.00):

A sponge that absorbs lava instead of water. It's light-blue when 'dry', and orange (with dripping lava particles) when 'wet'. Both variants can be found in the building blocks tab of the creative-mode inventory menu.

Like lava buckets, wet lava sponges don't stack, and they can be used as furnace fuel. In fact, using one as fuel in a furnace is the only way to 'dry' it. Sounds easy until you combine the "can't stack" with its very long fuel time (about a half-hour of real-time).

Lava sponges can't be crafted. 'Wet' lava-sponges spawn naturally under lava in both the nether and overworld (and maybe in custom dimensions that extend them). A 'wet' lava sponge always drips lava particles regardless of whether or not there is lava above it.

Future Inventions:

Revisions of this mod may add other items. Some ideas I have in mind (feedback welcome):

* Miner's helm that lights the way in front of you while worn (this may turn into an enchantment)

* Dog Whistles -- Each whistle sends a different command to dogs that you own (within range of loaded chunks). Forget where you parked your dog? Now you can tell your nearest dog to bark, or teleport to you, or have all your dogs teleport etc. I might even include a whistle that causes wolves to howl.

* Elevator cart that climbs ladder-rails. Faster than walking up a wooden ladder, and not prone to side-slip (aiming error sometimes resulting from lag)

Related Projects:

My other mods are related because they all share a common package. When that shared package changes significantly, if you have more than one of my mods, then they all need to be updated at the same time (they need to stay on the same page). However, none of my mods need any of the others to run.

Look for other "Uncle Jeff's" mods here at CurseForge. If you notice any "bugs" or conflicts (or have anything else helpful to say), then please leave a comment so I can make this and my future mods better. :)

Uncle Jeff's Inventions