🚀 go-pugleaf

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 <a.kundu@bradford.ac.uk>
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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.