Читать книгу Water Power for the Farm and Country Home - David R. Cooper - Страница 3

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The impossibility of securing a sufficient number of capable and satisfactory farm hands in these days, when the majority of young men are turning to the populous centers for their livelihood, is perhaps the most compelling reason why machines which can be substituted for manual labor are a decided advantage to the up-to-date farmer. Their adoption as a part of the permanent equipment for the farm should render their owner comparatively independent of some of the problems of supply and demand for farm labor, the solution of which problems is an important factor in determining the success or failure of the farmer who disposes of his produce in open market. This condition is supplemented by a commendable tendency for farmers to live better, to place the home life of the farm on a higher plane, and to make farming a means of pleasurable livelihood rather than the mere eking out of a bare subsistence from the products of the soil. These conditions, together with the greatly improved quality of illumination and convenience which electricity affords, are creating a growing demand for a reliable and reasonably economical source of energy with which to supply both light and power on the larger estates and farms.

Motor Lifting a Ton of Hay, Hydro-electric Power

Electric Toaster

That electric light is much cleaner and more convenient than kerosene lamps must, of course, be admitted by all. It must also be admitted that a kerosene lamp of any considerable illuminating power has also certain heating propensities which render it an unpleasant companion on a warm summer evening. However, when it comes to a consideration of mere dollars and cents, there seems to be a widespread belief that kerosene as a source of illumination is cheaper than electricity. Statements to this effect are too often allowed to go uncontradicted, and too many people accept this view without taking the trouble to investigate.

It is a comparatively simple matter to compare the cost of the two kinds of light, knowing as we do exactly how much current an electric lamp of a certain filament and candle-power will consume. Such a comparison will frequently result in a choice of electricity as the cheaper light. In many cases the selection of electricity to supplant kerosene lamps would result in no considerable saving of money, but would do away with considerable inconvenience and furnish much better illumination. If cost is the controlling consideration, the comparison cannot always be so much in favor of electricity. An important consideration, often overlooked, is that with electric lights the interiors of living rooms do not require such frequent repapering or refinishing as they would require with kerosene illumination.

Motor-driven Sewing Machine

However, the convenience and cleanliness of electricity are fairly well known and appreciated, but the means by which electric currents may be generated economically, and by which this form of energy may be applied to bring about sufficient returns, financial and otherwise, to warrant the installation of an isolated plant for a farm or country home, are not so generally understood.

Electric current may be generated by means of a dynamo, or generator, with any kind of a power-producing plant. All that the dynamo requires to enable it to produce electric current is power of some kind that may be applied in such manner and quantity as will cause the armature, or “interior core,” of the machine to rotate at a sufficiently high and uniform rate of speed. There are various kinds of power generators which will perform this work satisfactorily for isolated plants. Within the last few years the small internal combustion engine, supplemented by the electric storage battery, for stationary service, have been so much improved and simplified as to cause them to compare very favorably with the better-known types of power-producing apparatus in first cost and in reliability of operation. The extreme simplicity of both this type of engine and of the storage battery, together with the great economy in fuel consumption of these engines, the low price of fuel, and the efficiency of the battery as a device for storing the energy and delivering it in the form of electric current when needed and in the quantity required, result in a low operating cost. The advent of tax-free alcohol into the field of available fuels for use in internal combustion engines, and the growing demand for this class of fuel, indicate that it will become, in time, a strong competitor of kerosene and gasolene. At present, gasolene is the fuel most generally used for engines of this type and small-size gas engines are now manufactured by many firms.

Steam power is probably the best understood of all classes of power. In many cases, especially where the fuel is very cheap, this is the best power for a farmer to have. Steam-power plants, as well as gasolene, kerosene and alcohol plants, all require personal attendance during operation and necessitate more or less frequent applications of fuel. Wind power is also a source of energy which may well be considered by the farmer who needs a small amount of power.

Perhaps the most promising source of power for farmers in New York State is the power that may be developed from falling water. This kind of a power plant requires comparatively little personal attention while in operation, and needs no replenishing of fuel except such as Nature herself provides in the flowing brook. Not only are there many of these powers that are undeveloped as yet, but there are many others which have been developed at some previous time and have recently been allowed to fall into disuse for various reasons. Many old sawmills were abandoned when the surrounding hills were all lumbered off. A small investment would enable many such old powers to be revived and applied to some useful purpose. Such a water-power plant could frequently be made to serve the owner or a group of users of electric current at very small first cost for each individual, and at an operating cost which would be inconsiderable.

It should be borne in mind, however, that much depends on the choice of the best power for any particular purpose, and a careful consideration of what is needed, and the conditions under which the power must be supplied, is essential to insure satisfaction with a power plant. In any particular instance a manufacturer of small waterwheels will cheerfully submit an estimate for a water-power plant, while the makers of steam and gasolene engines will quite as readily furnish any information to be based on data furnished by the intending purchaser.

Motor-driven Ice Cream Freezer

The extent of the applications of power to practical purposes on the farm is very broad. While perhaps electric lighting is the use most frequently thought of, it is, however, in the application of electric current or power to the operation of labor-saving devices that the greatest gain is to be derived on the large farm or country place. Feed grinders, root cutters, fodder cutters, fanning mills, grindstones, circular saws, corn shellers, drill presses, ensilage cutters and elevators, horse clippers, , grain separators, threshing machines, cream separators, churns, vacuum cleaners, ice cream freezers, dough mixers, feed mixers, chicken hatchers, and numerous other machines and implements operated by power, are obtainable in these days of labor-saving devices. The amount of power required to operate many of these is small. The presence of a plant of sufficient capacity to operate one or two particular machines often makes it possible to use the power for many of the other purposes. The amount of work that a small power will do may be judged from the following brief statements of what is actually being done:

Motor-driven Cream Separator

Note small size of motor

Six horsepower will drive a grain separator and thresh 2500 bushels of oats in ten hours.

Three horsepower furnishes all power needed to make 6000 pounds of milk into cheese in one day.

Six horsepower will run a feed mill grinding twenty bushels of corn an hour.

Five horsepower grinds twenty-five to forty bushels of feed, or ten to twelve bushels of ear corn, an hour.

Seven horsepower drives an eighteen-inch separator, burr mill and corn and cob crusher and corn sheller, grinding from twelve to fifteen bushels of feed an hour, and five to eight bushels of good, fine meal.

Six horsepower runs a heavy apple grater, grinding and pressing 200 to 250 bushels of apples an hour.

Five horsepower will drive a thirty-inch circular saw, sawing from fifty to seventy-five cords of stovewood from hard oak in ten hours.

Electric Ironing

Six horsepower saws all the wood four men can pile in cords.

Twelve horsepower will drive a fifty-inch circular saw, sawing 4000 feet of oak, or 5000 feet of poplar, in a day.

Ten horsepower will run a sixteen-inch ensilage cutter and blower, and elevate the ensilage into a silo thirty feet high at the rate of seven tons per hour.

One horsepower will pump water from a well of ordinary depth in sufficient quantity to supply an ordinary farmhouse and all the buildings with water for all the ordinary uses.

In determining the size of power plant required in any particular instance the use requiring the largest amount of power must be considered. It follows that there will then be plenty of power for the smaller requirements. In considering a water power it should also be borne in mind that the full theoretical amount of a water power can never be realized, a certain portion being taken up in friction in the waterwheel and in losses in the electric generator, transmission lines, motors, etc. The question as to how much may be made available will be discussed hereinafter.

Following are descriptions of some typical water-power developments in use in this State at the present time.