edit: And Darn it, I forgot the rule to put my player-name there! Gah!!! Oh noes... Now to re-find the camera. :/
PM'd you Mur...
Copied here for others to amuse themselves with... my model needs some work!
[spoiler]
Dear Mur:
Hmm, my feeble attempts at two Rain Collector prototypes. The "portable hat" works really well, but it has not rained here in over 2 weeks, so I do not have a photo or video of them "in use" quite yet as we have not wanted to use the hose to 'waste' the water on a silly quest (read: my wife says "um, no") . Once Autumn comes around it will be much wetter, so I'll update the models.
First: a short youTube video of it, to show the whole setup.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPANXAmvUwU&feature=youtu.be
Next, a few images.
While the green hose appears to loop "upwards" agaisnt gravity, that's an odd optical illusion I noticed after uploading them. The water flows down pretty easily, if I use a cup to pour in and test it. Couldn't get a good pictrure of that though, one-handed. I had to use the camera's "take a photo in 10 seconds" feature to even get these. [:)] http://storenow.net/my/?f=80bb2b90e53cfdf328ce0e42b2631c79 http://storenow.net/my/?f=5d29b9ef4dc669ebaca641fc155d7a91
Showing the clear tape seal on the umbrella centre. The hose comes up and is split down the side to wrap 'around' teh central spike, and secured under it and above a small opening. When water fills the umbrella, there's a gap there that drains down into the split open hose (hard to see in the photo, sorry!!) and flows into the backpack, or wherever the hose leads. http://storenow.net/my/?f=7a0aee07e7a8a977b1f508a60c158064
Finally, a small portable rain collector Hat I made, from an old Samhain/Hahhloween Bowl. (the only one my wife would let me cut up and glue onto a hat LOL!) http://storenow.net/my/?f=158045d64fde6b23730e914c460cec75
The hat version only has a smaller tube, for drinking the cool fresh water directly. It can be adapted with a connecting tube (available for pennies!) to drain into a canteen or other small storage container. I'm sipping from it, in this picture.
Enjoy![/spoiler]