2016-08-21/2019-02-11 - From the OHS PC Database Builders Listing editor. - Backus Water Motor Company of Newark, New Jersey was a manufacturer of water motors starting in the 1870s.1 The water motor was a miniaturized, self-contained variation of the traditional mill. A pipe supplying water was attached on one side of a turbine case with an out flow pipe on the other. When the water supply was turned on, the turbine blades would spin, turning the central shaft which would turn a belt. Depending on the size of the motor, it could be used to power coffee grinders, drills, small lathes, or fans. The larger models were often used to power a blower for pipe organs before electricity became a reliable and easily available power source.2 Sources: "Backus Water Motors". Quarter-century's progress of New Jersey's leading manufacturing centres (International Publishing Co., 1887, New York, NY) p.77 Kris De Decker "Power from the Tap: Water Motors" LowTechMagazine.com http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2013/09/power-from-the-tap-water-motors.html, accessed Dec 11, 2015.
2004-10-30/2019-04-29 - From the OHS PC Database, derived from A Guide to North American Organbuilders, rev. ed. by David H. Fox (Organ Historical Society, 1997). - Makers of water motors, 1870s. Source: Stopt Diapason, #43, The Chicago-Midwest Chapter of the Organ Historical Society (Hoffman Estates, Illinois).
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