RSS
Self-educated Malawi Boy Builds Windmills out of Junk
William Kamkwamba, a teenage boy in Malawi, saw a photo of a windmill in a textbook at the library and decided that if he could build one it would be useful to his village.
Mr Kamkwamba, who is now 22 years old, knocked together a turbine from spare bicycle parts, a tractor fan blade and an old shock absorber, and fashioned blades from plastic pipes, flattened by being held over a fire…
Soon the whiz kid’s 12-watt wonder was pumping power into his family’s mud brick compound…
Out went the paraffin lanterns and in came light bulbs and a circuit breaker, made from nails and magnets off an old stereo speaker, and a light switch cobbled together from bicycle spokes and flip-flop rubber.
Before long, locals were queuing up to charge their mobile phones…
Meanwhile, he installed a solar-powered mechanical pump, donated by well-wishers, above a borehole, adding water storage tanks and bringing the first potable water source to the entire region around his village.
He upgraded his original windmill to 48-volts and anchored it in concrete after its wooden base was chewed away by termites.
Jude Sheerin’s story at the BBC has more details about the life of this remarkable young man, who is now the subject of a new book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.
Gauldar
Splint Chesthair
Tim Giachetti
Eekster
Dude
Jake.w.B
Flux
JDexter
ByrdBrain
Bethany
