Water powered electric turbine.

That's interesting. I would imagine that C&F being a manufacturer of various electrical devices, that the water turbine was in their line before the trains were around.

Here's a nice example: https://www.collectorsweekly.c...-finch-hydro--dynamo

https://antiquefanparts.com/la...-finch-hydro-dynamo/

Thanks, Firewood -- that's probably just the sort of thing that was connected to the water supply downstairs at my father's house. The one he had powered only the train set, so it may not have been very large.

Fascinating.  I like the mother approved part.  Your story and the link Firewood posted gives me new insight into life before electricity was widely available.

My grandfather was a lawyer in Cincinnati and then a judge on the Court of Common Pleas (i.e. Superior Court) for Hamilton County, of which Cincinnati is the county seat. Later he was on the Court of Appeals for the 12th Judicial District, which includes Hamilton County. The Court of Appeals consisted of three judges who wrote unsigned opinions in rotating order, many of which I was able to find in digitized versions online (from the Harvard Law School library). I found them interesting reading, because many of the law suits evolved out of accidents and injuries associated with the rapid introduction of streetcars and automobiles, as well as sewer, water, gas and electric systems in the city in the decades around the turn of last century. It was also the era of the "fellow-servant" rule, which shielded an employer from liability for injury to an employee if the proximate cause of injury was the negligence of another employee. The opinions of the Court of Appeals for this district were short, succinct, and well reasoned, and the court was busy with lots of business-related suits. Cincinnati was a major industrial city at the time, particularly in the field of machine tools, pianos, and electrical equipment. 

A lot of the cases had to do with collisions between cars and horse-drawn dray wagons, and dray wagons and streetcars (the drivers of the horse-drawn wagons took awhile to learn that the streetcars couldn't be steered), and the drivers of new-fangled automobiles (as well as the legislators) hadn't yet figured out consistent rules of the road. There were also lots of cases of people stepping out of streetcars and into excavations of sewer lines, new gas lines, and electric cables because the passengers were accustomed to the earlier horse-drawn conveyances, which would be pulled over to the curb before the passengers disembarked. Also in this era, Cincinnati had separate stations in different parts of town for all the railroads that entered the city (PRR, B&O, N&W, etc.). There was no Union Station until Cincinnati Union Terminal was built in the 1930s. CUT has been restored recently (see the current TRAINS magazine for an article about it) and is a beautiful place once again. 

It is scary the way electric toy trains were operated in those days.  Not to mention early exposed wiring in houses.  I wonder how may gas explosion there were when gas was the major mode of illumination.

Have you seen video of Market Street in San Francisco on April 14, 1906.   This was days before the earthquake.  There is a mass confusion of pedestrians, bicycles, horse drawn vehicles, streetcars, and automobiles.  Dozens of close calls and apparently no rules of the road.

On youtube search for Market Street 1906.  There are multiple copies of the video some with sound effects.

Also, some videos after the earthquake for comparison.

@Firewood, thanks for posting those links!  That's some pretty fascinating stuff.  Would love to have one!

Yes, that film of Market Street in San Francisco is great!

I did a search.  This is still a thing.  There are some small turbines for charging phones, some backpack turbines for getting small amounts of power from a stream - up to whole house versions if you happen to have flowing water on your property.

I don't think the town would be too happy as we are constantly under a water ban in summer.  I happen to be on a well - this would mean I am using electricity to pump the water through the turbine to produce electricity.  The laws of thermodynamics indicate this is a no win situation.  It would be fun to play with a smaller one - they are pretty cheap on Amazon but only around 10W output.

It makes me wonder when the househild water meter became "a thing" 🤔

...and toilet top layouts  

You need a wind mill pump and tank.  I used to have to carry jerry cans ⅓ of a mile and pump by hand when there was no wind.

The reserve was strictly for the "the Inn", full of family elders in their 80s+. My Great Uncle owned the only drinking well for 15 miles and a clean ice cold natural spring to boot. It was a wet spot muddy spot in the low field mid to late 1800s.

Pumping an equal amount or better to fill the tank for them when the reserve was low was a rule too. You did that first as it was a harder two way.... 1960s.

I would have filled the water tank to run the trains once in a while.

How prototypical !

With friends, that reserve might have stayed full all the time without say.

Hi Adriatic -- here's a link to a short article about the Smithsonian's collection of early water meters (108 of them). It seems that water meters started being invented and introduced in the second half of the 19th century, when cities began to expand and develop water distribution systems after the Civl War.

Speaking of meters, the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI has a great collection of early electric meters, most of them developed by Thomas Edison to accompany his electric light installations. And Edison's Menlo Park lab was also moved there from New Jersey by Mr. Ford. And of course there's a beautiful C&O Allegheny on display at the Ford Museum.

https://americanhistory.si.edu...08-water-meters.html

Interesting,  during WW2, my grandfather worked for Grumman aircraft on Long Island.   After that most of the rest of his career was at Neptune Meter Company,  making water meters.  He would have loved being able to play with something like these turbines.