1.0Labkafe Blogshttps://www.labkafe.com/blogSwarna Karmakarhttps://www.labkafe.com/blog/author/swarna-karmakar/rich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="yJUIEcKwSG"><a href="https://www.labkafe.com/blog/what-is-a-charkha-generator/">What is a Charkha Generator – Labkafe</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://www.labkafe.com/blog/what-is-a-charkha-generator/embed/#?secret=yJUIEcKwSG" width="600" height="338" title="“What is a Charkha Generator – Labkafe” — Labkafe Blogs" data-secret="yJUIEcKwSG" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script> /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display="none";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute("style"),"height"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):"link"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute("src")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener("message",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll("iframe.wp-embedded-content"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute("data-secret"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+="#?secret="+t,e.setAttribute("data-secret",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:"ready",secret:t},"*")},!1)))}(window,document); //# sourceURL=https://www.labkafe.com/blog/wp-includes/js/wp-embed.min.js </script> https://www.labkafe.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/What-is-a-Charkha-Generator.jpg22401260Bapu Used To Make Threads  ‒  Now You Can Make Electricity Last week we celebrated the birthday of the great Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi  ‒  Mahatma Gandhi. He was the starter of the charkha movement in India, to help us become self-sufficient. One and a half-century later, here we are with the device reinvented as a charkha generator. That sounds curious! How do you punch a generator inside such a noir device like a charkha? Well folks, today we will explore that very question. What is a Charkha In this modern age of machinery and mobiles, no wonder most people don’t recognize old hand-driven machines like this. So let’s talk about Charkha first  ‒  what it is, how it works, and why did they use it in the olden days. In English, a charkha is called an Indian Spinning Wheel. Spinning wheels were used to make threads or yarn out of cotton or other fibers. Before the industrial revolution came, there were no big machines to do this; hence people of the olden times used hand-powered tools like these. Considering the alternative is to do it by hand, this simple machine is surprisingly efficient!  A spinning wheel is actually made of two wheels  ‒  one pretty large, and one pretty small. They are connected by a belt or a strong twine; and so if you turn the big wheel by hand (there is a handle attached to it for that purpose), the small wheel spins much faster. How much faster? You can work that out using the sizes of the wheels, it’s pretty basic math.  Okay, so far so good, but what does that accomplice? Let me tell you. Do you know how you can make a thread out of a clump of cotton? First, you have to tease out a little bit of the cotton and twist it into a thin string shape. Then you have to keep pulling and twisting. If you keep up an even rate of pulling and twisting, (that is, tension and perpendicular torque), then you will soon get a fine string in your hands coming out of that ball of cotton as it gets shorter.  “A charkha or spinning wheel is one of the oldest machines in the world.” But doing it by hand is quite a big pain  ‒  try and see! Also, no way you can keep an even tension and torque by hand  ‒  humans aren’t that precise by design. Here is where the charkha comes in. We simply attach a spindle to the smaller wheel and stick that fist bit of fat, shapeless thread onto it. Now as the small wheel spins, the spindle will automatically pull and twist the thread. It’s like magic!  There were many kinds of spinning wheels in those days  ‒  not only for making threads but for other purposes too. The oldest one may have existed in the Indus Valley civilization  ‒  or even before that! (That’s right, this is another thing that ancient Indians invented. Cool people, huh?) Nobody knows when woven clothing actually started first, and you gotta have something like a spinning wheel to make woven clothes.  In the days before the industrial era, a spinning wheel was the only way you could make threads or yarns from wool, cotton, or other fibers. As steam or electric-powered machines came into existence, larger, faster, more powerful machines took up the charge. But the charkha remains steadily in our hearts, as a symbol of the old atma nirbhar India.  Parts of a Charkha Generator  Just like a standard spinning wheel, the most important parts of a charkha generator are its two wheels. But instead of a spindle attached to the small wheel, we put a generator on it. The small wheel turns the hub of the generator, and that, in turn, makes electricity. Ingenious, right? Labkafe makes an excellent DIY charkha generator as a part of their STEM kit, you should try it out. We talked above about other ways of using spinning wheels  ‒  this, it seems, would be the latest twist in that! Imagine how astonished the old-timers would be if they could see this now. A charkha that makes electricity! Make it big enough and you can literally light up your room by hand  ‒  who cares if the main power is on or not. But hold on a second. You must be asking, “but how does a generator work? You skipped over the most important part there!” Well, let me fix that.  Working Principles of a Charkha Generator  …Or any generator, basically. You see, the generator in this DIY toy is made up of a magnet and a copper coil. The magnet is fixed to the small wheel of the charkha, so it spins very fast near the coil. It presents one pole and the other pole of the magnet alternatively in the face of that copper coil. And the coil gets very excited about all that pole-changing (who wouldn’t, right?) and produces electricity. The small lights attached to the top of the coil bring proof of this with flashes of light as you spin the big wheel faster and faster. <VIDEO title= “Using a Charkha Generator”>   Now you may ask, what’s the deal with magnets and copper coils? Why should a bunch of wires create something as awesome as electricity just because somebody waved a magnet in front of it? The answer is this. Magnetism is a truly weird but very useful force. It has the ability to “nudge” electrons inside atoms so they jump out of place whenever a magnet is brought close to them. God knows they are already jumpy enough. Now, when you bring one pole of a magnet near most metals, the electrons inside it jump out of their orbits and leave a hole behind. This is happening with not just one atom in the wire but along its whole body, with every atom. There are literally trillions there! But here, the magnet is spinning, so it