When William went home and started building his windmill, a lot of people laughed at him, including his mother. They didn't think he could do it, but William was confident. He saw the photo of the windmill in the book. That meant someone else was able to build it, so he knew he could build it, too. William was also creative. He didn't have the parts and equipment that he saw in the book's illustrations, and he couldn't buy them. So he looked for parts in junkyards.4 He explains, "I found a tractor fan,5 (a) shock absorber,6 (and) PVC pipes.7 Using a bicycle frame..., I built my machine."
William changed and improved his design little by little. First, the windmill powered only one lightbulb.