Published by 
The Rural Publishing Co. 
333 W. 30th Street 
New York 
The 
Rural New-Yorker 
Weekly, One Dollar Per Year 
Postpaid 
Single Copies, Five Cents 
Ihe Business Farmer’s Paper 
Vol. LXXIII 
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 21, 1914 
No. 4282 
GROWING ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER 
Where Hard Cider Grew Before. 
T HE IDLE WATER-WHEEL.—One of my 
neighbors, like many New England farmers, 
has a water-power “privilege,” as they call it 
here in Massachusetts. It was developed a long 
time ago, and had fallen into some disrepair; re¬ 
cently it had ground cider, planed lumber, and did 
other lazy jobs when called on; but usually it was 
idle. In Winter, however, it was necessary to keep 
the wheel running slowly, to avoid its being dam¬ 
aged by ice from an accumulation of water seeping 
from the race, so it really was not paying its keep. 
His power consisted of a 14-foot fall with a 30-inch 
turbine wheel of the usual style. In repair it should 
develop about 35 horse-power. I suggested to him 
that if he would put his wheel in repair and keep 
it in running order, I would put in an 
electric generating plant, so that we 
two could have electric light for our 
houses and barns, and such small 
power as is needed about a farm, for 
churning, separating, washing ma¬ 
chines, etc. He accepted eagerly and 
at once put his wheel in shape so that 
it could be depended on to run steadily 
and deliver power at a certain number 
of revolutions per minute. This is an 
absolute necessity for electric light— 
constant speed. 
MATERIAL REQUIRED.—I found 
a second-hand dynamo in New York, a 
“compound” machine rated at 110-125 
volts, direct current, of 5.75 kilowatts 
capacity, at 1,550 revolutions per min¬ 
ute. A kilowatt is 1,000 watts; a 
horsepower is about 750 watts, so this 
machine was capable of delivering 
about 8 horsepower without overload¬ 
ing. Modern machines can be over¬ 
loaded 50 per cent, without harm, and 
will stand an overload of 100 per cent, 
for a few minutes. The power required 
to drive a dynamo depends on the 
amount of electricity used. One ordi¬ 
nary light requires about 45 foot¬ 
pounds motive power to keep the ma¬ 
chine going; 12 lights requii-e about 550 
foot-pounds, or one horse-power. When 
a machine is running idle, it requires 
only enough power to turn the shaft in 
its bearings. It is good engineering 
practice, if one had a surplus of water 
power, to figure on two water horse¬ 
power, for every 12 lights, or their 
equivalent, used. This gives a big mar¬ 
gin, and insures steady speed. If the 
speed goes down the lights go down, 
and vice versa. 
CAPACITY AND COST.—To give 
another idea of the capacity of this 
machine, it will light, at normal load, 
125 old-style carbon lamps, of 16 can¬ 
dle-power each; or 250 new-style tung¬ 
sten lamps, of 20 candle power each. 
This, of course, is greatly in excess of 
our requirements, but it gave us a big 
margin to work on, for other purposes. 
The average farmhouse can use about 
12 lamps in house and barn. These 12 lamps will 
make the place as light as day, and make any ordi¬ 
nary lamp cast a shadow. The machine cost $90, 
together with the necessary regulating appliances. 
A machine of half the capacity can be picked up 
for less than half this sum: and, in cases where a 
farmer wants light only, he could find a one kilo¬ 
watt machine, second hand, around $30, that would 
give him twice the light he needed. 
POLES AND WIRES.—My house is 2.000 feet re¬ 
moved from the power plant, and my neighbor's 
house is 1,000 feet away. We cut telephone poles in 
our own wood lot and set them, and strung trans¬ 
mission wire, without much difficulty. I used No. 6 
weather-proof wire on my line, and he used No. 8 on 
his. This wire should cost about $19 per 100 pounds 
weight. As a matter of fact both of us were able 
to find second-hand wire, so our two lines cost us un¬ 
der $60 complete I wired my own house, and al¬ 
though I had never had experience at this task. I 
did a job that readily passed insurance Inspection. 
In fact, because of my desire to get things right, I 
probably did a more careful job than the average 
electrician would have done, following the insurance- 
code requirements to the letter. I used the usual 
wooden moulding, to he had for about two cents a 
foot. When my house was finished, I gave my neigh¬ 
bor a lesson in the art. and in a day or two we were 
ready to start the machine and turn on the juice. 
There had never been electric light in our section, 
and the neighbors had some doubts as to our ability 
of turning falling water into light. There is no doubt 
in their minds now, and they are all following suit, 
as most of them have antiquated power privileges 
which they are scouring up for the purpose. The 
sole excuse for these water wheels living heretofore 
has been to grind hard cider in the Fall. You can 
draw your own morals for the new order of things. 
Our Wish for You is for Good Luck, Good Spirits and Good Digestion. Fig. 587. 
HOUSEKEEPING HELPS.—At first we ran the 
electric plant only at night Now, however, we keep 
it going 24 hours a day, which means that at any 
hour of the day or night we have an abundance of 
clean, cool, safe light anywhere we want it; and in 
addition, our wives have electric irons (which save 
them walking 10 miles a day on ironing day) ; elec¬ 
tric toasters, electric water boilers, and other “fix¬ 
ings” which the frugal farmer is supposed to be de¬ 
nied. The best thing we have done at my house is 
to install an electric range, in place of the old wood 
range. A city friend of mine put in this range at 
his house, but found the cost of commercial current 
prohibitive, so he sold me the range for 30 cents on 
the dollar. It has an oven big enough for four loaves 
of bread, and three hot plates on top. It confines all 
the heat to the stove, bakes with marvelous even¬ 
ness. the "fire” is “built” merely by turning a button, 
and put out by the same process. It is always ready, 
makes no ashes, costs nothing to run (as we have 
more current than we can use) and makes the 
kitchen a place of joy on a hot Summer day. My 
neighbor, in addition to lights in his house, has city 
street lights in his barnyard, and his horse barn and 
cow barn look like an electric show. When he goes 
out to do his evening chores, he does not go in the 
dark. At the kitchen door is a switch, one throw of 
which makes the barnyard as light as day. Think 
what this means when a team comes home from town 
late. 
COST INVOLVED.—Now as to the cost of this 
luxury and convenience. The electric plant—wire, 
fixtures, dynamo, switchboard, everything, cost $225 
for the two houses, and we have enough surplus cur¬ 
rent to light a dozen houses, and fill farm kitchens 
with conveniences. That is $225 as the first cost. 
To keep the plant running 24 hours a day costs only 
what lubricating oil is consumed. You can figure 
this for yourself. We can’t use more 
than eight horse-power from the water 
wheel, by the wildest extravagance in 
using the “juice.” So we belted the 
jack-shaft back, and run the dynamo 
from a countershaft. The main shaft 
runs at 150 revolutions per minute, 
about one-third speed. The oil cups on 
the main shaft have to be attended 
about once a week; and as the dynamo 
shaft runs in oil, it requires very little 
attention. Beyond this, the only atten¬ 
tion required is to keep the machine 
clean and free from dust and dirt. 
Frequently no one sees the machine for 
two or three days, but it is giving ser¬ 
vice any minute it is called on. A 
dynamo is merely a spool of wire ro¬ 
tated between a set of magnets, so 
there is nothing to wear out; and mod¬ 
ern machines are protected by safety 
fuses, like safety valves on a steam 
engine, so there is no chance for a fool- 
killer to damage the machine itself. 
POSSIBLE DANGERS.—Now, as to 
the danger. Electricity to the average 
man, is a thing of terror There are 
no barn lanterns to kick over, no kero¬ 
sene to catch fire—but, there are “live” 
wires. Let us see how dangerous this 
live wire is. My farmer friends, once 
they got used to see me handling bare 
wires with impunity, wanted to try it 
themselves. The funny part of it was 
that their hands were so covered with 
callouses that they coulu not feel the 
current at all. Electricity, at 110 
volts, or even 220 volts pressure can¬ 
not force its way through dirty fingers. 
My neighbors in their surprise at not 
being able to feel any sensation in 
touching a “live” wire, sandpapered 
their finger tips. After some trouble, 
they got them thin enough to feel a 
little tickle—not one-liundredth as 
strong as they feel from an ordinary 
medical battery. 
KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED.—As to 
skilled attendance required. I am the 
only one who knows anything about 
the technical part of it. and I know 
precious little, merely rudiments that 
I have picked up from books and catalogs. But I 
am only at my country place four months in the 
year, so the responsibility for the rest of the time 
falls on my partner, who doesn’t know a watt from 
the left hind leg of a rabbit. However, the plant 
has been in operation two years now. with my neigh¬ 
bor and his wife as the electrical experts in charge, 
and service has been perfect from the first day. 
Winter and Summer. What I would like to impress 
on readers of The R. N.-Y. is that electric service is 
the cheapest thing on the farm—cheaper than the 
farm garden—if he has water power. If he has 
sufficient power—from two to 50 horse-power, ac¬ 
cording to his requirements—and a steady wheel, he 
doesn't have to put in an expensive “governor”; if 
his water wheel is in his front yard, as is frequently 
the case, the expense of transmission is reduced to 
practically nothing; incandescent lights are as cheap 
as lamp chimneys and last longer, don’t have to be 
cleaned or filled, and can’t be kicked over, and won’t 
