At 14, a Kerala girl built a washing machine that needed no electricity

At a time when laundry was one more task competing with school, travel and family responsibilities, a Kerala schoolgirl began thinking about a surprisingly simple alternative to the washing machine she did not have. Remya, who was studying in the 10th standard, was already spending hours travelling to school each day and helping her twin sister with the household washing. Her mother had fallen ill, while her father was undergoing cancer treatment, leaving little time for anything else. Instead of accepting the situation, Remya looked at how an electric washing machine made its drum move and wondered whether a bicycle could provide the same motion.What began as an idea eventually became a pedal-powered washing machine, built with help from a local automobile workshop using a bicycle mechanism, a metal drum and an aluminium enclosure.How Remya turned a familiar bicycle mechanism into a washing machineRemya had already seen how an electric washing machine worked. She did not have formal engineering training, but she understood the basic sequence well enough to question one part of it: the source of the movement.If an electric motor could turn a drum, she reasoned, there was no reason ...