7ht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1471 
Farm Mechanics 
Tread Power Compared with Engine 
Comparing a tread power with an en¬ 
gine, how much horsepower would a 
1.200- lb. horse produce with the tread set 
at an average grade? P. W. I. 
New Albany, Pa. 
No direct comparison can be made be¬ 
tween a tread power and a gas engine 
of the same rating, for reasons that will 
be enumerated. It is usual, though, that 
a tread power will develop energy in ex¬ 
cess of an internal combustion engine of 
the same rating. 
The rate of doing work is measured by 
the horsepower—a unit of measurement 
that, because of its name, is sometimes 
misleading, a horse when called upon to 
exert himself to full capacity being able 
to produce several horsepower for a short 
time—something that the gas engine can¬ 
not do because of no reserve of stored 
energy to fall back upon. 
A horsepower is equivalent to the rais¬ 
ing of 38.000 lbs. one foot in one minute, 
550 lbs. one foot in one second, or any 
combination of time, weight and distance 
factors whose product will give the same 
result. For example, a 1.500-lb. horse 
walking at the rate of 214 miles per hour 
and pulling with a force equal to one- 
tenth of his weight, or 150 lbs., would 
by developing one horsepower. 
When placed in a tread power the horse 
does useful work by pulling his own 
weight up an inclined plane—the lags— 
against the force of gravity, and his 
weight, the speed at which he walks and 
the angle or slope at which the power is 
set. are all factors in determining the 
rate at which work will be done. 
It is common practice to set up a 
tread power with a slope at least as great 
as 1 to 4, and when this is the case the 
horse is constantly lifting one-fourth of 
his weight as he climbs up the lags. With 
the above in mind and assuming, as has 
been suggested in the inquiry, that a 
1.200- lb. horse is in use, and assuming 
further that the horse walks at the rate 
of two miles per hour, we would have the 
following: 
300 (pull in lbs.) X 2 X 5.280 (ft. per 
00 
minute = 52,800 ft. lbs. per minute. 
A one horsepower gas or oil engine 
would be delivering but 33.000 ft. pounds 
during the same time, or, in other words, 
the horse would be delivering 1.0 horse 
power, while the engine delivered but one. 
It. must be remembered, however, that gas 
engines are usually rated at their brake 
horse power, the power that they are 
capable of delivering at the belt, while the 
figures given above for the tread power 
are theoretical, and in practice would be 
subject to a reduction, because of friction 
in the tread power. In further justice 
to the engine, it should be said that work¬ 
ing a horse as hard as this on the tread 
power is equivalent to overloading him, 
the tread should not be inclined so steep¬ 
ly. and as soon as it is lowered the power 
obtained from the horse is reduced pro¬ 
portionately. 
It is common practice, however, to ele¬ 
vate the treads of powers as steeply as 
indicated (1-4), or even more steeply, and 
to use on them the heaviest horses ob¬ 
tainable. so that the power output of a 
two-horse tread is usually considerably 
in excess of that of a two-horse gasoline 
or oil engine. R. n. s. 
A Venture in Custom Grinding; 
Repairing Dam 
I have just purchased a mill which was 
used for custom grinding and flour manu¬ 
facturing. The flour business was. never 
a success, owing to the fact that it was 
too far from the railroad, and through 
the very dry part of the season the water 
gave out. Is it possible to do custom 
grinding with an engine and make it pay? 
If so, what kind of an engine would fur- ^ 
nish cheapest power? 2. Can I fix a steel 
riveted pipe 1614 in- in diameter and 200 
ft. long with concrete? There are four 
splits in this pipe about three ftet long, 
caused by freezing. There, is about 25 
lbs. pressure to the square inch. A con¬ 
cern in Syracuse that has made such 
pipes say they can acetylene-weld the 
four holes for $150. This wheel has a 
75-ft. head, but the splits in the pipe are 
not down at the lower end of the pipe. 
3. What method have you for mixing con¬ 
crete to be used in building and repairing 
a dam ? w. F. w. 
New York. 
Whether or not custom grinding can 
be made a success in your locality I am 
unable to state. So much depends upon 
the location, the surrounding farming 
country and other factors that it is im¬ 
possible for anyone at a distance to give 
you an answer of any value to you. Cus¬ 
tom grinding lias a big competitor in the 
Western prepared feeds. So much of this 
is bought at the present time, compared 
with the amount that is raised in the 
Fast, that there seems little for the local 
mill to do ; During the period of the war 
an incentive was given to wheat raising, 
and mills j u tliis section equipped with 
machinery for preparing flour did a good 
business. It is probable that this opjior- 
TunUy is now past, but it is also possible 
inat the continued high and higher prices 
ot commercial feeding stuffs may cause 
more grams to be grown, which will liud 
their way to the local mill—a fine thing 
if it should come about. 
As to supplementary power, the engine 
to choose would, in my opinion, depend 
very much upon the work to be done with 
it. If the grinding work in sight war- 
in 11 ,*' 8 you to expect to grind continuously 
10 hours or so per day, and fuel is plenty, 
it is probable that a steam engine will 
furnish the cheapest power. On the other 
hand, if the mill is only to be run an hour 
or so at a time, and then shut down for 
an approximately equal length of time, 
that is, run intermittently, it is probable 
that one of the internal combustion en¬ 
gines designed to burn kerosene oil will 
give you the best service, for, while the 
fuel may cost more while in operation, 
there would he no expense before work 
began and after it ceased, as there is with 
a steam engine, due to the burning of 
fuel in the firebox. 
7: repair the flume try plastering 
it thickly with a rich concrete mortar, and 
then wrapping the burst section with 
woven wire fencing, after which more ce¬ 
ment mortar is applied to the outside. 
I his can, perhaps, best be done by arrang- 
ing a form about the break, and after 
arranging the wire about the pipe tamp¬ 
ing the concrete in. The wire acts as a 
reinforcement against breaking, and should 
be near the outside of the concrete to 
secure the full benefit of its tensile 
strength. Another suggestion is to pre¬ 
pare. a plank to fit the crack and 'after 
making a pad of tar-soaked oakum clamp- 
in# it down over the opening by means of 
threaded. hoops, extending around the 
pipe, similar to those used on a silo The 
edges could then he caulked. The'above 
is given as a suggestion only. If properly 
welded by the oxy-acetylene method the 
pipe will he as strong as it was originally, 
an -> : t V( ' I '- V good-looking job will result. 
■>. In regard to mixing concrete for a 
dam. if you have any considerable amount 
to mix. a power mixer should be used, as 
the work can be done more cheaply than 
if carried on by hand. One of the -‘batch” 
typos of mixers will give concrete in 
which the materials can be more eloselv 
gnuged than can be done in a mixer of 
the continuous” type. b. u. s. 
Developing Water Power from Spring 
fou o- a 7 5 sprin ? 70 rods from house 
fall 2q feet, capacity of spring 60 gallons 
per minute. How large a pipe would be 
necessary to carry all the water? Coulc 
a. power be developed sufficient to fur- 
hghts for house and barn, and pos- 
sibly to run a milking machine? What 
do you think of . the durability auc; 
chances of satisfaction of wood pipe urn 
d.er these conditions, pipe buried and con 
tinually filled with water? j. k. sr. 
Pennsylvania. 
If this water is cold and soft you have 
a very valuable spring property. Water 
of this kind on the farm, free for the 
piping, is very convenient. Under the 
conditions outlined the use of about a 
o-ineli pipe is indicated to carry this 
water to . the buildings. If the flow 
of the spring has been estimated instead 
of being accurately gauged I would ad¬ 
vise measuring it carefully, as these 
tilings are sometimes very misleading iu 
appearance. Tf found to be somewhat 
less than the 60 gallons per minute it is 
possible that a 2^4-inch pipe would do. 
as this will carry approximately 45 gal¬ 
lons per minute under the conditions 
given. 
P>y all means investigate the wood pipe, 
getting prices on both wood and iron be¬ 
fore purchasing. Wood pipe has in manv 
cases given excellent satisfaction, being 
used in many instances to carry liquids 
that would soon eat out an iron pipe. It 
has the property of increasing in carry¬ 
ing capacity somewhat with age. the in¬ 
side becoming smoother as it grows older. 
While 60 gallons per minute is a large 
amount when thought of in terms of a 
farm water supply, it is a very small 
quantity when thought of as a power 
proposition. It would be capable of de¬ 
veloping only about one-tliird of a horse¬ 
power, a fail of 66 feet being necessary 
to give one indicated horsepower with 
this volume of water. Taking from this 
the energy lost through friction both in 
the piping and in the wheel itself would 
leave a power hardly worth developing in 
a practical way. If it is possible to im¬ 
pound the water on the hillside and iu 
this way get au increased flow for a 
short period when power was required, it 
might be used in this way. This, how¬ 
ever. would require the use of a larger 
pipe, and because of the high price the 
installation could probably not compete 
with one of the reliable engine-driven 
home lighting plants now on the market. 
R. H. s. 
A traveler .passing through a small 
country town noticed a post on which 
the height was marked to which the river 
had risen during a recent flood. “Do 
you mean to say,” he asked a native, 
“that the river rose as high as that?” 
“Oh. no.” replied the native; “but the 
village children used to rub off the origi¬ 
nal mark, so the mayor ordered it to be 
put higher up so as to be out of their 
reach.—Credit Lost. 
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