Perhaps you haven’t given this problem a lot of thought, but it is a problem nonetheless... most spray bottles can’t be used upside down, or even at much of angle once they’re half-empty. Not only that, but there’s always that last little bit of liquid in the bottom that gets wasted. That's because most of them have rigid-tubed sprayers that just have a single hole at the bottom, so they only suck up liquid from the bottom middle of the bottle. Well, British inventor Michael Pritchard has come up with something he calls the ANYWAY Spray, a tube that allows you to hold your spray bottles any way you darn well please, and keep spraying until they’re as dry as Keith Richards’ bourbon glass.

The secret lies in its hydrophilic membrane. Instead of just having one big hole at the bottom, the ANYWAY is made from a membrane that allows liquid – but not air – to come through anywhere along its length. When pressure is applied via the finger pump or aerosol button, liquid is drawn through that membrane and up (or down, depending on how you’re holding it) to the spray head. As long as some part of the tube is in contact with liquid, you’ll be able to spray. Also, because it’s longer and more flexible than regular tubes, it curves around the inside bottom edge of the bottle to slurp up the last few drops that run to the outside.

While Pritchard’s product would undoubtedly make tasks like cleaning the toilet easier, not to mention letting consumers get a little more mileage out of their bottles, he claims it would have some other benefits too. For one thing, he says, it would lessen the amount of substances such as cleansers entering our landfills in the bottom of containers. Used in aerosol cans, it could also do away with the need for environmentally-harmful propellants such as butane. While some aerosol cans do use harmless gasses such as air or nitrogen, these escape through conventional tubes when the can is inverted, causing the container to lose pressure. Because an ANYWAY-equipped can’s tube is impervious to gasses, none can ever escape.

Pritchard is currently trying to market his product to trigger spray manufacturers. He has had success in the past, with the Lifesaver all-in-one filtration bottle, which he invented.

Via Dragons’ Den (England)