e Perkins furnishes the
electric end, and his neighbor the water-power, has been running now
for two years, grinding out electricity for the two places twenty-four
hours a day. Perkins was not an electrical engineer. He was just a
plain intelligent American citizen who found sufficient knowledge in
books to enable him to install and operate this plant. Frequently he
is away for long periods, but his neighbor (who has lost his original
terror of electricity) takes care of the plant. In fact, this farmer
has given a lot of study to the thing, through curiosity, until he
knows fully as much about it now as his city neighbor.

He had the usual idea, at the start, that a current strong enough to
light a 100 candlepower lamp would kick like a mule if a man happened
to get behind it. He watched the city man handle bare wires and
finally he plucked up courage to do it himself.

It was a 110-volt current, the pressure used in our cities for
domestic lighting. The funny part about it was, the farmer could not
feel it at all at first. His fingers were calloused and no current
could pass through them. Finally he sandpapered his fingers and tried
it again. Then he was able to get the "tickle" of 110 volts. It wasn't
so deadly after all--about the strength of a weak medical battery,
with which every one is familiar. A current of 110 volts cannot do any
harm to the human body unless contact is made over a very large
surface, which is impossible unless a man goes to a lot of trouble to
make such a contact. A current of 220 volts pressure--the pressure
used in cities for motors--has a little more "kick" to it, but still
is not uncomfortable. When the pressure rises to 500 volts (the
pressure used in trolley wires for street cars), it begins to be
dangerous. But there is no reason why a farm plant should be over 110
volts, under usual conditions; engineers have decided on this pressure
as the best adapted to domestic use, and manufacturers who turn out
the numerous electrical devices, such as irons, toasters, massage
machines, etc., fit their standard instruments to this voltage.

[Illustration: Farm labor and materials built this crib and stone
dam]

As to the cost of this co-operative plant--it was in the neighborhood
of $200. As we have said, it provided eight electrical horsepower on
tap at any hour of the day or night--enough for the two farms, and a
surplus for neighbors, if they wished to string lines and make use of
it.

T