Omaha daily bee., 1910-03-13
Progress and Developments in the Field of Electricity

enjoy all the home comforts of his city
cousin, says the Electrical News The day
when bathtubs lighting plants, water sys-
TENS for fire protection and heating fur
naces were to be found only In the large
villages and in the cities has gone forever
Today there are few rural villages too
small to boast of all these things and the
farmer has caught the spirit Of the times
and his up-to-date farm house is lighted
with electricity and heated by steam. 1t is
supplied with fine bathrooms and running
water and other modern conveniences
A few years ago the electric light and
power plants installed on farms were very
few and far between. A few adventurous
farmers had dared to harness their noun
tain pasture streams and turn their water
energy into electricity for use about the
house and barns; a few more had installed
gasoline engines for the same purpose
Those early installations proved a success
from the first, and It was not long before
their worth had been talked and written
about until almost every well-to-do farmer
was considering the question of a similar
installation.
Aside from the many benefits and eco
nomics of electricity for lighting heating
and cooking in the farm house, 1t readily
assumes most of the hard work about the
farm which in the past has been a most
discouraging factor in securing farm labor
Electricity easily does lne milking, sepa-
rating and churning, as well as turning the
washing machine and the wringer. In the
barn II is applied to feed cutters, corn she'll
ers, feed grinders and 10 all other small
machinery such as the grndstone, lathe
and small buzzsaw for cutting firewood.
The threshing machine and tanning mill
are very easily belted onto the portable
motor. In Germany and few other for
eign countries electricity is also used TO ad-
vantage to pull the ploWs harrows. rakes.
cultivators, binders, mowers and other out
door machinery.
In the house the farmers wife can have
her electric cooking devices and electric
natiron as well as her city sister.
The number OF electrical plants on farms
is increasing with marked rapidly. A few
OF these plants run By small water powers.
but the majority use small gasoline engines
and storage batteries The time is surely
Coming when the majority OF farmers viii
consider electricity a necessity, and no
matter how far they are located from
electric power stations, or power transmits
sion lines, they will find means to secure
plenty OF cheap electricity. Many Of the
electrical engineers OF the General Electric
company predict that in few more years
the electric power lines will extend out
from the cities and large towns into the
highways and byways OF the country,
where every farm can tap the line and pur-
chase at a very reasonable figure all the
power he requires for his farm work.
Prof Miethe has been devoung consider
able time TO calculating the amount OF
energy that would be required to signal TO
Mars sufficiently clearly 10 attract the at
tenuon Of the Martians II Martians they
are. To signal electrically, he says. would
require a generating apparatus many mill
lions OF times as strong as anything in use
on the earth-a machine which would be