Spinning Electricity With An E-Charkha

Followers of Mahatma Gandhi are familiar with the charkha, a spinning wheel that produces a type of cotton known as khadi. A new twist on this old tool is that it can also be used to generate electricity, as an article in The Hindu describes its use near Jaipur:

In a few villages near here, Charkha, promoted by Mahatma Gandhi as a symbol of self-reliance and source of income for the rural population, has started doubling as a virtual micro-power plant in each poor household.

e-charkha — an improvised version of Ambar charkha, designed by Gandhian Ekambar Nath — does not resemble a typical charkha but can be operated by hand. A battery is attached to the e-charkha, which stores the electricity generated when it is being run. Two hours of operation is enough to light up the specially-designed LED light fitted to the e-charkha for eight hours.

A great way to continue an independent source of income, while producing electricity at the same time.

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7 Comments

  1. Posted August 20, 2008 at 3:44 am | Permalink

    I would certainly like to know details about e-charkha & would like to have details about it’s availability..

    Regards

    Mandar

  2. Posted August 20, 2008 at 4:10 am | Permalink

    From a Historian’s perspective, it’s Excellent

    Stragetically speaking …
    So So for an average start

    Practically speaking …
    How about opening a Gym visioned by mechanical engineering final year students?
    People sweating it out
    National health improving …

    Collective Power used to generate / store energy?
    with sophisticated CAD-CAM based developed machinery?

    Psyiotherapists
    Sports trainers
    Tree Climbers are of the opinion
    Legs are better sources of energy generation than hands & limbs
    (Bicycle Pedalling apparatus) etc …

  3. Manoj
    Posted September 27, 2008 at 7:03 am | Permalink

    One correction here ! the e-charkha is designed by Mr.R.S.Hiremath an engineer based in Bangalore , Ekamber Nath designed the Ambar charkha which made a revolution then , and the e-charkha designed by R.S.Hiremath is the ‘second’ coming of the chrakha.

    Regards,

  4. kushal srivastava
    Posted September 28, 2008 at 10:36 am | Permalink

    I’am a final year engineering student and i have taken “e-charkkha” as the topic for my project so could u please enlighten me more on this proj and also i would like to be in contact with you. Could u also please send me your e-mail id or your phone number so that i can contact you

    thank you.

  5. Shital
    Posted September 28, 2008 at 10:53 am | Permalink

    Kushal, TC-I is not associated with the organizations or individuals working with the e-charkha. We just blog about the latest happenings in social innovation. Your best bet is to do further research and find a way to contact these organizations (like the Khadi Commission) directly. Good luck with your project!

  6. AMIT
    Posted January 5, 2009 at 3:14 am | Permalink

    I want to purchase e-charkha,so please help me.

  7. Preeti
    Posted July 15, 2009 at 11:16 pm | Permalink

    send me about e-charkha, its specification ,working,spare parts

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