Sometime in the late 1930's Dad came up with an improvement that was even more remarkable than his running water.  He brought electricity into our house.  A light bulb replaced the coal oil lamp.  The radio’s battery no longer had to be charged in the car.   All this electricity came from marvelous device called a “Windcharger.”  This was truly a high tech piece of equipment for its times.  It had a wooden propeller about the size used on a Piper Cub airplane on one end, and a big weathervane on the other.   Between those two was an electrical generator.  When the wind blew the propeller turned the propeller into facing the wind, the wind turned the propeller which turned the generator which produced enough electricity to light a 75 watt bulb or two or charge the radio battery.

The Fantastic Windcharger

We were in tall cotton.  “Windchargers” were the forerunner of the giant wind generators with their huge propellers one sees turning lazily in the wind here and there.  Dad mounted the “Windcharger” alongside the house on a tower tall enough for the propeller to stick six or eight feet above the roof where it could catch the slightest wind. Their propellers were designed to turn quite easily so that the gentlest breeze would turn the generator and make electricity.

Windchargers” came with an important warning.  Like the Captain of a sailing ship householders were told to keep a sharp eye out for the wind.  If it blew too strong the propeller would overspeed causing the Windcharger to self-destruct. To avoid that the manufacturer had installed a mechanism consisting of a lever on the base of the Windcharger’s tower that was attached to a long chain that that ran up the tower and hooked onto the propeller hub.  When the lever was pushed down the chain tilted the propeller so that it pointed straight up out of the oncoming wind.  When the wind kicked up someone had to go outside and pull that lever.   Dad worked away from home most of the time now so it was up to Mother and her brood to watch the wind and mind the propeller.

Our “Windcharger” came to a dramatic end one night when a sudden squall blew up.  Mother awoke to the sound of the Windcharger’s propeller screaming like an airplane in a power dive.  It was turning at an outrageous speed.  Rain was driving down and wind was rattling the house. She awakened Rudy, the oldest kid at home, and took him  outside with her to turn the Windcharger’s propeller so that it was out of the wind.  They got to the base of the tower just as the Windcharger tore loose from its moorings above them.  The spinning propeller and heavy generator came crashing down onto them.  The propeller gave Rudy a nasty gash on his head. Mother’s right shoulder was bruised and almost dislocated from having stopped the generator. That was the end of our electricity until we moved to Kansas.