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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Top-of-the-hill on Friday 26 January 24 20:42 GMT (UK)
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I have been looking at a sale advertisement from 1930 for a farmhouse in a village, which includes electric light. As electricity had still not reached the village by 1935, would they have had some sort of generator?
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Possibly water turbine?
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No water nearby, so not that.
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Personal generator probably _ i'm flicking through a novel written in the 1930s featuring an old farmhouse, as I know there's some discussion of improvements including electricity, to check how they were going to get a supply
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Found it - the phrase is "the electric plant can live in the stable" Definitely suggestive of a generator set
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Thank you, that is interesting. I suppose it would have to run on petrol. I think there were two cars in the village by then!
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The farm we moved to in the 1950s had no electricity in the house. Separate generator for the milking parlour. We installed generators; took a few years for the electricity board to connect us.
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We had a generator when we lived in N Scotland as there were frequent power cuts in the winter. We could run lighting and small things from it.
I can't remember if it ran off diesel or petrol.
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Thanks, it looks as if a petrol generator is the answer.
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I remember isolated houses in the area I lived in using diesel generators. They were quite large, noisy things, usually out in a shed somewhere. That was in the 60s.
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Google. “stationary engine images”, you will see several primitive small engines that can power a generator or milking machine or sawbench, anything that needs a flat belt drive.
Mostly run I think on tractor vaporising oil or paraffin.
You see lots of them at steam fairs and vintage rallies.
Mike
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Now all I have to do is work out who was living in which farmhouse at the time!