Capital Idea Will Help You Keep Cool in the Car

A Raleigh man hopes his Capital Idea will make hot days in the car more bearable.

Julius Pietryga calls his invention the "Cool Cushion." He makes it in his garage and hopes it cuts the time it takes you to cool off in the car.

The Cool Cushion is layers of padding surrounding a plastic, perforated tube.

"...and as soon as you turn on the engine, the cool air, you can feel that right away," says Pietryga.

The air comes out a vent under the dashboard every car has, goes through a tube and then out several holes in the cushion. No batteries, no electricity. Just air.

As you might imagine, the idea came while Pietryga was on vacation during a long car trip two summers ago.

"My wife was complaining that the air, her hands and her arms and everything was cold, but the rest of the body wasn't," says Pietryga. "So, I said probably millions of people think like that. So I'm going to develop something to cool the whole body."

This inventor spent most of his life as an engineer developing machines for companies to improve efficiency on their production lines. He's retired now, but his mind keeps clicking with ideas. He even invented the machine to make his cushion invention.

The native of Poland made his way to Raleigh 16 years ago. He doesn't remember a time when his mind wasn't clicking with one invention or another.

"I always like to improve things and make it faster, make it better," says Pietryga.

The cool cushion also can be used as a hot cushion in the winter time. You just use the heater instead of the air conditioning.

The cushion costs $75 right now. Julius Pietryga is looking at infomercials as the way to get the word out about his Capital Idea.