The finished Ground Power

[farmerkitty]

The event in Pomeroy was an all-weather occasion. The Draft horses plowed up a field. It rained, hailed and snowed more than anything else. Not so bad for the horses, not so good for the drivers. There were about 15 teams of horses. 2-8 horse teams.
The ground power dedication was very interesting, and informative. The restoration team never found any markings on the ground power to say who manufactured it. But, the ground power itself ran 14 horses at one time. 7 teams of 2 horses. And, instead of hooking horses to it they had 14 of us get into the harnes with rope, and we pulled it a few revolutions. Turned it into a man vs. horse driven ground power.
I want to say a special Thank You to the S.E. Washington Agriculture and Historical Museum for a job well done. I will post some photos of the finished product shortly.

Andrea

[Carl Russell]

Here are some pix that farmerkitty sent for me to post.

[Tim Harrigan]

Looks good. Maybe they can measure the hp output sometime. That would be very interesting. There were a few questions/comments about such a machine on this site not too long ago.

[jac]

What a beautifull restoration !!! well done to all involved. I can only imagine the turning force on the output shaft, but I bet its impressive. 14 big drafts would take a lot of stopping. What length are the poles? 14ft? Jeez the torque figures will be high when transfered to the middle…Countymouse!!! help:D….
John

[near horse]

Hi All,

I got to see that unit down at the Pomeroy Plow Days as well as having the pleasure of meeting Andrea and her family. John, you are correct – that is an awesome restoration. The guys at the S.E. Washington Agriculture and Historical Museum have done some very nice work both here and in the other equipment in their museum.

The gear in the center of the power unit has to be at least 5′ in diameter! Wow.

BTW – in the museum I saw a picture of 6 abreast oxen driven with lines and breaking sod. That is a wide load.

[farmerkitty]

Hi all. The above photo of the drafthorses is nearhorses team. FYI
It was neat to get to meet you, and your horses. I think they smiled. Andrea;)

[wally b]

I just say your post today. I would guess that your horse power is a “Kelly” make. Several years ago there was an article by a man who collected horsepowers in the SFJ. I corresponded with him for a while but he is probably deceased now. He said that the Kelly power was the only one that ran 14 head. All the other big ones ran 12.

At one time he said he had over 12 sweep powers.

I have a 8 horse and a team power.

wally

[OldKat]

@wally b 17684 wrote:

I just say your post today. I would guess that your horse power is a “Kelly” make. Several years ago there was an article by a man who collected horsepowers in the SFJ. I corresponded with him for a while but he is probably deceased now. He said that the Kelly power was the only one that ran 14 head. All the other big ones ran 12.

At one time he said he had over 12 sweep powers.

I have a 8 horse and a team power.

wally

Interesting equipment.

Do you actually use them? If so, how?

[Andy Carson]

This is very cool! I’ll do a little math for John, since he seems to find it so entertaining. If each of the 14 drafts is pulling 250 lbs (13-17% of body weight), than that’s a total 3500 pounds of force (250*14). As it’s acting on a 12 foot lever arm, that’s 12*3500 = 42000 lbft of torque. That’s about the same as the torque generated by about 65 6.7L Turbo Diesels running at maximum torque (listed as 650 lb-ft max). Of course these torque numbers are kinda distracting without taking into account the radically different rpm’s that the horses and the diesels run at, but it is still fun to see such a number. Cheers!

[Author]

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