Summary
William's initial windmill was successful, but it was not perfect. When there was no wind, for example, the electricity stopped, and so William began to look for a battery. To earn money to purchase one, William began to use his windmill for other purposes, like charging the neighborhood's phones for a price. Phones, however, needed more voltage than a lightbulb, so he had to build a transformer to increase the voltage. This worked well, and soon the people of the neighborhood came to his windmill to charge their phones.
William finally got a battery from his cousin Charity, who found a car battery on the side of the road. William convinced him to sell it to him in installments, and that enabled him to upgrade the electricity in his home, adding three additional bulbs for the other rooms. He was even able to make a wall switch, and his dream of touching the wall and turning on the lights was finally realized.
However, despite all of these advancements, there were still problems with the system. Because William had not constructed his electrical system out of the best materials, they were all prone to accident. The wires he bought from his cousin Charity were not insulated, the wooden supports for his room were filled with termites, and when a storm rolled in, the collapse of his roof crossed his wires and nearly started a fire. However, because they were so cheap, they snapped instead of igniting, which happened once more before William devised a solution.
Taking further inspiration from Explaining Physics, William decided to build a circuit breaker, which could stop the electric current if anything happened to it. He made fuses that would melt if the electric current became too hot, and successfully built a contraption to stop the electric flow if it ever became too much.
Sometimes, however, the windmill itself broke down and William had to climb the tower to fix it. Climbing up there was a difficult and dangerous process, and sometimes, with the strong wind, William was physically hurt by the blades. This whole period gave him many scars, but he kept some of the contraptions (to this day) to remind him of that period.
Another part of the windmill he needed to improve was the pulley system, which kept flying off, becoming a hazard for repairs. In response to this, William acquired a belt from Geoffrey and found pulley parts in the scrapyard. This increased the efficiency of the windmill immensely, and the problem of the belt falling off the track was fixed.
Analysis
As William looks to improve his initial windmill design, the explanatory quality to his language increases. At this point, the book becomes an explanation of William's thorough understanding of electricity and how he managed to pull off such a feat of innovation. For example, in the first few paragraphs, he describes a "step-up transformer" as something that exists across the world and its two-coil components (211). He subsequently made his own and explains the processes he used to get there, although distilling the encyclopedic quality with his own emotions, such as "I just started wrapping like mad and hoped it would work" (212). This combination of fact and anecdote occurs throughout the chapter.
William also creates a tense atmosphere with regards to his accident-prone wiring system by using foreshadowing. After describing the problems that the termites and exposed wires posed, he states, "It wasn't long before it nearly caused an accident" (215). This line suggests that an accident might be impending, but it is simply a strategy to induce the same tension that William experienced at this time with an accident impending. While there is a certain degree of relief when no accident occurs, the reader hopes that the problem will soon be fixed, which William remedies with science, as with all things.
Additionally, William's emotional reaction to his windmill's difficult repairs gives the reader a sense as to the frustration of building a windmill with scrap parts. Although it is a very impressive feat that William has accomplished, the maintenance of the creation is equally as impressive, especially as he bleeds and toils for the continued functioning of the windmill. When he shouts, "You are my own creation! So why are you trying to destroy me? Please, let me help you," William personifies the windmill to emphasize the frustration he feels (219). William places the windmill at the same level as he, and in doing so, he can fully express the extent of his frustration as he would to another human.
Finally, in the last few lines of the chapter, William conquers his creation at last, but also displays his sense of humor. Despite being able to conquer the windmill, William is still subject to the forces of nature, such as the chicken or the wind, and he is humble in the face of them. As he states, "conquering darkness on the farm was hard enough, but a noisy chicken—that was impossible" (222). His use of onomatopoeia in this instance emphasizes the all-encompassing power of the rooster at dawn, and how humans will always be subject to their whims.
