PORTABLE TRANSFORMER TAKING CURRENT FROM HIGH-
TENSION OVERHEAD WIRE, REDUCING ITS VOLTAGE
TO WORKING LIMITS, AND SUPPLYING POWER
TO ELECTRICALLY DRIVEN FARM

IMPLEMENTS.

plication of the power then at their command. It was midwinter, and, in this zone, fuel is at this season almost as important as food. Accordingly a 4,000watt heater was placed in the house, which heated two rooms (16 by 13 by 7% feet and 12 by 13 by 7% feet) to a temperature of about 75 degrees when the outside temperature was at zero and higher. These rooms had two windows each. The creek was then saving the farmer the expense of light for the entire house and the barns, and also of fuel for the living rooms.

The little stream was next required to do some of the most laborious tasks in the routine of dairy work. In the creamery, where the milk from a herd

of twenty cows was daily manufactured into butter,

was a milk separator, the heavy bowl of which must be made to revolve at a speed of 7,400 revolutions per minute, each morning and evening, till the entire milk production of the cows had gone through it. This had always been done by hand power, and was one of the most dreaded tasks of the day. Then, there was the big barrel-churn. This, too, had for an hour, more or less, several times per week, required the muscular attention of someone who would much rather be doing something else. Into this room a wire was run; and on a convenient concrete foundation a 2-horsepower motor was placed and connected. From this ran a narrow belt to the separator, and, alas! the old hand-crank, so important till then, was unreluctantly relegated to the things of the past. Then the churn was placed on a platform swiveled from one corner to the floor, the other three corners resting on casters. This arrangement permitted the churn to be swung into line with the dynamo and connected by belt. After the churning was completed, the belt was removed, and the churn swung back again out of the way. Thus churning day was stripped of its terrors, and another of the old iron cranks was added to the scrap heap. there was one crank left. In an adjoining apartment stood the grinding-stone. Never a farmer's son who did not have a wholesome dread of this crank, especially during the hay and grain harvest.

INTERIOR OF CREAMERY. Motor and separator in operation.

But

So the grindstone was also brought into line with the motor, and a long, round belt passed from the latter, through an open door, to a pulley on the axle of the stone. The electric current was then turned on, and out of the door went the last old crank on the Miner farm.

But human desire expands with acquisition; and when the backache business had been banished, the results did not satisfy. The separator required attention still, and Ralph's fertile mind began evolving an idea. When the milk had all passed through the machine, the latter should be stopped and rinsed. To accomplish this, a float was arranged to rest on the milk. This was connected with the electric current operating the motor, in such a manner that when the milk was exhausted the float was lowered to a point where it broke the circuit, cutting off the power and stopping the machinery. Simultaneously with the breaking of the current, a dish of water, previously placed above the separator, was emptied by an ingenious device into the separator before it had yet ceased to revolve, and the machine was thoroughly rinsed. Thus the separator was made to stop automatically at the moment its work was completed, and to proceed to

the none the less indispensable task of rinsing itself out properly.

A hand pump had been in use to force water into a reservoir in the attic of the house, which supplied the bathroom. This was another matter that attracted Ralph's attention, and soon he had the little motor doing the drudgery of the pumping also.

In the kitchen, a wood cookstove is still in use, although an electrical cooking device to displace it is in contemplation. To provide fuel for the stoves with the ax or the old crosscut, is one of the bur

BARREL-CHURN IN OPERATION.

dens that fall upon the man who grows his own stovewood. Why not let the Oriskany do it? And it was soon doing it. A more powerful motor was obtained and placed in position. A circular saw and frame were provided, and wood in "sled-lengths" was brought. The long pieces of wood were then placed on the frame before the saw, the current was turned on, and the Oriskany did the rest!

In the kitchen, the onerous burden of ironing has been very materially lightened by the use of electrically-heated flatirons, connected with the current which runs into the house. The heat can be maintained uniform, and there is no more sweating over the hot stove on ironing day. In the living rooms are electrically

driven fans which provide ventilation and comfort for the family during the hot summer days; and even the ice-cream freezer is revolved by the little motor in the creamery.

In addition to doing so much for himself with the current from his plant, Mr. Miner is already furnishing power for a small manufacturing enterprise near-by, which promises, with this cheap and exceedingly convenient power, to increase its business rapidly.

All this has been actually accomplished within less than a year from the beginning of what, to the neighbors and the unskilled, seemed an experiment of doubtful outcome. And, Mr. Miner says, "the end is not yet." He has in contemplation further uses for his power, among which is the operating of a milking machine for his dairy, when he has found one which he believes will be thoroughly practicable. If he should ever require more power than his plant now furnishes, plans already made provide for raising the dam sufficiently to give a head of six feet. This would develop 25 horse-power or more. Whether further use is ever made of the power or not, he says that he is well pleased with present results. When asked as to the cost of the plant and improvements, he declined to give any idea further than to say that while it has cost a lot of money to install the system, it would cost a lot more to secure its removal.

K

AISER WILHELM, stern ruler of the German Empire, sat in lonely state in his great palace on Unter den Linden, and pondered over troublesome affairs of international diplomacy. How had his interference in Morocco been taken by the other European powers? How long would the balance of power be preserved in the Far East? What did England mean by building all those huge warships?

As he was weighing great affairs of state, he overheard a chance word, dropped by one of his courtiers, to the effect that the Berlin Postoffice was swamped with the Christmas mail, and was utterly unable to handle the unprecedented avalanche of letters and presents which came pouring in. Hastily he dismissed from his mind all thought of Germany's military and commercial supremacy, and turned the tremendous energy of his mind to the solution of this more pressing problem.

What! The Christmas presents which were in hand then could not be all delivered before a week after Christmas!

And thousands of the kinderen of the Empire who were eagerly watching for the Weinachtsman would find their Christmas tree empty of presents! It should not be. The children of his Empire should not have their unbounded faith in Kriss Kringle blasted by a little congestion in the Postoffice Department. Who was responsible for this state of things? Couldn't he get help enough to deliver the mail? The Christmas mail should be delivered, and delivered the day before Christmas, if the imperial troops themselves had to do the work. Thus went forth the imperial mandate from the Kaiser-the King-who could interrupt the whole machinery of his State Department, and make time to see that his subjects should not be disappointed in their plans to spend a merry Christmas. Here was the Kaiser playing the rôle of Santa Claus, and a right willing St. Nick he made!

So it came about that last year the Emperor's soldiers turned mail carriers, and delivered all the Christmas mail in the Berlin Postoffice before Christmas Day.

was only too ready to respond, and told how he had been delivering Christmas presents all day to the farmers on his run. At every stop he had been made welcome and offered a cup of good applejack and given a present as a reward for his fidelity during the year. Mrs. Jim's little girl gave him her pet pig, and young Jenkins from the city had given him at pair of store gloves. And old man Hotchkiss had actually loosened up enough to offer him a glass of his favorite cider. But, best of all was a present he had not brought with him; and that was a whole load of hay from Squire Burgess. And the shepherd pup and the lambs and other animals all came from the people along his route. But the guinea pig! Oh, that came from the little old Frenchman down in the hollow, who couldn't speak English. So the story of the Rural Free Delivery in America was told in a word, and the hearty way in which the American farmer enters into the Christmas spirit was pictured as it is found all over the United States.

And the soldiers emulated old Santa himself in the willingness with which they went about the task. A battalion of infantry from the Berlin Garrison unloaded the mail cars at the railway stations, escorted the sacks to the General Postoffice, unpacked the bags, helped the delivery wagons along Unter den Linden, the Friederich Strasse, and the residential streets, and even assisted the mailmen in delivering the letters.

The United States Rural Free Delivery Carrier No. 14, as he was known on the official register, slowed up in front of the town postoffice. It was Christmas Day, and a large crowd of loafers were hanging around town ready to mix in with the festivities if anyone started a scrap. Cries of "Hello Si, where did you get the menagerie?" "Well, Old Man, I see you're rooting for yourself nowadays," and "When are you going to take out a circus license, Si?" greeted him in a chorus as he got out of his rig. But Silas Roeder simply chuckled to himself over a good day's work, and, gathering up his mail sacks, passed into the general store, which served for a postoffice as well. The crowd of farm hands in front of the store gathered around the sleigh and promptly questioned' Silas when he came out. Silas

In Switzerland and the remote parts of Germany, the mail carrier faces unexpected hardships and dangers to deliver his load of presents in time for the gay