The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

This is a great story of someone who might well be a genius. I think there is more to the story than we've been given in the book and that makes me the more curious and interested. Early in the book there is a discussion of magic and, for me, this might circle back to reappear later in a different form. An exapple for me is what William mis-tells regarding the science. He reports being intrigued by the inventing they did in science. The book he learned from, though, is clear on what science is and isn't. It's not about inventing, that's applied science (engineering.) Science is about discovery about how our universe works through observation and the scientific method of discovery: OThERR: observation, theorizing, experimentation, reporting results and repeating the process. It's about collecting data. Perhaps that's a fine point. The radios. That got me early on, too. Motors in radios? The many radios his family and friends had that they could scrounge through? There are no motors in any radio I've ever pulled apart. In the cassette players often a part of radios, yes. But those radios are expensive compared to the transistor radios I imagine being affordable to families that poor and in that time, the 80's and 90's to the early 2000's. And simple radios can not (to the best of my knowledge) be simply reversed to become transmitters. The devices are not what's called, "reciprocal." Speakers and microphones, though, are. Though they are optimized for their special function, a speaker making not all that good a microphone, etc. He's adamant that a big incandescent light bulb must have AC to light, but that's not true. An incandescent light bulb is only a resistive wire that gets hot and glows when (enough) current is forced through it. It will work on AC and DC, both. And the Bosch bicycle dynamo. It produces 12 volts (nominally...depending on how fast it's rotating, to a point) but it is capable of only about 3 Watts of power. This laptop requires 14 so it couldn't run that. A bike lamp is about all it can handle. So claims of powering more than that--and dreams of powering a water pump which requires serious power...lets say, at least 200 Watts and even that wouldn't do much, are just fancy anywhere near this level of machine--run full into the stuff if "magical realism," which I think the writers are toying with. Some of this is believable but more doesn't pass the sniff test. But William's accomplishments are extraordinary, considering what he knew and the hardships he faced...and the cultural taboos hinted at, which he says apply to women but I think will also whip back and slap the men, too, in their own time and way, always limiting what someone might do, or wish or imagine he/she could do. And of wind and wind turbines. That's what I do for work...small wind, in Vermont. I couldn't learn much about the winds in Malawi. The two or so months I spent there suggested there wasn't much wind. The most recent wind reports from the Blantyre airport show that they have more or less a similar wind regime to what I have at my home in the Champlain Valley...not much, frankly, and what we do have is unreliable. Resorts on the lake in his vicinity, though they offer sailing, do not report windy periods to vacationers. I suspect it's pretty safe to sail there, i.e. not much wind most of the time. Wind at my place can be punchy, and winds like that destroy wind machines, even those that are quite well built. Entire companies with good engineers have made wind turbines, even small ones, that suffered from fatal flaws and destroyed themselves. I can't imagine that his rotor is well balanced, for example--Also, his turbine has no way to regulate/cap the rotational speed of the rotor if the wind actually comes up and blows one night...as wind has wont to do with no warning. William never mentions this aspect and it's critical. Had he solved that natty problem, his accomplishment would have been the more astonishing and well worth telling in his book. Such a wind, or perhaps any real wind, would have torn the entire thing apart, turbine and tower, as it sped up and sped up and ran away with itself. I balance rotors carefully. It's a big deal, as, too, is a way to turn the machine out of the wind. How did the turbine follow the wind? Wind rarely blows from just one direction. So, again, there is something in this story that reads to me more like a kind, enjoyable, dreamlike fantasy than strict fact. Could it run badly for a short time? Yes. I'd like to know more about that. It would have been very inconvenient and I suspect it was. That's interesting. What was living like that like? My own early experience with our turbine is now a series of hilarious stories of the way it worked ...and didn't. ...You should have seen the lights and heard the vacuum cleaner before we bought the batteries.... The whole thing was just nuts. So, I'm suspicious. I think there is too much left out, too much stretched too thin and too much hinted at that I want to know regarding the realities of their lives. All in all, the story is engaging and, especially because of what I believe are distortions, draws someone like me to want to see behind the curtain. I think that would be even more interesting.

Used this for my homeschooler, and we did stem projects and watched the movie.

This was a very interesting read. I didn't know what to think about it at the beginning. I know I have said this before, but I don't usually read book like this. I read to escape reality, not read about it. This was so interesting though.While reading this book, I thought to myself over and over "how spoiled am I?". This young man was poor, and wanted to go to school so bad, but had to give it up because his family couldn't pay for it. Again, I thought, "man how lucky! I HATED school". Well, after reading this book, I am ever so grateful for the opportunity that I had to attend school.William was an amazing young man. He worked hard, and did things he had to to make things better for himself and his family. He studied books in the library that he was interested in, and learned things on his own. Sometimes by trial and error, but isn't that how we all learn things?This reference may offend some, but this young man made me think a lot about some people in the scriptures. He built something, and all the while people made fun of him. It wasn't until they saw the result of his windmill, that people started to respect the work William was doing. It made me think of Noah, and Nephi. Why is it so hard for people to accept that others may have more inspiration than others? Anyway, just a thought.I love the story in this book about how his parents met. It is so sweet and so innocent. Then when William meets his wife it's kind of the same thing. It's sweet, and super cute.This young man was such a great example of not giving up. He wanted to learn, he wanted to build, and he wanted to make things better for his people.To me it doesn't seem like all that long ago that this book took place. So, I was just a little blown away, at how different Williams life was compared to mine. While his country was in a famine I was comfortably sitting in my house with plenty of food to eat, and water to drink. It really made me reflect on all the blessing I have.While William, was building his windmill and having so many problems with it, all I could think is "man, this young man should see Palm Springs, CA". Well, in the book he gets invited to Palm Springs, to see the windmill farms. While he was struggling to build ONE, we in America had thousands. It was so eye opening to me on so many levels.This young man went through a lot of hardships in his life, yet he always worked hard, and never gave up. I love William. I think he is the kind of man, that I would like my son to become. He is intelligent, kind, inventive, loving, and a hard worker. All great qualities.I really enjoy reading, and learning from this book. It was enlightening, and so what I needed to read right now. I will have to remember this book, and many others I have read, when I start to feel "down" about what I have and what I don't have. After reading this book, I have absolutely no room to complain. I am blessed beyond measure. I am so thankful for all the good things that happen to William because of his hard work. I am sure even today he is an amazing man. He is the perfect example of "you can do anything, if you put your mind to it"!Source: I purchased this book from Amazon for myself. I am not affiliated with Amazon, and was not compensated for this review. These are my own PERSONAL thoughts on the book.

A book of two halves, but none the worst for it. It starts with a vivid first hand depiction of every day life in a family of Malawian farmers and their community, with insightful comment on how the politics and corruption has such a devastating impact on the population. The description of the community’s descent into famine and starvation is gruelling to read but more powerful than anything I've ever seen in a westernised account. It should be required reading in schools, or everywhere really. During this time William is starting to gather his ideas for his windmill (his determination in part fuelled by the effects of the famine). The second half of the book goes into this in more detail, and while the technical stuff may go over some people’s heads (eg mine), his passion and ingenuity is clear. What an amazing and immensely likeable young man he is too. How many more similarly gifted people born into challenged communities never get their chance to shine, I wonder?Rewarding, moving and insightful, also a relatively easy read and enjoyable even for non-techies, I thoroughly recommend it. I only docked one star as it’s not quite a literary masterpiece, but don’t let that put you off.

I had noticed that this existed as a film on Netflix and then spotted it for 99p on Kindle. So I started reading, imagining it would be quite dry, something I would dip into for a couple of weeks, but I really got into it and finished it the next day. It’s the story of a boy’s life in Malawi, you see the poverty he faces, his friendships, his tenacity, his remarkable spark of genius...Probably it is of particular interest for people who have ever enjoyed tinkering / inventing / investigating / taking things apart etc. but I’m not one of those tinkering types of people and I thought this was a wonderful story anyway. It isn’t technical, you don’t have to know any physics.I’m sure anybody could enjoy the book (in fact I plan to buy a paper copy for my dad and my 12 year old niece who both have birthdays coming up!).

I bought this book, since I lived in East Africa for a number of years.It has really moved me to the extent that I have bought it for my brothers and sisters to read for ChristmasIts not just a feel good story, it rings true to Africa and has struck the hard to find balance of genuineness and readabilityThe descriptions of the famine are in a rather understated way of someone for whom this was an everyday realityI would recommend this particularly if you teach PhysicsI think this is one of the best books I have read for a few years

I cannot stop thinking about Malawi, William and Williams family and friends and his achievements since I have finished the book, he is an incredibly inspiring, strong person that had tough circumstance which never seemed to stop him from living out his curiosities and will to create.I have since YouTubed and Google Williams Ted Talks and further conferences, and am in utter awe of this man. What a 5-star human-being. I am speechless of his achievements and will!I loved the style in which it was written and compliments Williams soft, wonderful nature. It was so insightful to learn about another countries way of life through someones eyes and daily struggles and joy.Please read this book!

This beautiful true story starts by showing life in a village in Malawi. We meet a happy, relatively comfortable family, then live with them through the realities of famine. After reading this, you'll know what that word means.William loves going to school, but has to drop out when famine brings poverty. He discovers a library & feeds his fascination with science. Then one book shows a wind turbine. In the face of ridicule, William builds one out of half a bicycle & scrapyard finds. He lit his parents' house & went on to provide the village with power to irrigate the fields. Goodbye to famine. This is a very special book.