| INTRODUCTION | xvii |
| PART I |
| WATER-POWER |
| CHAPTER I |
| A WORKING PLANT |
| The "agriculturist"—An old chair factory—A neighbor's home-coming—The idle wheel in commission again—Light, heat and power for nothing—Advantages of electricity | 3 |
| CHAPTER II |
| A LITTLE PROSPECTING |
| Small amount of water required for an electric plant—Exploring, on a dull day—A rough and ready weir—What a little water will do—The water wheel and the dynamo—Electricity consumed the instant it is produced—The price of the average small plant, not counting labor | 22 |
| CHAPTER III |
| HOW TO MEASURE WATER-POWER |
| What is a horsepower?—How the Carthaginians manufactured horsepower—All that goes up must come down—How the sun lifts water up for us to use—Water the ideal power for generating electricity—The weir—Table for estimating flow of streams with a weir—Another method of measuring—Figuring water horsepower—The size of the wheel—What head is required—Quantity of water necessary | 32 |
| CHAPTER IV |
| THE WATER WHEEL AND HOW TO INSTALL IT |
| Different types of water wheels—The impulse and the reaction wheels—The impulse wheel adapted to high heads and small amount of water—Pipe lines—Table of resistance in pipes—Advantages and disadvantages of the impulse wheel—Other forms of impulse wheels—The reaction turbine, suited to low heads and large quantity of water—Its advantages and limitations—Developing a water-power project: the dam; the race; the flume; the penstock; and the tailrace—Water rights for the farmer | 56 |
| PART II |
| ELECTRICITY |
| CHAPTER V |
| THE DYNAMO; WHAT IT DOES, AND HOW |
| Electricity compared to the heat and light of the Sun—The simple dynamo—The amount of electric energy a dynamo will generate—The modern dynamo—Measuring power in terms of electricity—The volt—The ampere—The ohm—The watt and the kilowatt—Ohm's Law of the electric circuit, and some examples of its application—Direct current, and alternating current—Three types of direct-current dynamos: series, shunt, and compound | 89 |
| CHAPTER VI |
| WHAT SIZE PLANT TO INSTALL |
| The farmer's wife his partner—Little and big plants—Limiting factors—Fluctuations in water supply—The average plant—The actual plant—Amount of current required for various operations—Standard voltage—A specimen allowance for electric light—Heating and cooking by electricity—Electric power: the electric motor | 121 |
| CHAPTER VII |
| TRANSMISSION LINES |
| Copper wire—Setting of poles—Loss of power in transmission—Ohm's Law and examples of how it is used in figuring size of wire—Copper-wire tables—Examples of transmission lines—When to use high voltages—Over-compounding a dynamo to overcome transmission loss | 153 |
| CHAPTER VIII |
| WIRING THE HOUSE |
| The insurance code—Different kinds of wiring described—Wooden moulding cheap and effective—The distributing panel—Branch circuits—Protecting the circuits—The use of porcelain tubes and other insulating devices—Putting up chandeliers and wall-brackets—"Multiple" connections—How to connect a wall switch—Special wiring required for heat and power circuits—Knob and cleat wiring, its advantages and disadvantages | 172 |
| CHAPTER IX |
| THE ELECTRIC PLANT AT WORK |
| Direct-connected generating sets—Belt drive—The switchboard—Governors and voltage regulators—Methods of achieving constant pressure at all loads: Over-compounding the dynamo; A system of resistances (a home-made electric radiator); Regulating voltage by means of the rheostat—Automatic devices—Putting the plant in operation | 192 |
| PART III |
GASOLINE ENGINES, WINDMILLS, ETC.
THE STORAGE BATTERIES |
| CHAPTER X |
| GASOLINE ENGINE PLANTS |
| The standard voltage set—Two-cycle and four-cycle gasoline engines—Horsepower, and fuel consumption—Efficiency of small engines and generators—Cost of operating a one-kilowatt plant | 217 |
| CHAPTER XI |
| THE STORAGE BATTERY |
| What a storage battery does—The lead battery and the Edison battery—Economy of tungsten lamps for storage batteries—The low-voltage battery for electric light—How to figure the capacity of a battery—Table of light requirements for a farm house—Watt-hours and lamp-hours—The cost of storage battery current—How to charge a storage battery—Care of storage batteries | 229 |
| CHAPTER XII |
| BATTERY CHARGING DEVICES |
| The automatic plant most desirable—How an automobile lighting and starting system works—How the same results can be achieved in house lighting, by means of automatic devices—Plants without automatic regulation—Care necessary—The use of heating devices on storage battery current—Portable batteries—An electricity "route"—Automobile power for lighting a few lamps | 250 |
