Yol. LXXI1I. No. 4287. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 26, 1914. 
WEEKLY £1.00 PER YEAR. 
THAT ELECTRIC LIGHT PLANT. 
More About Its Convenience. 
TOItAGE BATTERIES.—There have been a 
number of inquiries about the article about the 
electric light plant, in the issue of November 
21. These letters ask about storage batteries. I 
am not an electrical engineer, but I have taken pains 
to find out a good deal about the practical use of 
electricity on the farm. Storage batteries of today, 
while good, are expensive, and perishable. Two 
years is the average life of a lead battery, with good 
give the best service in the world for electric light¬ 
ing, but the use of electric irons (the best thing ever 
invented for a kitchen), electric stoves, and elec¬ 
tric motors, is impracticable with them. So if you 
want only electric light, and haven't water power, 
and can install the plant near the house, one of 
these sets is fine. 
TRANSMITTING CURRENT.—One man writes 
me: “There are five of us. living within a quarter 
of a mile of each other. Would a five horse-power 
gasoline engine give us enough power for lights all 
around? Would storage batteries be required?” A 
big enough to supply five houses would be prohibi¬ 
tive. especially when one considers he will have to 
replace this battery in two years. 
STUDYING THE COST.—But these five neigh¬ 
bors have an alternative. Let them figure how much 
current they would use. altogether, from dark until 
bedtime. I should say two or three horse-power of 
electricity would be more than ample. Let them find 
out how much gasoline it takes by the hour to keep 
an engine running under this load: divide the re¬ 
sult by five and they would have the cost of elec¬ 
tric light. Then when they wanted current for 
A NEW HAMPSHIRE RYE FIELD; AVERAGE HEIGHT SIX FEET. Fig. 656. ‘ 
fortune; four years is the limit of the guarantee on 
the latest Edison battery. In small installations, 
they are practical only for electric lighting. 
Electric stoves and electric motors use too much 
current. The battery would have to be large, 
and its cost would be prohibitive for the 
average farmer. Nevertheless, if I did not have 
water power, I would put in a gasoline engine, and 
possibly a storage battery, under certain conditions. 
There are several makes of engines on the market 
which generate electricity at low pressure, from 12 
to 30 volts, which permits a small battery. These 
quarter of a mile, or even an eighth of a mile, is a 
long distance to transmit electric current from a 
storage battery. Wire offers resistance to the pas¬ 
sage of electricity, just as iron pipe offers resist¬ 
ance to the passage of water—slows it up. Without 
a high-voltage battery—say 110 to 125 volts—too 
much energy would be consumed delivering the cur¬ 
rent. Twelve or 30-volt batteries would not do it 
economically. If this engine and battery were in a 
man’s woodshed or barn, together with the engine 
and dynamo, the battery is all right, but not a quar¬ 
ter of a mile away. The cost of a 110-volt battery 
ironing, the engine could run on certain hours on 
ironing days. I believe it would be very cheap, 
much cheaper than oil lamps, and much better, of 
course. There are generating sets, consisting of a 
gasoline engine directly connected to the dynamo, 
on the market, that are both cheap and efficient, and 
require little care. A boy could be the engineer. 
There is something about things electrical that ap¬ 
peals to a boy. Electricity is more natural to the 
average boy than going swimming. I know boys of 
12 and 14 years, who can learn more about elec¬ 
tricity in a week than I can in a year. I don't 
