Harnessing the Wind with Bicycles and Blue Gum Trees
This drawing of William Kamkwamba appeared in the Wall Street Journal. Sarah Childress, A Young Tinkerer Builds a Windmill, Electrifying a Nation , Wall Street Journal Online A1 (December 12, 2007). This is one handy guy. Not only did he help out his family with their daily tasks, in his spare time he built a device so alien, it invited ribbings. Self-taught, William Kamkwamba did not attend school, but had come across information about a wind mill in a library book. He decided to build one. Electrical parts and pre-made structural materials were hard to find where he lived . He used what was available: blue gum tree trunks and bicycle parts. The people of his village made fun of him when he worked on his wind mill, hammering plastic pipes into turbine blades. Probably right up to the day he wired up some light bulbs. Don't miss this short video interview accompanied by photographs of his wind mill.