Forget raising pigs, wind turbines are where the money is at.

At least that could have been true in 1933, according to this article from Popular Mechanix. In it L.G. Heimpel, an agricultural professor at MacDonald College in Quebec, argues that your average farm boy could making a little extra cash by charging people’s batteries with a Model T’s old generator and some wind power:

Any thousands of farm folk are still dependent upon battery sets for their radio programs. To them the charging of storage batteries is still the greatest bugbear of the battery set. This homemade wind-driven charger is an economical solution of their problem; indeed, it is designed to take care of not only the battery of a single set but the batteries of a whole neighborhood. The farm boy who makes one of these in a community not served by high-line power can earn the cost of the plant and extra spending money in a short time.

Amazingly, the article holds the possibility of creating user-generated content. Any reader could write in to get the full plans for the propeller-style turbine.

“A long bulletin with detailed instructions for making the propeller and assembling, wiring, and operating the plant will be sent free to any reader who incloses [sic] a large self-addressed and stamped envelope,” we read.

Via > Modern Mechanix