Mortar Shell Coffee Machine

Mortar Shells used in war also can be recycled and used as a major component in a coffee machine!!!

I wonder .... if there is any gunpowder taste in the coffee anot??

Read article below :

From weapons of war to great coffee
By Amber Henshaw
BBC News, Mekele


In biblical times they said "turn your swords into ploughshares", now in northern Ethiopia a tradesman is bringing the saying into the 21st Century.

In his workshop in Mekele, just 200km from Ethiopia's border with Eritrea, Azmeraw Zekele is turning burnt-out shells into cylinders used in coffee machines.

Most of the shells are left over from the 1998-2000 war between the two countries.

The workshop is made up of three quite small ramshackle rooms that lead from one to another with sunlight coming through the gaps, but it is a hive of activity for Mr Azmeraw and his six staff.

Tradition

"The shells were dropped in Ethiopia during the war with Eritrea. They were dropped so people hid them in their homes and now they sell them," Mr Azmeraw says.

He uses old mortar shells, which stand about one metre high, to make his coffee machines.

He cuts off the pointed ends, seals them and puts holes into the aluminium cylinder. The cylinder channels the water, coffee and milk.

He told me he got the idea nine years ago when he was doing maintenance work.

Each one costs about $1,300. Most of them have been sold to people in the Mekele area.

In the future he hopes to sell them more further afield - maybe even to coffee shops and restaurants in Eritrea.

[Read full story]