William Kamkwamba
publication date: Tuesday, August 14, 2018 (part of Summer 2018)
category: 
Inventions
clue: Ever since improving his village in Malawi, he has been an electrifying public speaker.
explanation: At the age of 20, Kamkwamba built a wind turbine out of very basic parts in his village, providing power (and later drinking water after building a solar-powered water pump). He became a popular speaker for TED Talks and on television. more…
difficulty: easy
solved by: Russ Wilhelm, Samir Mehta, LaVonne Lemler, Chris Lemler, and Richard Slominsky
Similar Goos
Chester Carlson
Copying the ideas of this inventor would infringe on several of the patents he owned. Go »
Mikhail Kalashnikov
He invented the submachinegun (and the AK-47 in 1949), but didn't get a patent until recently. Go »
Helen Hunt
'90s audiences were mad about this TV wife and her movies about tornadoes, charity, OCD, a marooning, and gender-based telepathy. Go »
George R. Kelly
Despite his associations with a deadly kind of gun (not to mention an R&B star charged with child pornography), this Federal prisoner died of natural causes. Go »
Sydney Biddle Barrows
Her ancestors fled Europe aboard the most famous ship to settle the New World, but she was in the very illegal business of bringing people together, not apart. Go »
