Message-ID: <47f84p$d0e@dobie.loop.com> Date: Sat, 4 Nov 1995 08:27:05 GMT From: crw <mailto:crw@LOOP.COM> Subject: Wind Up Radio...ideal for 3rd World? To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Hi,Your feedback would be appreciated.
This may be of interest to the Third World, as a partial answer to the problem of battery replacement in radios in rural Africa and the Third World.
I have questions about production and distribution...would be interested in hearing others' ideas.
A concern is how long such an invention will be on the "novelty circuit" and sold in stores like Harrods before being made available and affordable for wide scale use in Africa, etc.
Anything to enhance communication throughout Africa, is worth looking seriously at.
My enthusiasm about this remains guarded.
Another idea: very small wind-up LCD-TV/radio units ... ??? (I'd better hurry to get the patent, and to market it to Harrods (-:
Cecil Washington Former Director-Africa Program Operation Crossroads Africa, Inc
Fax/Tel: 310-632-1582
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Television viewers in the UK may have seen a recent documentary on the invention of a radio which needs _no_ electricity.
Ideal for the Third World where the cost of constantly replacing batteries is beyond the pocket of many people, the radio is apparently to go on sale in Harrods, London, soon. My only complaint is why Harrods? Surely it has the opposite image of the original target audience?
Anyway, news of the radio follows below.
Apurba Kundu <mailto:a.kundu@bradford.ac.uk> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - SPJ PRESS NOTES -- November 3, 1995 Prepared by Steve Geimann, President-Elect
WINDUP RADIO FOR 3RD WORLD SOLD IN LONDON The BenGay Freeplay wind-up radio, a way to bring news and information to developing nations, went on display Thursday at the South Africa High Commission and will be sold commercial in trendy Harrod's beginning next week. Inventor Trevor Baylis developed the idea while watching a television program about AIDS in Africa, which explained how the expense of radio batteries was hampering efforts to disseminate health education. Within an hour, he had devised the "clockwork radio," which, after a few seconds' winding, will give around 40 minutes of listening pleasure on long wave, medium wave and FM. South African company, BayGen Power, heard about the radio and Britain's Overseas Development Administration chipped in $220,000 to fund production. The radios go on sale in Harrods for $126 each, and BayGen officials said that for every 10 radios sold one will be donated to charity. The British War Child organization, operating in Angola, will be the first recipient.