DOMESTIC MOTORS. 225 



charge made by water-boards is from fifty to seventy-five dollars a 

 year per horse-power, while for those used on sewing-machines the 

 charge varies from three to six dollars. The cost for organs is be- 

 tween twelve and twenty dollars for the same time. When the mo- 

 tors are used for business purposes, their owners can usually get special 

 rates depending upon the time they are actually employed. This price 

 per horse-power is not greater than that of steam-engines of large 

 size, and is very much less than the cost of any other form of motor 

 of small power. This price is, however, based upon a condition of 

 water-service which could not hold were the motors much more largely 

 used than at present. The greatly increased demand for water that 

 this would make would necessarily raise the price charged, but it 

 could be very much increased and still leave these motors the most 

 economical of small powers. 



Another wheel of a somewhat peculiar construction, invented by 

 Mr. Talley, is capable of being used either as a turbine or an over- 

 shot. The water is applied in such a manner that it strikes the 

 wheel in a thin sheet, the sheet being undulating and wave-like in 

 form, and impinging edgewise upon the wheel. The circumference 

 of the wheel is provided with buckets set so as to make an angle 

 of thirty degrees with the radial lines. The flanges forming the- 

 sides of the buckets are scalloped out to allow the water to freely 

 escape when the wheel is employed in the former way. The wheel 

 is set eccentric to its casing, approaching it closely on the inlet side. 

 The casing in this portion has a number of curved channels ter- 

 minating in the face opposite the buckets in a sinuous slit from which 

 the water issues upon the wheel. The inlet-pipe enters this wave- 

 line chute at the top of the casing, and the water is distributed 

 throughout it by ducts terminating at different points. A valve at 

 the top admits the water to one or more of these ducts as desired. 

 The wave-line slit in the casing is wider near the top and gradually 

 narrows toward the bottom, so that there is a greater weight of 

 water on the wheel at the upper part, and the water issues with a 

 higher velocity lower down. The sheet of water exerts a continuous 

 pressure upon the wheel instead of moving it by successive impacts 

 as in the case of the former motor. An outlet in the base allows the 

 water to pass oft' when the wheel is used as an overshot, and one in the 

 side of the casing provides an exit when it is used as a turbine. The 

 wheel is said to be quite economical of water, and to run easily. 



For light pieces of machinery, such as the sewing-machine, various 

 sorts of spring motors have from time to time been devised, though 

 none of them seem to have been brought into use. They are not prop- 

 erly motors, and are really quite valueless for the purpose of power, 

 unless it be very slight, as that required in clocks. They are capable 

 of giving out but a small amount of the power expended in winding 

 them up, and, as this labor has to be done by hand, are very uneconom- 



TOL. XVIII. 15 



