“Homemade Power” by C.J.
Williams in the September, 1938, issue of Carolina
Co-operator
Near-sighted Blue
Ridge Mountain boy brings happiness to others.
A few miles from Danville at the Pinnacles of Dan is the
humble mountain home of Will Cochran, his wife, Mollie, and their son, Harlow.
For 50 years the family has lived there together, but only in the past five
years have they had running water and electric lights in their home.
It was five years ago that their son Harlow began to lose
his sight. Forced to give up his job and the girl he had planned to marry,
Harlow fixed up a small workshop at home.
Near the shed in which he was working was a small waterfall
of less than six feet with a flow of around 100 gallons of water a minute. So
Harlow designed a waterwheel to turn his lathe. His father constructed it for
him according to his directions, and it had so much excess power that Harlow
connected it by a pulley to the grindstone. Still with excess waterwheel power,
Harlow thought about electricity. An old car generator and the belt off the
mowing machine did the trick, and soon the Cochran household twinkled with
lights.
The system has undergone considerable improvement since its
first birth. The generator is now charged directly by gear arrangement and it
is self-oiled by a tobacco can.
The increased voltage not only supplies a 30-watt bulb in
each room of the cabin, but a home-made electric iron and electric torch as
well.
All this development has only cost Harlow $13, and by
charging neighbors radio batteries, he earned it all back long ago, and now
makes his spending money the same way.
Harlow Cockran has not kept his skill to his own folk,
though. Down “the branch” he helped his neighbor set up a generating outfit
large enough to operate a cornmill and lights.
Thus when life closed many of its pleasures to him, this
Blue Ridge Mountain boy has brought comfort and happiness to others, and in so
doing earned it for himself.
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