2010-04-15/2020-04-09 - A variation on the water mill, but using running tap water instead of a natural stream; water motors were often used to power organ blowers in the late 1800s replacing the 'bellows boys' who had pumped the bellows supplying wind to the organ from its invention. Electricity was not yet common outside urban areas, and even there, it was not always reliable or available at all times and days. Running water was almost universally available in urban areas and even smaller towns by the late 1800s, so the water motor filled the need for operating small motors before electric motors replaced them. Since churches of the era did not pay taxes for public utilities, water motors supplied a free power source to operate the organ. William Barnes claimed this kept the devices in use for some years after electric blowers became common. This frugality was not without pitfalls, when neighbors tired of hearing the organist practice on the Roosevelt organ at Flagler Memorial Church in St. Augustine, FL; they turned on their lawn sprinklers causing the water pressure to drop and the organ blower motor to lose power.
2015-10-29/2020-04-09 - From LLoyd Alter, "Unintended consequences: motors driven by tap water" (http://www.treehugger.com/gadgets/unintended-consequences-motors-driven-tap-water.html) accessed Sept 13, 2015 -- Small motors using the public water supply came into extensive use in the 1870s and 1880s in the US. A water motor consisted of a small water turbine that was suspended in a metal casing. The smallest water motors were used to run sewing machines, jigsaws, fans, and other similarly mechanized items. The larger water motors were recommended for operating coffee grinders, jeweler's and locksmith's lathes, grindstones, and church organs.
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