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William Kamkwamba: How I built a windmill
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William Kamkwamba: How I built a windmill

Introduction and Background

In this section, Chris Anderson introduces William Kamkwamba and asks him about his background and the idea he had five years ago.

William's Idea to Make a Windmill

  • William wanted to make a windmill to generate electricity for lighting and other purposes.
  • After dropping out of school, he went to the library and read a book on "Using Energy" which inspired him.
  • He made some modifications to the design in the book, adding an extra blade to increase power.

Building the Windmill

In this section, Chris Anderson asks William about how he built the windmill and what materials he used.

Designing and Testing the Windmill

  • William did not exactly copy the design from the book but made some modifications.
  • The windmill in the book had three blades, while William's windmill had four blades for increased power.
  • He used a bicycle frame, pulley, plastic pipe, and other materials to build the windmill.

Functionality of the Windmill

In this section, Chris Anderson asks William about how well his windmill worked and its capabilities.

Generating Electricity with the Windmill

  • When there was sufficient wind, the windmill would rotate and generate electricity.
  • The windmill produced 12 watts of electricity which was enough to power four bulbs and two radios.

Impact on Family

In this section, Chris Anderson asks William about his family's reaction to his invention.

Impressing His Parents

  • At that time when he was 14 or 15 years old, his parents were impressed by his invention.
  • A picture shows his parents holding one of the radios powered by the windmill.

Future Plans

In this section, Chris Anderson asks William about his future plans and aspirations.

Building a Larger Windmill for Irrigation

  • William wants to build another windmill to pump water and provide irrigation for crops.
  • The new windmill would need to be bigger and produce more than 20 watts of electricity.
  • He is looking for support from people at TED to help him with materials for his project.

Conclusion

In this section, Chris Anderson concludes the conversation with William Kamkwamba.

Looking Ahead

  • As William looks ahead, he is determined to continue building and innovating.
  • At the age of 19, he has already achieved remarkable things and has ambitious plans for the future.
Channel: TED
Video description

When he was just 14 years old, Malawian inventor William Kamkwamba built his family an electricity-generating windmill from spare parts, working from rough plans he found in a library book. Visit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. Become a TED Member: http://ted.com/membership Follow TED on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TEDTalks Like TED on Facebook: http://facebook.com/TED Subscribe to our channel: http://youtube.com/TED TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-talks-usage-policy). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com