Motor-driven Sewing Machine
However, the convenience and cleanliness of electricity are fairly well known and appreciated, but the means by which electric currents may be generated economically, and by which this form of energy may be applied to bring about sufficient returns, financial and otherwise, to warrant the installation of an isolated plant for a farm or country home, are not so generally understood.
Electric current may be generated by means of a dynamo, or generator, with any kind of a power-producing plant. All that the dynamo requires to enable it to produce electric current is power of some kind that may be applied in such manner and quantity as will cause the armature, or “interior core,” of the machine to rotate at a sufficiently high and uniform rate of speed. There are various kinds of power generators which will perform this work satisfactorily for isolated plants. Within the last few years the small internal combustion engine, supplemented by the electric storage battery, for stationary service, have been so much improved and simplified as to cause them to compare very favorably with the better-known types of power-producing apparatus in first cost and in reliability of operation. The extreme simplicity of both this type of engine and of the storage battery, together with the great economy in fuel consumption of these engines, the low price of fuel, and the efficiency of the battery as a device for storing the energy and delivering it in the form of electric current when needed and in the quantity required, result in a low operating cost. The advent of tax-free alcohol into the field of available fuels for use in internal combustion engines, and the growing demand for this class of fuel, indicate that it will become, in time, a strong competitor of kerosene and gasolene. At present, gasolene is the fuel most generally used for engines of this type and small-size gas engines are now manufactured by many firms.
Steam power is probably the best understood of all classes of power. In many cases, especially where the fuel is very cheap, this is the best power for a farmer to have. Steam-power plants, as well as gasolene, kerosene and alcohol plants, all require personal attendance during operation and necessitate more or less frequent applications of fuel. Wind power is also a source of energy which may well be considered by the farmer who needs a small amount of power.
Perhaps the most promising source of power for farmers in New York State is the power that may be developed from falling water. This kind of a power plant requires comparatively little personal attention while in operation, and needs no replenishing of fuel except such as Nature herself provides in the flowing brook. Not only are there many of these powers that are undeveloped as yet, but there are many others which have been developed at some previous time and have recently been allowed to fall into disuse for various reasons. Many old sawmills were abandoned when the surrounding hills were all lumbered off. A small investment would enable many such old powers to be revived and applied to some useful purpose. Such a water-power plant could frequently be made to serve the owner or a group of users of electric current at very small first cost for each individual, and at an operating cost which would be inconsiderable.
It should be borne in mind, however, that much depends on the choice of the best power for any particular purpose, and a careful consideration of what is needed, and the conditions under which the power must be supplied, is essential to insure satisfaction with a power plant. In any particular instance a manufacturer of small waterwheels will cheerfully submit an estimate for a water-power plant, while the makers of steam and gasolene engines will quite as readily furnish any information to be based on data furnished by the intending purchaser.
Motor-driven Ice Cream Freezer
The extent of the applications of power to practical purposes on the farm is very broad. While perhaps electric lighting is the use most frequently thought of, it is, however, in the application of electric current or power to the operation of labor-saving devices that the greatest gain is to be derived on the large farm or country place. Feed grinders, root cutters, fodder cutters, fanning mills, grindstones, circular saws, corn shellers, [drill presses], ensilage cutters and elevators, horse clippers, [milking machines], grain separators, threshing machines, [cream separators], churns, vacuum cleaners, [ice cream freezers], dough mixers, feed mixers, chicken hatchers, and numerous other machines and implements operated by power, are obtainable in these days of labor-saving devices. The amount of power required to operate many of these is small. The presence of a plant of sufficient capacity to operate one or two particular machines often makes it possible to use the power for many of the other purposes. The amount of work that a small power will do may be judged from the following brief statements of what is actually being done:
