46 
On Water Supplies suited to 
Horse-power is best applied by means of horse-gears in which 
the animal walks in a circle, being harnessed to a pole about 
11 feet long, attached to wheel work, which multiplies the speed 
of rotation, and transmits it by a horizontal shaft to the appa- 
ratus to be worked. In the sixth volume of the present series 
of the ' Journal,' page 461, will be found the report of the trials 
■of horse-gears at Oxford in 1870. From the experiments made, 
it would appear that the efficiency ranged in the best machines 
from 73 per cent, to 79 per cent., and the prices from IIZ. to 
.17/. 17s. 
An average horse working 8 hours per day in a horse- 
gear exercises a pull of 100 lbs., at the rate of 3 feet per 
second, or a little more than 2 miles per hour ; hence 
the total work per day will be 8,640,000 foot-pounds, of 
which, say 75 per cent., is available for working the pumps ; 
but as these will do about 80 per cent, of useful work, 
being larger than the hand-pumps, the duty of the com- 
bined machine will be only 60 per cent. ; so that a horse 
can lift 8,640,000 X -60 = 5,184,000 foot-pounds per day; 
and if the dead-lift be 100 feet, and the resistance of pipes 
10 feet through 2400 feet of 2-inch pipe, then the delivery 
.„ , 5,184,000 „ „ 
•will be = T ■ ,, .. 5— r TfTT TrT^iC- = " o gallons 
110 It. X 8 hours X 60 m. X 10 lbs. 
per minute and per horse. The water lifted will be 4700 
gallons per day ; and if the horse and driver be charged at 8s. 
per day, the cost of the water will be about Is. 9c?. per thousand 
gallons raised 100 feet ; or if the lift be only 50 feet, as in the 
■ case of the man pumping, the cost would be a little less than 
Is. per thousand gallons. 
Ponies and donkeys are often used for pumping. In such 
case, the size of the pumps or their speed must be adjusted to 
the strength of the animals used. 
The disadvantage of the horse-gear is the large space it takes 
up. At the Colonial and Indian Exhibition last year, the 
■Canadian agricultural implement makers exhibited several 
" horse-mills," as they were called, which consisted of a kind 
of stall just large enough to hold one horse or a pair of horses. 
The floor of the stall was inclined, and formed of wood planks 
hinged together, so as to constitute an endless chain, which 
,passed over a spiked drum at the upper end. The incline of 
the floor could be varied according to the nature of the work. 
A brake was provided, by means of which the motion of the 
platform could bo checked or entirely stopped. When a horse 
was put in, the end of the stall closed, and the brake taken off, 
the platform would slip away from under the horse, which would 
be obliged to walk to keep himself from falling ; and so his 
