Horse Powers & Treadmills

Bob Lamm sent us a packet full of personal snapshots and old engravings all showcasing his lifelong interest in old farm equipment, but specifically horse powers and treadmills. I’ve done my best to glean from the stack chunks and pieces which I thought might be of interest to our wider audience. Horsepowers, where the animals walk around a merry-go-round-like affair which converts their motion to a spinning drive shaft, and Treadmills, where a continuous floor working around a set of gears allows the walking of the animal(s) to also create a spinning shaft, are two systems of stationery power supply run by animals. These systems most definitely afford viable and interesting options for the future. Just takes creative individuals with sound mechanical understanding. We are indebted to Bob for sharing. LRM

from Robert “Bob” Lamm of Freeport, IL

Dear Lynn,

I am going to write a few words about my feelings about my life of collecting old machinery.

The Case 12-14 horse horsepower was going to be scrapped the next day. The owner sold the horsepower poles, equalizer knuckles & shafts at his Dad’s estate sale. I bought these and he came to me and said he had the power for sale. He thought he would sell the wheels and junk the rest. Wheels were selling high at that time. So I bought the whole outfit. The power needed all new wood. That was the first power I saved. Number two, just the main frame, was part of a power in a woodlot at a threshing show in Iowa. The owner had lots of steam engines and equipment and three horsepowers. I bought two small powers from him and later he wrote to me and said I should buy the Deere to make ten horse-horsepower or he was going to junk it. So I had to pay him what he wanted or he would junk it. But the cost was many times junk price, so I bought it.

After I decided I had enough horsepowers and was going to retire collecting farm machinery, a scrapper from 80 miles east of Freeport came to me at our annual show and he was cleaning up a farm that the bank had foreclosed on, and there was a large power in the woodlot. I did not want to tackle another power as all the old powers have too many missing parts and you need to know how long the equalizers etc., are. However, I went and looked at the power. This had the largest bull gear of all powers, so…I bought it. It took almost two years to find some of the things I needed to restore it. This is “the Kelly,” ten-horse, the easiest and nicest power of all.

When I think of how many powers there were originally and how many were junked in my lifetime and not many left, it sure is different now with John Deere and IHC tractors being restored by the thousands. One hundred years from now there will be lots of tractors and by then they will be antiques. One of the threshing shows had 32 John Deere tractors all the same series. So it will be some time when they are as scarce as horsepowers are now. My writing and remembering short term is getting bad. This being 93 ½ years old is getting to me. Still, Painting our horse – the momma and Doc keep talking about a ladder??? I don’t expect to fall off. If I be of any help, let me know.

THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT HORSEPOWERS

A horsepower is a machine that converts a horse’s power to a shaft power that operates a driven machine by a speed jack to belt power, or shaft power to the driven machines by a set of bevel gears called a side gear.

It is one of the most important implements and the most difficult to keep in order, too much care cannot be used selecting the very best. A. B. Farquhar Co. built powers since 1859. They used the Dingee patent as did Case. They also made a “climax” power in 1899. This was triple-geared. It is not known how many years the power was made before 1899.

Page 24 of the Engineers and Engines July 1959 has a picture of a road roller powered by one horse. This picture was reproduced from Scientific American magazine in the year of 1899. Also shows a two man powered roller on the same page.

The Case and Profly powers made under the Dingee patent have a weak spot, the shaft that goes through the vertical gear. This shaft twists when starting a heavy load such as a 32” thresher, then the pinions on the shaft are no longer in time and the leading pinion takes all the load, and wears out enough so they are again in time.

After two years of buying, restoring, and using the 32 inch Case thresher and horsepower that was bought new in 1888 by three brothers – Jacob, Andrew and David Hosely of New Glarus, Wisconsin (none of the grandsons of these men are living in 1995).

I (Robert Lamm) and Larry Lestikow made a starting clutch that goes into the tumbling rod line. It has a frame carrying two pulleys about 10” diameter and 7” face with a belt running them and a hand crank to tighten the belt. This starts the load slowly and stopped the breakage of poles, chains, etc. Also much easier on the side gears. The serial numbers of Case threshers are Stephenson County Antique Engine Club #15420. This number is in the book “150 Years of Case.” There were 1,568 Case Threshers built in 1890.

I read somewhere that Case built threshers the year around and could not supply what the dealers could sell as the “agitator” threshers were by far the best thresher made at that time.

A 32” Case thresher, using 12-horse power and speed jack is supposed to have cost between five and six hundred dollars.

In June of 1974 I had good luck at the Joe Kohn Estate Sale. I bought the tumbling rods and knuckles and equalizers for a 12-horse power. Then a son of Joe’s told me I needed a power, I agreed with him. He said he had one for sale. I said I was over in the field with the machinery, but I did not see a power. He said it is in the shed by the lumber saw. I bought it from him. It needed all new wood in the frame. Then I needed something to use the power on. I put an ad in the Engine & Engineers Magazine, wanting to buy a horsepower thresher. I had two threshers offered that could be converted back to horsepower. I already had the side gears for converting a thresher back to horsepower. I bought a 32” Case thresher, hand-fed, conveyer for the straw, grain sacker, and hand fed.

It was bought from Ken Sayre and John Holtan of Janesville, Wisconsin. These men started a threshing show that turned out to be the Rock River show at Janesville. The Rock River club was to store the thresher but the steam men did not go along with the deal and the thresher stood outside for several years. The owners of it took it to the Ken Sayre farm and it was stored seven years. It was home for the coons all that time and all the tin inside needed replacing. Many other repairs too. Grandson, Don Wienand, and I worked six weeks, every day and long days restoring and painting it. I had it professionally pinstriped, it took three days at eight hours per day to do it. This striping is as it was when it came from the factory in 1888.

Rich Johnson did the striping and made the “Agitater” sign as I could not find a decal like that. The factory picture is not the year the thresher was built. The thresher in the picture is much newer. It should have had the Case Eagle on a tree limb.

This thresher Serial #15420 and is 115 years old in year 2003. As far as we know, this thresher was used 90 years of its life. Probably more years of work than any other thresher.

NAMES OF HORSEPOWER MANUFACTURERS.

Daniel Woodbury was the inventor and W.E. Bingee made improvements.

1) Case Dingee-Woodbury out put shaft which turns against the horse, the same as Woodbury Dingee.

2) Kewanee Mg. Co.

3) Appleton Mfg. Co. made down powers, and treadmills and “Hero” Grist Mills.

4) J. A. Fields & Co. of St. Louis made a down power.

5) Empire Agricultural Works of Cobleskill, New York – made a Fearless Tread power and thresher.

6) Stover Mfg. Co. of Freeport, Illinois made sweep gristmills and horsepower.

7) Sandwich Mfg. Co. made a sweep gristmill and horsepower which was a down power for grain elevators.

8) Marengo Foundry Corp. Made horse powers 1868 – called the “Kelly” power.

9) A. W. Grays Sons made 1-2-3 horse powers.

10) Horace-Emery patent treadmills Albany, New York, Albany Agricultural Works.

11) Cherry Co. of Chicago.

12) E. H. Pease Mfg. Co. tread powers.

13) Buffalo Pitts 8, 10, 12 horse powers-out put shaft turns both ways, left and right.

14) A. B. Farquhar & Co. mounted power and the climax triple-geared down powers.

15) Case was licensed to make Woodbury & Pitts power and tread mills.

The Case 12-horse power is the largest power built that I ever heard of. It can be used with 14 horses. The Kelly has a larger main gear but still is a 12 horse power. 8 foot 2 inches over the pole socket, weighs 940 lbs.

A speed jack can be reversed by changing the driving pulley end over end or changing the pulley shaft right to left. Need only taking out 4 bolts to do this.

Some powers have outputs on both ends. These powers have both, the shaft turning clockwise or anti-clockwise. Use the opposite end if the out put shaft turns the wrong way.

All manufacturers had their own speeds, some have two speeds on the out put shaft.

The John Deere single pole power turns 35-1 of the horse.

You need at least a 12 foot stumble box for the horses to cross the tumbling rod – 12 or 14 is much better.

Be sure to put a jack against the mounted power to take up the slack in the tumbling rod line.

Do not let the frame of a wood framed power get wet as the wood swells and the bearing gets out of adjustment. After a rain be sure the power is staked enough to hold the power from moving from its setting.

Grease and oil all bearing blocks every time the power lines are set up.

Do not let soil or sand get on the knuckles and also keep them well oiled.

You need to have an over running clutch in the drive line when using any heavy or high speed equipment to keep the driven machine from driving the poles into the horses when they are stopped.

The smaller the master gear and the shorter the pole, the more turns per minute the horses make.

Almost all powers are timed – most have marking on the gears. This is done so all teeth carry the same amount of load.

A power on wheels is called a mounted power. A power set on the round is a down power. The J. I. Case Co. mounted power took first Premium at the St. Louis Exposition in 1877.

I.H.C. made horsepowered hay baler till 1916 – made in two sizes.

Be sure the stumble box, the three-sided box that has the tumbling rod in it, where the horses cross the rod has the top of the box level with the top of the ground, as some horses slow down or stop every time they come to cross the box, that makes the equalizer to run out on the other poles, then the team causing the problem jump or speed up and the equalizer needs to go back to ½ of the distance to the stop ring on the equalizer. This makes a very uneven power.

An overrunning clutch is needed in the tumbling rod line so when the horses stop, the driven machine can coast to a stop without the drive turning the horsepower and having the poles hitting the horses.

The Case thresher has this clutch next to the side gear. These clutches are hard to find. I have made some out of a corn chopper over running clutches.

The following is from the Case book “Science of Successful Threshing,” 1915, Dingee-MacGregor, 7th Edition, revised and enlarged.

CHAPTER XI
HORSE-POWERS

The horse-power, which, at one time, was the principal means of driving threshingmachines, is still used to a considerable extent for this purpose. With a sufficient number of good, strong horses, this means of supplying the motive power for threshing is very satisfactory, and, owing to the fact that the investment involved in a horsepower outfit is considerably less than is required for a steam rig, it is probable that the horse-power will continue its usefulness in this industry for many years to come. The present style of metal-frame power is superior to the wood-frame because it is not subject to atmospheric conditions, which continually cause the swelling and shrinking of wood, disturbing the gearing.

Starting a New Horse-Power. The first thing to do in preparing a new power for work is to carefully clean the cinders from the oil-boxes. Next, oil each of the bearings and thoroughly grease all the gearing, turning the power by hand until the entire wearing surface is well lubricated. A new power should be run at least half an hour before being coupled to the separator or other machine to be run. If the horses be nervous, because unused to the work, put a man with each team until they are accustomed to the noise and to traveling in a circle.

Setting a Horse-Power. A horse-power, to work properly, must be securely held in position. To do this, it is necessary to use at least four stakes, each of which should be about three feet long. The power should be set in alignment with the separator so that the tumbling-rods are as straight as possible. As it is almost impossible to secure the power so that it will not shift slightly when started, it is best to make allowance for this when setting. The line of rods cannot be straight horizontally, as one end must attach to the spur-pinion shaft of the power and the other to the bevel-gear shaft of the separator, while the second rod from the power must lie near the ground in order to allow the horses to walk over it. The angles in the line of rods necessary to meet these conditions are taken care of by the knuckles connecting them, but the angles should be carefully divided so that they are as slight as possible at each knuckle. When run at great angles, knuckles consume considerable power and cause excessive and unnecessary work on the part of the horses.

Lubrication of the Horse-Power. There are two bull-pinion boxes (an upper and lower), and two center-boxes at each end, making eight boxes in all, to be oiled on the bull-pinion shafts. There are also two spur-pinion shaft boxes and the journals of the traverse-rollers to be oiled. All the gearing and the bottom and the top of the bullwheel rim should be coated with good axle grease. When the grease becomes hard and caked with dirt, it should be cleaned off and fresh grease applied.

Connecting the Equalizers. The following cut shows a top view of a fourteen-horse power with “sweeps,” braces and equalizer-rods attached. In hooking the equalizerrods, always hook the ends of two rods in the end ring of the chains. The ring near the center of each chain is merely a stop and the rods should never be hooked into it.

Speed of the Tumbling-Rods. The use of the sixteen-cog pinion, which gives one hundred and one revolutions of the tumbling-rods to one round of the horses, is recommended, and will ordinarily run the cylinder of a “Case” separator at the proper speed. The following table gives a complete list of spur-pinions for “Case” horsepowers, any of which may be obtained if desired:

Separator Side-Gear. A separator must be fitted with a side-gear, or a jack must be used, in order to be driven by means of a horse-power. A speed of 750 revolutions for the twenty-bar or 1075 for the twelve-bar cylinder of “Case” separators fitted with a side-gear, requires a tumbling-rod speed of about 227 revolutions per minute. The required speed of the rumbling-rods is found, in each case, by multiplying the number of revolutions of the cylinder by the number of teeth on the cylinder-pinion and dividing the product by the number of teeth on the bevel-gear. For cylinder speed of 300 with the 20-bar separator for Beans, use the special bevel gear and pinion and spur pinion A8W on horse-power.

Jacks for Horse-Powers. Ordinarily, a separator intended to be driven by a horsepower is fitted with a side-gear. However, sometimes a belt machine is driven by a horse-power, and for this purpose a device is used to change the motion of the tumbling-rods into that of a pulley from which the separator cylinder may be driven by means of a belt. This device is called a “jack.” When a “jack” is used to drive a belt machine, 40 feet of drive belt will be needed for 12 bar and 60 feet for a 20 bar machine, to insure clearing “ironsides.” The “Case” jack has a bevel-gear (208T) with sixty teeth and a pinion (209T) with twenty-two teeth. The pulley (206T) is sixteen inches in diameter and has a six-inch face.

Adjusting the Iron-Frame Horse-Power. It is very important that the bull-pinions should mesh properly with the bull-wheel. When the bull-pinion shafts are correctly set, the bull-wheel will not have more than one-sixteenth of an inch up and down play at any point. As the web between the upper and lower cogs of the bull-wheel varies in thickness, it is best to locate the thickest place and mark it. This part may be then turned between the bull-pinion and the shaft bearings adjusted so that the gears mesh as deeply as possible and at the same time allow the bull-wheel to pass freely between them. In building powers at the factory leather packing is placed between the box of the upper short bull-pinion shaft and the main frame. It is the intention to shave down this leather packing from time to time as the bearings wear, thus allowing the bullpinions to be kept in proper mesh by means of set screws. The box of the lower short bull-pinion shaft has no leather between it and the main frame; however, it can be set deeper in gear at any time by turning its set-screw from below. The main spur-wheel shaft is not adjustable and the set screws bearing against its boxes are used only to prevent them from becoming loose in their slots. Adjustable slides are placed above and below the bull-wheel. Those below have set-screw adjustment, and should be adjusted, as they wear, so that the bull-wheel just clears the lower bull-pinions. The top slides prevent the up and down movement of the bull-wheel, and should be set down as they wear. The traverse-rollers prevent the bull-wheel from crowding endwise on the bull-pinions. They should be set out by the key adjustment as they wear. The spur-pinion frame is secured by four five-eighths inch bolts in slotted holes. These allow adjustment of the pinion so that it may be made to mesh properly with the spurwheel. These gears, when properly adjusted, should not have more than one-sixteenth of an inch clearance under the points of the teeth, and pinion shaft should be parallel with the spur-wheel shaft.

Caution Concerning the Bull-Pinion Boxes. The bull-pinion boxes, 45W and 45 ½W or 81 ¼W and 81 ½W, have flanges which hook over the outside of the main frame, thus preventing them from crowding toward the center. When these boxes have been removed, care must be taken in replacing them to insure these flanges hooking over the outside of the frame, for if they be placed too far toward the center of the power, these flanges may come in contact with the box scat and prevent the bullpinions from meshing as deeply as they should with the bull-wheel. To prevent their getting loose, the large set-screws are locked by means of small set-screws, which bear against their threads.

Removing the Shafts. To take out the spur-wheel shaft, remove the four bolts that secure the crosspieces to the main frame, and drop them, together with the spurpinion frame, to the ground. Next remove the four bolts securing the bull-pinion boxes and those securing the center boxes, after which the spur-wheel shaft may be taken out without disturbing the gears keyed to it. The short bull-pinion shafts have trunnion-boxes at their inner ends, which permit movement sufficient to allow the shafts to be removed. It is necessary to remove the wood piece with slide attached, which is on the rear axle.

The Spur-Wheel and Bull-Pinion Shafts. The key-seats of these shafts are cut in line with each other and those in the bull-pinions and inside-pinions are cut with reference to one of their teeth so that when the pinions are keyed to the shaft, their teeth will be in line. It will be seen that if the shaft has been twisted so that the teeth of the pinions are even slightly out of line, the power cannot be made to run properly. A new spur-wheel shaft is the only remedy for such a condition.

Reversing the Gearing. The bull-wheel may be turned over, the short shafts interchanged and the spur-wheel shaft reversed (end for end), so that the teeth of all the gearing may be worn on both their faces.

Reverse Motion of Tumbling-Rods. The direction in which the tumbling-rods revolve may be reversed so that they turn in the same direction as that in which the horses walk, instead of turning, as usual, in the opposite direction. When reverse motion is necessary for driving machinery other than “Case” separators, the following extra pieces will be needed; one steady-bearing, 104W; one short tumbling-rod, 0125W; and one extra knuckle. To attach the parts, proceed as follows: First, bore a one and one-half inch hole in rear axle, two and three-eighths inches from its top and five and one-half inches from the center of the bolt holding the casting, 184W or 222W. Then bolt steady-bearing, 104W, on the inside of the axle with sevensixteenths by four and three-fourths inch bolts. Next put the knuckle on the spurpinion shaft and connect it with the short rod, 0125W, which passes through the casting, 104W, and through the hole in the axle.

Attaching Truck-Brake to Iron-Frame Horse-Power. Put the brake pipe under the main frame with casting 210W, face down and on the right-hand side. The pipe is located between the two five-eighths inch hooks and rear wheel, the short ends of the hooks coming outside of the iron frame. In order to prevent the nuts from working loose, the ends of the hooks may be riveted. When this is done, casting 231W may be bolted on top of the flange of the main frame. A hole to receive it will be found on the front end of the power frame. Next insert the iron lever into its socket, 210W, and tighten the set-screws, which should not be tightened too much, or they will cause unnecessary strain on casting 210W. Put the ratchet in casting 232W with the hole down and with the notches turned towards the front. Then, put it in the notch that holds the brake from the wheels, and bolt it to the brake lever below. Place the brakeblock casting, 208W, on the right end of the pipe and 209W on the left; bring the blocks against the wheels and turn the set-screws up tight; then loosen and remove, and with a file or cold chisel, flatten a place on the pipe for the set-screws. This will prevent the pipe from turning in these castings. The pipe is countersunk for the setscrews in 210W, these set-screws being tightened at the factory. The key with straps should be nailed to the driver’s platform. This is used to prevent the brake from dropping onto the wheels when not wanted. The brake is applied by the foot. Do not press the ratchet down harder than necessary.

Work Done by Horses. The sweeps of the twelve-horse-power and smaller sizes are twelve feet and seven inches long, and their ends move in a circle the circumference of which is seventy-nine feet. The sweeps of the fourteen-horse power are fourteen feet long, and their ends move in a circle, the circumference of which is eighty-nine feet. Horses ordinarily travel around the seventy-nine foot circle two and one-half times a minute, and around the eighty-nine foot circle two and one-fourth times a minute, in either case covering about two and one-fourth miles per hour. The term “horsepower” (the standard measure of power) is defined as the power necessary to raise 33,000 pounds one foot per minute. A horse walks two hundred feet per minute in traveling around the eighty-nine foot circle two and one-quarter times per minute so that to do work equal to one “horse-power” it is necessary for it to pull only one hundred and sixty-five pounds, which is the quotient of 33,000 divided by 200. This quotient does not allow for the friction of the machine. As the efficiency of the horsepower is about 80 percent, each horse will pull about 200 pounds on the whiffletree.

The Number of Horses. When desired for light work, the regular twelve-horse power with six sweeps may be used with only six horses by tying up equalizers on the empty sweeps and attaching teams to alternate sweeps, or by hitching a single horse to each sweep. In the same manner any of the other sizes of horse-powers may be used with half the usual number of horses. Since different numbers of sweeps are used the holes in the bull-wheel are marked with dots so that the brackets and end-supports for the sweeps may be easily placed in their proper positions. One of each of these castings should be first bolted to the holes with three dots near them for this set of holes is used with any number of levers. Bull-wheel 89W has the dots at the side of the holes for twelve horses, inside of the holes for ten horses, and outside of the holes for eight horses. Bull-wheel 10W has the dots at the sides of the holes for twelve horses, inside of the holes for ten horses and outside of the holes for fourteen horses.