An auxiliary to the water-power development consists of two hydraulic rams, pumping water from one of the Tracy brook reservoirs to a 60,000-gallon tank, 100 feet above the ground, for fire protection for the buildings.
There are in all about twenty-five motors installed in the various buildings. The electric current actuates these motors, which are used to drive or operate numerous machines and labor-saving devices.
Motor-driven Vacuum Pump
For milking machines and vacuum cleaners
An entire load of hay is lifted from the wagon and stored in the mow by a ten-horsepower motor. A root-cutting machine is operated by a two-horsepower motor mounted on the ceiling. A one and one-half horsepower motor drives a vacuum pump, which operates the milking machines; five machines are used, each of which will milk two cows simultaneously. A one and one-half horsepower motor runs the cream separator, and a three-horsepower motor drives the big churn; and motors are used for driving the water pumps, as well as the brine-circulating pumps in the ice-making plant. A grist mill, driven by electric motor, is part of the farm equipment, and the sausage-chopping and mixing machines are driven by a four-horsepower motor. Roots for the sheep are cut by a machine driven by motors of one and one-half and two horsepower, and food for the fish is prepared by a grinding machine driven by a two-horsepower motor. Wood-working machines and machine tools are driven by motors in the carpenter and machine shops. In addition to the uses already mentioned, the electric power is also used to pump water, shear the sheep, clip the horses, wash, dry and iron the clothes, heat the house, cook the food, freeze the ice cream, cool the house in the summer, curl the ladies’ hair and play the piano.
The “Heart’s Delight” farm power equipment is much more extensive than would be warranted on a farm of ordinary size, but the installation serves to illustrate the extent to which the application of power may be carried, on an unusually large produce farm. In many instances a community of farmers could develop such a water power and distribute the power among themselves to mutual advantage and profit.
DEVELOPING A SMALL WATER POWER
The prime requisite to the creation of a water power is the existence of [falling or flowing water]. The amount of power which may be available varies; first, with the amount of water flowing, and second, with the amount of fall. It requires about one cubic foot of water per second, falling through a height of ten feet, to make available one theoretical horsepower. The fall may be either naturally concentrated at one point in a cascade or it may be artificially concentrated, for the purpose of development, by combining the fall of several cascades or a series of rapids. This may be accomplished by either of two methods; first, by building a dam at the downstream end of the rapids to impound the water so that the entire fall is concentrated at the dam, or second, by building a dam at the upstream end of the rapids and conducting the water through a closed pipe to the lower end of the rapids, where the resulting water pressure will be exactly the same as in the first instance. A variation of the latter method consists of diverting the water from the natural channel at the head of the rapids and carrying it in a canal, on a slight down grade, along the side of a hill to a suitable point at which the water is turned into penstocks which run directly down the slope to the stream, where the power development may be made. The latter method, involving the construction of a canal, is open to the objection that considerable trouble is usually experienced from the accumulation of ice in the winter time. The first two methods described are the most common.