1915. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
“THAT ELECTRIC LIGHT PLANT.” 
An Experience With Storage Batteries. 
EVEN YEARS’ USE.—A recent writer in The 
R. N.-Y. who states that “storage batteries of to¬ 
day, while good, are expensive and perishable,” 
speaks truthfully, but when he goes on to say. “two 
years is the average life of a battery with good for¬ 
tune,” that is not the experience of those in opera¬ 
tion in this locality. Within four miles of Pleasant 
View Farm there is a 110-volt electric lighting 
plant which has been in constant use nearly, or 
quite, seven years, furnishing lights for a large lime- 
burning plant, its offices, saw and barrel mills, a 
large country hotel, store, several dwellings, a black¬ 
smith shop and a few street lights, and is still do¬ 
ing good service with the original storage batteries, 
except that it has been necessary to renew the elec¬ 
trolyte—which is inexpensive, being composed of 
four parts pure water and one part pure sulphuric 
acid—I think but once. There is another, a fifty-volt 
farm buildings lighting plant operating about 30 10- 
candle-power lamps which has been in operation 
more than two years, with no change of electrolyte, 
that still is doing fine service. 
A FARM PLANT.—The writer’s experience cov¬ 
ers less time, having been installed Feb. 25, 1913. 
This plant is a 30-volt, 12-ampere, 16-cell, and oper¬ 
ates 30 lamps. All that it has been necessary to do 
to the battery is to put in more water when evap¬ 
oration brings the electrolyte below the tops of the 
plates in the battery cells It was also 
necessary to put new brushes in dyna¬ 
mo once. Very little sulphite from de¬ 
composition of the plates of battery 
has been deposited on bottom of cells, 
and those who have had experience 
with storage batteries tell me that 
there need be no change of electrolyte 
until this deposit accumulates too 
near the plates of battery, so that it 
*• 
will cause a short circuit of the cur¬ 
rent from positive to negative plates. 
The space below plates to bottom of 
jars is about two inches, and at the 
rate of deposit it will take several 
years to bring it anywhere near the 
plates. 
THE PLAN DESCRIBED.—The pic¬ 
ture, Fig. 26, of our home electric light¬ 
ing outfit will give something of an 
idea of how such a plant may be in¬ 
stalled. It was taken before the pro¬ 
tection for batteries was put on. This 
protection was for the purpose of pre¬ 
venting careless persons from hitting the jars, and 
breaking them, while working about the room. It 
is made of %-inch matched pine in form of a door 
and hinged to the base on which the cells (or jars) 
stand, and is hooked to the uprights at each end of 
battery. The cells are covered loosely by window 
glass to prevent the accumulation of dust in the 
electrolyte. Only eight cells appear in the picture, 
but there is another row just back of those, and in 
close contact with the front row. The circuit is 
made by a No. 8 copper wire joining the two cells 
at the right hand end of the battery. The cost of 
this outfit was, for the 2 1 / c horsepower four-cycle 
gasoline engine, $40; the 12*4 ampere 30-volt type 
dynamo, $65. The switch-board has volt and am¬ 
pere meters and automatic cut-in and cut-out 
switch, which acts when the current from dynamo 
reaches its normal force, to throw the current into 
the battery, also to cut out the current when it 
falls below normal by the slacking of the engine 
and dynamo. There is also a switch for each of the 
two circuits, and one for the six-volt current which 
is used for ignition in the engine. The current for 
this is taken from three cells in the back row. The 
cost of the switch-board was $S5. 
THE BATTERY consists of 16 cells, or glass jars, 
containing three plates each. The cost of this bat¬ 
tery, complete, was $200. As each cell will receive 
and discharge a two-volt force we get a 32-volt pres¬ 
sure at the battery, which will be cut to about 30 
volts when the current reaches the lamps. In or¬ 
der to secure a higher voltage it would be necessary 
to add one cell for every two volts, until the volt¬ 
age is of the required force or strength. When, in 
using the lights, we find that they begin to dim, we 
know that the pressure in battery is getting low and 
proceed to start up the engine and dynamo, and by 
throwing a switch on switch-board we get the 30- 
volt pressure and bright lights, while whatever the 
dynamo generates more than we are using runs into 
the battery to re-charge it. Our engine being a 
four-cycle type does not give as steady motion as a 
two-cycle, and the lights are somewhat unsteady. 
V here it is possible a water power driven dynamo 
is to be desired. The lights will be steadier than 
when dynamo is engine driven. It can be used 
entirely without a storage battery, but that system 
has one drawback. No light can be had unless the 
water-wheel and dynamo are working, which would 
he inconvenient when for any reason it was neces¬ 
sary to use a light in the middle of the night, and 
Homemade Cement Mixer. Fig. 25. 
would make it necessary for some one to go to the 
water-wheel to start the power, and in the early 
morning in Winter it might be a cold job, and some 
trouble would very likely be experienced in getting 
it started on account of ice. Where there is an 
abundance of water, and oil cups are used, it is 
possible to allow the wheel and dynamo to run con¬ 
tinuously, but in this case the dynamo should be 
of the type which only generates when juice is 
being used, and running idle when no current is 
being drawn. I believe the last system would prove 
the most satisfactory of any. It takes only about 
New Jersey Onion Crop. Fig. 27 
one horsepower for our dynamo when driven at nor¬ 
mal speed. 
QUESTIONS SUGGESTED.—How about the bat¬ 
teries in cold weather? Will they not freeze up 
and crack the jars? The electrolyte will not freeze 
unless the thermometer drops below 20 deg., and not 
then if the battery has a full charge of juice. Can 
an electric flatiron and other household electrical 
devices be used on the low voltage—30-volt—cur- 
93 
rent? It is said to be not practical to use those 
devices on low voltage, but with a water-driven 
dynamo, without a battery, generating a 110 volt 
age, it would be all right, and flatirons, vacuum 
cleaners, washing machines and other devices, such 
as are used from a commercial line of 110 volts, 
can be used. There is the question of safety in the 
use of high and low voltage currents to be consid 
ered. Of course the 110-volt is, in a way. 
dangerous both in the way of an electric shock un 
der some conditions which should be guarded 
against, and also from fires when bare wires be¬ 
come crossed, which is not the case with a voltage 
as low as 30 volts, but with fuses placed properly 
there would be little or no danger from fires. The 
installing of an electric light plant is not such a 
complicated affair as might appear, as the writer, 
with the help of his son, installed a complete out¬ 
fit. wiring both house and barn, concealing all wires 
in house and putting up the fixtures. There are 
several reasons why an electric lighting system for 
farm homes is to be desired. l. r. tabor. 
Pleasant View Farm, Mass. 
FRAUDULENT SEED AGENT. 
One Year in State’s Prison. 
,T. RICE, the fraudulent seed agent, who sold 
adulterated clover seed in this and several 
• other counties in the State about a year ago, 
was brought here from Middlesex County on No¬ 
vember 28, after serving three months 
and 22 days for a similar offense in 
that county. Eight indictments had 
been brought against him in this coun¬ 
ty. and he pleaded guilty and was 
given a sentence of a minimum of one 
year and a maximum of three years at 
hard labor in the State Prison. In 
taking orders he claimed that he rep¬ 
resented the “Old Reliable Rice Seed 
Co.” and carried a fine sample of Red 
clover seed, guaranteeing that he 
would deliver a 97% pure seed. He 
claimed to have a special clover seed 
which he called Australian clover. 
This he claimed would produce three 
cuttings of hay in one year, but this 
proved to be only Crimson clover. I 
was notified by the Experiment Sta¬ 
tion to be on the lookout for such a 
seed agent, but it was not until three 
weeks after he had made his delivery 
that I was informed he had been here. 
At the express office I found out who 
had sold him the seed and where it came from, and 
by calling on some of the farmers I secured the 
names of all but four or five who bought seed from 
him in this county. The seed analyst of the Ex¬ 
periment Station, John P. Ilelyar, was given the de¬ 
tails, and he went to the seed company, making in¬ 
quiries, and was told that Mr. Rice was just having 
another shipment sent to him in another county. 
These clues led to his arrest. 
According to the copy of the bill furnished by the 
seed company they shipped this man at Hamburg 
in this county 120 pounds of Crimson clover seed 
at $3.45 per bushel, 1700 pounds of German millet 
at $1.40 per bushel, and 340 pounds of Red clover at 
$9.30 per bushel. The total amount of the seed com¬ 
pany's bill was $109.43. Upon careful examination 
of the sacks of seed it was found that in most cases 
the Red clover seed was mixed through the top of 
the sack and that in the bottom and middle of the 
sacks the seed was usually all millet. Considering 
the quantity of seed used the mixture contained 
practically one-fiftli clover and four-fifths millet. 
As nearly as I can get at it between 33 and 35 
bushels of the clover mixture were made up and sold 
in this county, and Mr. Rice received between $315 
and $330 for the seed, thereby making the selling 
price more than 200% in advance of the cost. In 
pleading for mercy for her husband, Mrs. Rice made 
the positive statement that her husband is subject 
to heart disease and that he had two falls while 
in prison at New Brunswick. Consequently the 
judge in this county had the accused man carefully 
examined by a competent physician, who found that 
his only defect was an excessive weight and a 
slight defect in one eye, and that there was no 
indication of heart trouble. h. w. Gilbertson. 
Director Sussex Co., N. J., Farm Bureau. 
H OMEMADE CEMENT MIXER.—I send picture 
of a homemade cement mixer I made, and have 
done a lot of work with it. Last Fall I ran it 
with a sweep horsepower I made out of old pow¬ 
er windmill. I use the mixer for mixing up my dry 
mash for chickens. Run it in on the barn floor and 
mix a barrelful at a time. I run it by hand for mix¬ 
ing feed. c. w. duck. 
