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17. Landmarks

The Wind Charger

As the area was not served by electricity until the early 1960s, radios were powered by two batteries. The dry battery was replaced when empty while the wet battery was recharged. This proved very difficult in the early years of radio. John Hehir purchased one of the first radios in the area. He solved the problem of charging the battery at first by erecting a mechanism on the local river. This proved unsatisfactory due mainly to the wide variations in the flow of water between the winter and summer, and the fact that the flow was totally inadequate during prolonged dry periods. He then built a wind charger at the highest point on his farm. It consisted of a wooden mast with a man-made wooden propeller driving a dynamo. Battery storage was provided underground. The wind charger, which could be seen over a wide area, was in operation through out the 1930s and 1940s. The mast remained until the mid 1950s.