page_title: Human power
section_title: Pedal-powered transmitter
hierarchical_section_title: Human power / Human-powered equipment / Pedal-powered transmitter
caption_attribution_description: English: Mr Jim Duncan, lighthouse keeper at South Solitary Island Lighthouse, operating a pedal radio to communicate with the Norah Head Lightstation, 1946
context_page_description: Human power is work or energy that is produced from the human body. It can also refer to the power of a human. Power comes primarily from muscles, but body heat is also used to do work like warming shelters, food, or other humans.
  World records of power performance by humans are of interest to work planners and work-process engineers. The average level of human power that can be maintained over a certain duration of time⁠ is interesting to engineers designing work operations in industry.
  Human-powered transport includes bicycles, rowing, skiing and many other forms of mobility.
  Human-powered equipment is occasionally used to generate, and sometimes to store, electrical energy for use where no other source of power is available. These include the Gibson girl survival radio, wind-up or radio and pedal radio.
context_section_description: The pedal radio (or pedal wireless) was a radio transmitter-receiver powered by a pedal-driven generator. It was developed by South Australian engineer and inventor Alfred Traeger in 1929 as a way of providing radio communications to remote homesteads and cattle stations in the Australian outback. There were no mains or generator power available at the time and batteries to provide the power required would have been too expensive. It was a highly important invention, as it was this technology that enabled the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and later the School of the Air, linking people living remotely to emergency services and education.
caption: Pedal radio being used in South Solitary Island lighthouse, to communicate with Norah Head Lightstation, 1946
exif: {}